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Artificial lawns on the rise in Metro Vancouver

Click to play video: 'More homeowners resorting to artificial lawns'
More homeowners resorting to artificial lawns
WATCH: With hotter weather and water restrictions, it’s getting tougher to maintain a green lawn over the summer. So as Jennifer Palma reports, more people are turfing the idea of real grass, and going for artificial – May 26, 2016

Summer and the living is easy – unless you’re continuously putting around your grass trying to keep it alive.

Hot weather, watering restrictions and chafer beetles all threaten your summer time grass. But if you didn’t have to worry about all that, would you consider digging up your grass and going synthetic?

Four-year-old Bella Turf Artificial Grass warehouse has grown 226 per cent since this January. Owner Shaun Hunt says the product is flying off shelves. Landscapers want the turf, and Hunt is holding monthly seminars to train them on installing it.

“[With] new construction especially, no one’s been putting in real grass lately. I think they’re all scared of the water restrictions. If you can’t water your grass why put real grass in? So everyone’s been going artificial,” says Hunt.

Dave Abbott is seeing evidence of that. He owns River Rock Property Maintenance, and says he’s booked up into July.

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“The majority of my customers have been replacing their lawns every single year and they’re just tired of it. They have something new and something exciting and have a perfect lawn for the next 20 years.”

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However, some are concerned about the environment and what could happen to it during the lifespan of the product. Others are worried about the stench left when animals relieve themselves on the fake lawn. Both Abbott and Hunt says there are products they use to keep the smell down, and Hunt says his product is recyclable and doesn’t require any water, making it environmentally friendly.

If you’re planning on turfing your lawn, the average cost is ten to thirteen dollars per square foot.

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