Artifical lawn with a dog and children!? Would you?

[Sarie]

Am after some advice... We got our garden re turfed last summer but as predicted by my husband (!) the lawn has turned into a mud bath over the winter thanks to our pesky dog. We debated at the time whether we should have put artifical lawn down instead and now we're coming back to the same debate. It's only a small area but I recall that artifical turf is pretty expensive compared to the real stuff and am wondering if the dog is only going to wreck that as well so not sure what to do for the best.

So am wanting to know has anyone else had sucess with artifical lawn and a dog and two small children?! Is there such a thing as dog friendly/child-friendly artifical turf and can anyone make any recommendations for what supplier or gardener to use to lay the stuff.

Will be grateful for any words of wisdom anyone can offer!

Thanks

[Sunlover00]

Yes - we put down eazylawn for the same reason - dog was trashing real lawn and dragging in mud during winter. It's pricey but after 3 years still looks new. We laid it ourselves which was pretty easy

[Exjags]

Also a yes. Bitches will use artificial grass in the same way they like a lawn but it is vey easy to hose down and no nasty brown patches. A breeder i knew had all her litters using artificial grass and she managed to keep it looking imaculate and odour free.

[azurh]

SUN lover would you mine sharing how you laid it yourself? we are seriously struggling with doing anything to our front drive ( half a pile of crap/ weeds) half paved off. We cannot afford to redo the whole drive and have had quotes for artifical grass ( ?4.5k being the cheapest)

[tiddles]

http://www.grono.co.uk

I know a landscaper who swears by this

[Sunlover00]

There's quite a few installation videos available on you tube also that grono website offers an installation video too. The important thing is to level the ground and lay a membrane to prevent weeds from growing through then layer of sand then nail the artificial grass down. By no means is our lawn laid perfectly but i think it looks fine and looks more realistic with the odd bump in it (that's what I told myself at the time anyway!)

[Sarie]

Thanks everyone. I think easylawn is the way forward then!