Construction | Plastic artificial lawns are becoming more common in the yards of private houses – This is how a couple from Espoo justify their choice

The people of Espoo Lauri Harlen and Aida Gilmijarovan a home in Espoo’s Jupper shines with its newness. And no wonder. The house is newly completed. They were able to bring in the last items the week before.

Despite everything, the grass in the backyard is already glowing green.

On closer inspection, it turns out that the green is because it is plastic artificial grass.

At first, the couple also considered natural grass for their backyard, says Harle. The family is currently going through peak years. In addition to work and building a house, children’s hobbies take time. The new family has three children, one year old Theo8 years old Mila and 11 years old Max.

Now there is a downright artificial grass trend going on, the entrepreneur of the company Tekonurmipihat Joonas Kettunen says to HS.

Of course, this is what many sellers say about their own product, but they also have reasons. He can’t tell exact numbers of sold artificial grass. Comprehensive statistics are not available, as you can install the turf yourself.

For many people, artificial grass reminds them of football or sports fields, but more and more developers of private new detached houses are choosing artificial grass for their yards, he says.

According to Kettunen, Harle and Gilmijarova’s family is a typical Espoo family in the sense that they hope for ease and ease from the lawn, Kettunen says.

“Especially if there are children or pets in the family, it is difficult to keep the lawn looking good, while artificial grass is durable,” says Kettunen.

You can play football in it, for example, without worrying about the yard getting muddy.

“I didn’t really see that we would have time to do a lot of yard work,” says Harle.

Harleen and Gilmijarova’s plot is about 460 square meters, of which the house occupies 142 square meters. The yard is more than 300 square meters, of which a side yard covered with a wreath and a carport cover part of it. The backyard is about one hundred square meters.

When a large terrace covers a large part of the backyard, it seemed that planting natural grass in relation to a small area required too much work. The yard is also toasty, so the lawn would have to be watered a lot.

So the family decided to make a solution that would be as easy as possible during peak years.

Artificial grass strongly share the opinions of single-family house builders. In a Facebook group focusing on the topic, many people state that they would never put artificial grass in their yard. Their environmental effects are also thought-provoking.

Defenders of artificial grass, on the other hand, appeal to the fact that even natural grass is not really an eco-product. To stay good, it requires, for example, a lot of water and fertilizers.

“I have cursed our yard when nothing but weeds grow in it. You have to water it constantly and the end result: a muddy field with a few funny tufts of grass,” describes one writer.

Kettunen is aware that artificial grass arouses strong opinions in some people. However, he reminds us that the industry is also developing.

“Different sustainable and recyclable materials have been developed, where the environment and recycling have been taken into account,” says Kettunen.

Lauri Harle also trusts that.

“The artificial grass installed now will last for years, so by the time it becomes relevant to renew it, there will certainly be many different options,” he estimates.

Green construction expert Tea Karelian The city of Helsinki says that it understands well why someone wants to choose artificial grass for their yard instead of natural grass.

“The good thing about artificial grass is that you don’t need to take care of it and it’s quite durable,” he says.

The downside is that there is still not enough researched information on the environmental effects of artificial grass. It is known that untended yards are better for biodiversity than neat grass fields – not to mention plastic mats.

For example, the green work manager of the city of Espoo has spoken about the positive effect of wild tusks Try Melander In an interview with HS in September.

Karjalainen, who works as a green building project manager in Helsinki’s urban environment, has investigated synthetic green building materials as possible sources of microplastics in his thesis at the University of Applied Sciences.

The thesis dealt with public parks, but the results can also be applied to private yards. According to it, Tekonurmet is a significant source of microplastics.

“That’s what eventually ends up in our body,” Karjalainen reminds us.

In addition to possible microplastics, Karelian people are worried about the fact that, at least for the time being, the recycling of artificial grass is rudimentary in Finland.

“It will probably be incinerated, so it is energy waste if it is dismantled,” he says.

Secondly even natural grass is not very environmentally friendly, Karjalainen reminds. He himself calls it green asphalt.

“If you want to keep natural grass clean and green, it requires fertilization several times in the summer. In addition, it requires a lot of watering and regular cutting,” says Karjalainen.

The current construction method has also changed a lot of yards. Especially on small plots of land, it is usually necessary to change the mass of the soil during construction in order to be able to build on the plot at all. A wreath or crushed rock is usually installed in the place to keep the soil and the house dry. This causes challenges for green construction, as there is usually a very thin layer of soil on top.

“For example, a lawn planted on such a base requires a lot of water and you have to water it a lot in order for it to start growing at all. Often the result is a very muddy yard,” says Karjalainen.

On the other hand, from natural grass, for example, children would get good bacteria from the soil, which artificial grass does not have.

Very the best option, according to expert Karjalainen, would be a yard that would basically be designed taking into account its characteristics and conditions and using a variety of plants.

“In a parched yard, you could plant, for example, ryegrass, sedges, sedges or silver sedges. Marjoram and oregano could also work, because they thrive even in sandy places,” envisions Karjalainen.