Artificial Turf Installation in Ballard, Seattle

Sometimes, and it is genuinely worth testing rather than assuming either way. Much of Ballard and Crown Hill sits on glacial outwash rather than the dense till under most of Seattle, and where the ground drains freely the base is doing less drainage work — so it can occasionally be shallower than the citywide standard. But outwash is not universal here and pockets of till turn up mid-block. A simple percolation test settles it, and getting it wrong in the optimistic direction produces a turf lawn that traps water, which is the fault that cannot be brushed out.

Often more so than on a large one, because the per-square-foot maintenance burden of a small shaded lawn is disproportionate. Under about four hundred square feet a lawn is shaded most of the day, stays damp, wears through wherever people cross it, and still requires a mower that has to live somewhere on a lot with no storage. The total install cost is modest at that size. What it buys is a green surface that works in February and needs no equipment, which on a Ballard lot is a genuine practical gain rather than a luxury.

Well, and it is one of the strongest cases for it. A dog on a small lawn concentrates all of its use into a few square metres, which no grass survives — the patch never recovers because the dog returns to it. Turf on a permeable backing over a properly drained base handles that indefinitely. For dog owners we specify an infill that does not retain ammonia the way older sand-only fills did and enough drainage depth for repeated use in one spot. A hose-down every few weeks in summer is the whole maintenance regime.

It can, though it is usually not the best answer for that particular strip. A side return is the worst microclimate on a city lot: permanently shaded, taking discharge from at least one downspout, and too narrow to dry out. Turf there will stay green but it will also stay damp and collect debris, and it is a route rather than a place to sit. A hard surface laid to a cross-fall with the downspout tied into a drain usually serves that strip better. Turf earns its place in the part of the garden you actually use.