A contractor opens a non-infill bid with one question that decides the rest: what goes on the acceptance sheet. We build artificial grass rolls on our own line, so the numbers below are the ones our inspectors actually measure. The choice between infill vs non-infill turf is only useful once those numbers are written down and checked.
Most rejected non-infill jobs fail on a copied spec, not on the grass. When the sheet lists infill depth instead of stitch rate, the fibres flatten and the first inspection sends the roll back. The comparison treats infill vs non-infill turf as a specification problem: which parameters are verifiable, and which test proves them at handover.
What Non-Infill Turf Means on the Spec Sheet
Non-infill turf carries no sand or rubber between the blades. It stays upright through engineered blade shape, a higher stitch rate and a layered backing, not through granular ballast. Vendor explainers describe C-shaped, W-shaped or diamond fibre profiles doing the job that infill does on a filled system.
The trade has a plain rule: non-infill systems use narrower gauges and a high stitch rate, with a straight fibre plus a fibrillated thatch yarn that helps the blade recover. On most artificial turf installations the difference shows first at the edge, where a filled system holds its shape with weight and a non-infill system holds it with density. The choice between infill vs non-infill turf is decided by the spec, not the catalogue.
Write the support mechanism into the spec as three lines: fibre shape, stitch rate per square metre, and backing type. A non-infill bid that leaves those three out is really an infill bid with the infill line deleted, and it will not survive acceptance.
Market Reference Specs Across Supplier Datasheets
The table below is a market reference, not a single standard. Each row is one supplier’s published non-infill datasheet, so every number traces to a named source rather than to a band we invented. This spread is exactly why infill vs non-infill turf is judged on numbers, not on a product photo.
| Supplier datasheet | Pile height | Density (tufts/m2) | Dtex | Gauge | Surface weight | Backing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| gzvitagrass VT-BMXSS30-22 | 30 mm | 23,100 | 16,000 | 3/8 in | 3.5-3.8 kg/m2 | 2PP or Net+SBR+Glue |
| suoxian non-infill football | 25-30 mm | 21,000 | 9,000-16,000 | not stated | not stated | grid or EL backing |
| hisoa no-infill football | 30 mm | 16,800 | 14,000 | 3/8 in | face 990 g/m2 / total 2,740 g/m2 | double PP+net |
| tradevv non-infill | 25 mm | 18,900-23,100 | 8,800+4,400 etc | 3/8 in | not stated | double PP+grid |
| jieyuanda non-filling football | 35 mm (20-65 avail) | 16,800 (14,700-33,600) | 8,000-14,000 | 3/8 in | 2.25 kg/m2 | PP+SBR+net |
Read the spread as a range of offers, not as tolerance. The lowest density row and the highest density row are both real products aimed at different traffic loads. A contractor should pick the row that matches the hours the field will carry. Lock it on the acceptance sheet, then compare it with our sports artificial grass systems built to a state