Turf vs Artificial Grass: What Does Each Really Cost Over 10 Years?

Artificial grass costs more on day one and almost nothing afterwards. Real turf is the opposite: cheap to lay, but it quietly bills you every single year in feed, seed, water and mowing. Neither is universally 'cheaper' — the honest answer depends on your lawn size and how much you value your weekends. Here's the full picture for a typical 40m² family lawn, using the same prices our calculators use.

Reading the numbers

Turf figures assume cultivated turf at about £5 per m², a little topsoil for levelling, then the real running costs: lawn feed twice a year, patch seed, weed treatment, summer watering in dry spells, and the petrol or electricity for roughly 30 mows a year. Artificial grass figures assume a proper base — stripped turf, 50–75mm of compacted MOT Type 1, a sharp sand screed and weed membrane — because laying fake grass straight onto soil is how you get a lumpy, weedy mess within two years.

What the table doesn't show

Time is the hidden line. A real lawn wants 30-odd mows a year plus edging, feeding and scarifying — call it 25 to 30 hours annually. Artificial grass wants an hour's brush and rinse now and then. Over ten years that's the best part of 300 hours. On the other side of the ledger, real lawns cool the garden in summer, soak up heavy rain, and feed birds and bees — artificial grass does none of those, and can get hot underfoot in a heatwave. Price matters, but it's not the whole decision.

So which should you pick?

For small, awkward, shaded or heavily-used spaces — side returns, play corners, balconies, dog runs — artificial grass usually wins on hassle alone. For bigger family lawns, real turf (or seed, which is far cheaper again) gives you a living lawn for similar ten-year money. And plenty of gardens run both: artificial in the heavy-traffic strip by the goalposts, real grass everywhere else. Price your own lawn both ways before you decide — the two calculators below use your exact measurements.