The following article is a summary of an article published at www.landscapeonline.com

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Artificial Grass Industry Provides Unique Opportunities

Let’s face it, right now times are a little tougher and competition continues to grow. As a landscape professional, how do you continue to separate your business from the competition? As a successful landscape contractor, you certainly want to keep doing what has already set you apart—unique designs, quality work and superior service. But to really excel, you may want to consider doing something that can increase your profit while setting you further apart: artificial grass.

Benefits

What does artificial grass provide for you? Well, first and foremost, something new. Yes, artificial turf has been around for decades, but not as a true landscaping option. The newest generation of artificial grass has come so far as to fool even the most discriminating customers….

Next, you have the opportunity to offer your customers grass without limits. What does that mean? It means that many applications where grass is desired but not practical, such as around swimming pools, high traffic areas, dog runs, rooftops, between pavers, etc. are back in play.

While there is inherent value in each of the above benefits of artificial grass, they could be construed as somewhat intangible when it comes to your bottom line. So as a landscape contractor, how does this help you financially?

The best way to stay busy is to market to dog owners and doggie day care owners. Dogs continually destroy natural grass. Synthetic grass will always look and feel like a freshly mowed lawn. Doggie day care owners in particular are under pressure from their clientele to provide alternative surfaces that won’t injure their dogs like pea gravel and cement.

Cost Analysis

As with anything, prices can vary from state to state and region to region. In addition to regional differences, there is quite a range in quality of product. Generically, however, artificial grass for landscaping will typically sell (installed) for between $8 and $12 per square foot. Of that installed price, roughly 40 percent of that is the price the landscaper will pay for the product. That means that 60 percent of the sales price can be applied to the sale and installation of the product. With a base prep similar to that of pavers, this allows for a pretty nice profit margin and a great new angle to capture more business.

Learning Curve

Synthetic grass is installed in a manner similar to laying carpet, but the seaming process is more forgiving. Many customers simply buy the necessary materials and install it themselves.

Environmental Concerns

There are numerous environmental advantages to synthetic grass. Synthetic grass requires no mowing or watering, helping to conserve water and sparing the atmosphere from harmful lawnmower emissions. It needs no fertilizers or pesticides which keeps our watersheds clean and safe. Surprisingly, synthetic grass helps to reduce gasoline consumption through the elimination of mowers and the subsequent gasoline that is spilled when refueling mowers; again helping to keep the environment clean. A bio-cel backing is 100 percent recyclable.