Slice a finished lawn with a sharp spade and the profile tells you why it behaves the way it does. Green blade tips sit on top, with grains of sand settled between them to hold every fibre upright. Under the visible pile lies the backing that locks the fibres in and lets rainwater through. Below that comes a thin leveling bed, then the compacted aggregate base that carries every footstep, and finally a sheet of geotextile over graded native soil. That is the full stack of artificial turf layers, read from the top down.
We build these systems factory-direct, and the questions that reach us are rarely about the green carpet itself. They are about what each layer should be made of, how thick it goes and which steps crews are tempted to skip. This piece follows the stack in build order, top to bottom, giving the working specification for each layer plus the mistakes we see most often. For the question-and-answer view of the same ground, our separate piece on what goes under artificial grass is the place to start. Where a layer is genuinely optional, we say so plainly.
Why Layer Sequence Decides How a Lawn Ages
Builders work bottom-up, but buyers who understand the stack read it top-down. The five artificial turf layers only work as a set: each one assumes the layer beneath it is doing its job. Get one layer wrong and the fault migrates upward until it shows on the surface.
The analogy we give crews is a roof: shingles shed water only because the deck beneath them stays straight. The carpet you walk on stays flat for the same reason. A premium pile rolled over a weak base is an expensive skin over a cheap skeleton. Our advice is blunt: spend on the base before you spend on a thicker pile.
This matters most on residential artificial grass, where the same crew often digs, compacts and lays in a single day. Rushed schedules are exactly when layers get merged or skipped. Naming each layer, and its spec, is the cheapest insurance you can buy.
Layer 1: Infill That Keeps Blades Upright
Layer one, counted from the surface, is the infill: silica sand brushed between the blades. Weight is its first job, holding the carpet down against wind lift and traffic. Support is the second, propping each blade so the pile stands instead of leaning. Protection is the third, cushioning the fibre root where ultraviolet exposure is harshest.
For landscape lawns the working rate is 1 to 2 pounds of sand per square foot. Heavier-use specifications can call for up to 3 pounds per square foot, so follow the product sheet rather than a rule of thumb.
Of all the artificial turf layers, infill is the one cheap quotes leave out first. The last hour of every install ends the same way: a power broom working sand into the pile until the fibres stand. Skip the infill entirely and the pile lies flat within months, shining where traffic mats it down.
Layer 2: The Turf Carpet and Its Backing
Layer two is the carpet itself: polyethylene monofilament blades mixed with a polypropylene thatch underneath for body and colour depth. That pairing is what we run on our own tufting line, because the monofilament carries the look while the thatch fills the gaps that cheap turf leaves flat.