The four stages of a Perth turf install
- 1
Cap the retic, then excavate
Pop-ups and solenoids in the covered area are capped first. Then the lawn and roughly 75mm of ground comes out, or about 100mm where vehicles will drive on it.
- 2
Build the base
Road base or crushed rock in, wetted, plate-compacted, screeded with crusher dust, screeded again. At least two compaction passes, as hard as it will go.
- 3
Set falls and edges
Levels are worked to kerbs, paths and borders with a deliberate fall to somewhere water can leave. Edge restraint goes in so the perimeter cannot creep.
- 4
Lay, join, pin and dress
Rolls laid with a consistent grain direction, joins trimmed back two stitch lines and taped, pegs at 30 to 40cm, then 10 to 15 kg/m² of sand power-broomed through the pile.
Stage one, the Perth-specific one: the retic comes first
In most Australian cities the first act on site is a shovel. In Perth it is usually a plumber's decision, because nearly every lawn being replaced here has an irrigation system feeding it and a decent proportion of those run off a garden bore.
Pop-up heads and solenoids inside the area being covered are capped. Beds and borders that will still be planted keep their zones. The station on the controller that used to run the lawn needs reprogramming or decommissioning rather than being left to fire into a sealed surface for the next decade. If a bore feeds the system, the isolation points and the plumbing differ from a scheme-water setup and the installer should be told before quoting rather than discovering it on the day.
Two related things worth knowing. First, if you keep garden beds on retic, those beds are still governed by the two-day roster and by the Sprinkler Switch-off from 1 June to 31 August, so the rules do not vanish from your property, they just stop applying to the lawn area. Second, WA's watering by-laws contain a narrow allowance for running a system "to the minimum extent necessary while the system is being installed, maintained, tested or repaired", which the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation deems to be no more than two minutes per station. That covers a plumber testing a change. It does not cover watering.
Two different jobs: coastal plain sand and Darling Plateau gravel
Perth is not one ground condition, and the difference is large enough to change how the base is built rather than just how long it takes.
On the plain
The WA Government's soil landscape mapping puts Success at 100% Bassendean System, deep pale sand. Hammond Park straddles two dune systems, roughly 42% Spearwood and 58% Bassendean, so two ends of the same street can genuinely be different sites. Ballajura is about 94% Bassendean. Excavation here is fast, and the value of the base is structural: a compacted crushed rock layer is what stops the surface settling into hollows where people walk.
The catch is that "sand" and "well drained" are not synonyms in this dataset. Bassendean B4 is described as "Broad poorly drained sandplain" with clay or a strong iron-organic hardpan below about 1.5m. B3 is "Closed depressions... poorly to very poorly drained". Ballajura is 31.5% Joel phase, "Poorly drained depressions", plus about 5% mapped lakes, swamps and drainage lines. Where those conditions turn up, the water needs somewhere to go horizontally, because it is not going to keep going down.
On the plain margin and up the scarp
Eastward the profile turns duplex: sand or sandy loam sitting directly on clay. High Wycombe is dominated by that pattern, with Pinjarra units described as sand over "mottled yellow clay" or "gravelly mottled clay", and a further unit that is "deep poorly drained grey siliceous sand overlying clay". Duplex ground is the worst case for a lazy base: water moves quickly through the top layer, meets the clay and stops. Falls and a genuine outlet stop being optional.
Higher again, Kalamunda has no coastal plain sand at all. It is 59.2% Dwellingup 2 phase, "well drained, shallow to moderately deep gravelly brownish sands, pale brown sands and earthy sands overlying lateritic duricrust", plus Murray Valleys country with moderate to steep sideslopes and mapped rock outcrop. Forrestfield is a genuine three-way meeting point of coastal plain, foot slopes and scarp, with roughly 41% of it mapped only at coarse system level. Byford is the most fragmented of all, 38 mapped units, including 6.5% recorded as disturbed urban land.
None of this is a rule and none of it is a standard. There is no Australian Standard and no WA government document specifying excavation depth, base depth, compaction or drainage for artificial turf as a function of soil type, and anyone telling you otherwise is inventing authority. What the mapping gives you is a reason to ask better questions, and a reason not to accept a price quoted off a photo.
What a thorough Perth quote spells out
Ask for these in writing. Every one of them is invisible on handover day and expensive to retrofit: excavation depth in millimetres, base material and how many compaction passes it gets, where water is intended to go and by what route, edge restraint type and spacing, infill rate in kilograms per square metre, whether a weed membrane is included (Australian installers genuinely differ on this), the retic capping scope including the controller, spoil removal and whether tipping is in the number, and the turf itself specified by pile height, backing type and warranty term rather than by product name alone.
On backing, one specification is worth understanding rather than just ticking. Polyurethane costs more than latex but absorbs less moisture and holds its shape better in heat, while latex is described in Australian trade material as ageing more rapidly in hot conditions. In a city with 79 days a year at or above 30°C at Perth Airport, that is a live consideration rather than a theoretical one.
For the tier-by-tier dollar figures behind all of this, see what artificial grass costs per square metre in Perth. If you want the same material told as a sequence with the reasoning at each step, the laying guide goes deeper on method.
Strata, survey-strata and the villa courtyard question
Perth's middle ring is full of villa groups and four-unit blocks, and the strata position here is materially clearer than the equivalent question in the eastern states, so it is worth setting out.
Start with the scheme type, because it decides almost everything. In a survey-strata scheme the lot is land, surveyed like a freehold block, and a courtyard inside your lot boundary is your own ground. In a strata scheme the lot is cubic space defined by reference to the building, and outdoor areas are often outside the lot entirely, which makes them common property. For modern single-tier schemes registered on or after 1 January 1998, clause 3AB of Schedule 2A fixes the lot boundary at "the external surfaces of the building occupying the area represented on that floor plan", and expressly says nothing in that clause applies to a boundary external to a building. In practice that means many Perth villa courtyards are common property over which the owner has exclusive use, not land the owner owns. We are not going to tell you yours is: only the scheme plan settles it, and Landgate suggests either a licensed land surveyor or its Strata Enquiry Line.
Then the approval question. WA's structural alteration regime in sections 87 and 88 of the Strata Titles Act 1985 is the hardest threshold in the Act, and laying turf is very unlikely to meet the regulations' test for a structure. What does typically apply is Schedule 2 by-law 14, "Appearance of lot", the default conduct by-law that applies to every WA scheme unless replaced, requiring the strata company's written consent for something in the lot that is visible from outside and not in keeping with the rest of the building. Two honest limits on that analysis: no WA statute, regulation, default by-law or Landgate guidance mentions artificial turf at all, so the position is derived rather than stated, and we have not been able to search WA tribunal decisions to see whether any of it has been tested.
The practical order of operations is short. Find out your scheme type. Read your scheme's by-laws to see whether by-law 14 has been replaced. Ask for written consent if the area is visible from outside. Get the answer in writing before anyone orders material.
Installation questions from Perth homeowners
What happens to my reticulation and my bore?
The sprinkler heads and solenoids inside the area being covered get capped before the base goes in, and the controller station that used to run that zone needs to be dealt with rather than left cycling. If a garden bore feeds the system, say so early: bore and scheme setups are plumbed and isolated differently, and the installer will want to know before quoting. If you keep garden beds around the turf, those zones stay live and still sit under the two-day roster.
Is a base on Perth sand really necessary if sand already drains?
Yes, and the reason is structural rather than hydraulic. Loose sand carries foot traffic unevenly and will settle into hollows under a turf surface even where drainage is excellent. The compacted layer is what holds the shape. There is also a drainage catch people miss: several Bassendean phases are mapped with a clay layer or a weak iron-organic hardpan at depth, and some phases, such as the B3 and B4 units, are described in the WA Government mapping as poorly drained outright. Free-draining at the surface does not always mean free-draining all the way down.
Does water repellency in the soil affect an artificial lawn?
Not the turf itself. Water Corporation notes that "Sandy soils are known to be water repellent (hydrophobic), making it a challenge to maintain a healthy garden in WA", and that is a problem for growing grass, not for a synthetic surface that does not need to absorb anything. It is worth knowing for a different reason: if repellent sand is why your lawn has always browned off in patches no matter how carefully you followed the roster, that is a diagnosis, and it explains why more watering never fixed it.
How deep do you have to dig on a foothills block?
The same depth as anywhere, but it takes longer and sometimes it will not go. Kalamunda and much of Forrestfield sit on gravelly soils over lateritic duricrust, and Helena country in the area is mapped with "areas of rock outcrop". Hitting laterite or rock partway down is a real possibility, and it changes the method rather than the target depth. Ask an installer what they will do if the ground is worse than expected and how the price moves if it is, before signing.
Do I need council approval to install turf in my own yard?
Not for the yard behind your fence. WA council rules on artificial turf apply to the verge, which is Crown land vested in the local government, and the six councils covering our Perth suburbs reach four different conclusions about it. If any part of your job crosses the boundary toward the kerb, read the council-by-council breakdown first. If it does not, approval is not the issue.
What about a strata or survey-strata courtyard?
The first question is not whether you may lay turf, it is which kind of scheme you are in. In a survey-strata scheme the lot is surveyed land, so a courtyard inside your lot boundary is usually your own ground. In a strata scheme the lot is cubic space defined by reference to the building, and outdoor areas are frequently outside the lot and therefore common property. Your certificate of title and scheme plan settle it. Landgate runs a Strata Enquiry Line for exactly this question.
Do I need a resolution of the strata company?
Probably not the hardest kind. WA's lot-alteration approval regime under sections 87 and 88 of the Strata Titles Act 1985 bites on a structural alteration, and laying turf is very unlikely to meet that test. What usually does apply is the default conduct by-law in Schedule 2 by-law 14, "Appearance of lot", which requires the strata company's written consent for something in your lot that is visible from outside and not in keeping with the rest of the building. That is written consent under a by-law, not a resolution without dissent. No WA statute, regulation, default by-law or Landgate guidance mentions artificial turf by name, so this is a derived position, and we have not been able to search WA tribunal decisions to test it.
Will it be too hot to walk on in February?
In full sun, at times, yes. Perth Airport averages 28.7 days a year at or above 35°C and 4.5 at or above 40°C on the Bureau's long-run records. Western Sydney University researcher Dr Sebastian Pfautsch has reported unshaded artificial turf approaching 100°C. Manufacturer TigerTurf acknowledges the surface gets warm and points to hosing, shade, cooling infill and timing when the space is used. Lighter yarn runs cooler, which is simple physics. Some suppliers make specific cooling claims for their own products, for example All Seasons says its COOLplus yarn runs 30% cooler; that is the supplier's claim and we pass it on as theirs rather than as a finding.
How long will the finished lawn last?
Australian sources genuinely disagree, so here is the range with its sources. Supplier tier guides put budget product at 5 to 8 years, mid range at 10 to 15, premium at 15 to 20 and above. CHOICE has said a well-maintained premium lawn can reach up to 25 years. Manufacturer warranties commonly sit in an 8 to 15 year band and typically cover UV fade and fibre loss rather than base failure. Read that exclusion carefully: the part most likely to fail first is the part the warranty does not cover, which is the ground works.
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