Download this as a PDF: How to Seam Artificial Grass & Putting Turf
1. Use our 12” wide seam tape and Liquid Nails Fuze It All Surface Construction Adhesive. One 9 oz. tube of adhesive should cover 20 feet of tape. Use two tubes for 20 feet of tape for high traffic areas or seaming turf on hillsides.
2. Lay out the pieces to be seamed together and make sure the edges of the cuts match exactly and the grains run in the same direction (only Putting Turf has no grain). Place the seam tape on the subsurface (gray side up) half-way under the two pieces of turf to be seamed.
Helpful Hint: You may want to put nails in the four corners of the seam tape to help keep it in place.
3. Roll the edges of the turf back away from the seam line to expose the seam tape.
Helpful Hint: The rolled edges are easier to work with if they are weighted down while you are applying the glue. Check that the tape is clean.
Helpful Hint: When using adhesive, apply the glue with a continuous “S”, 10” wide, with 3” between the beads. Apply the glue to the center 10” of the seam tape, leaving 1” clear on the outside edges of the tape (this will keep subsurface rocks from gluing to the turf.
4. Glue the piece of turf with the filaments (grain) lying away from the seam tape first. Then glue the opposing piece of turf with the filaments lying over the seam line. Press the turf to the seam tape by hand, and push to two pieces together.
Helpful Hint: you are gluing the turf to the seam tape, not the two pieces of turf together. Remember, keep glue off the turf filaments and keep filaments out of the seam line. Then use your feet, a hand tamper or roller on the seamed turf to make sure there is good contact.
Helpful Hint: Weigh down the seam with bricks while the glue dries.
5. Allow seam glue to dry thoroughly according to the manufacturer’s instructions before backraking to stand the filaments up, staking to secure or infilling with sand or tire particulate.
Helpful Hint: For lawn grass, we recommend infilling with 2 lbs. of sand per one square foot of grass and staking with 6” galvanized nails every 18” around perimeter. If the lawn grass doesn’t match perfectly when dry, you can trim or sculpt the filaments along the seam line with scissors or electric shears. For infill, one inch is typically 8-10 lbs. of sand per sq. foot of turf, so if you want half an inch of infill (minimum suggested) you will need 4-5 pounds of sand per square foot of turf.
6. Sub-base review. Remove all vegetation down to the roots. Excavate 2-4 inches of soil if you have leveling or drainage issues. Otherwise add two inches of a sub-base of crushed gravel with fines, or decomposed granite with fines or the like, having a max stone size of 3/8 of an inch (1/4” inch for our putting green material). That equates to 8 to 16 pounds of sub-base material per sq. ft. of turf.
