Artificial grass: the base decides whether it lasts.
Every artificial lawn that fails in this climate fails in the same place, and it is never the grass. It is the ground underneath: laid on soft sand, without drainage, with seams taped instead of glued and edges left to lift. Two summers later it ripples, the joins show as lines and the surface holds water after a wash-down.
Book the free 48h visitWe treat it as a build, not a covering. The area is excavated, a compacted sub-base is laid to falls so water leaves the surface, and a bedding layer is screeded level. Only then does the grass go down: rolled in one direction so the pile reads evenly, seams glued and joined so they disappear, and the perimeter fixed into a proper edge rather than tucked under a kerb.
The specification is chosen for how you will actually use it. A lawn that takes children and a dog every day is not the same product as a decorative strip beside a pool, and a roof terrace in full sun is different again. Pile height, density, backing and whether it needs infill all follow from that conversation, and we tell you plainly where a real lawn would still be the better answer: a shaded courtyard garden, for instance, where grass grows happily and never bakes.
Around a pool it also has to survive chlorinated splash-out and salt, and it has to sit flush with coping and paving so nobody catches a toe on the edge. That is easier when the same team sets the pool levels, lays the paving and installs the grass, because the finish levels are one drawing rather than three trades guessing at each other.
What a price per metre does not tell you
A price per metre is the grass on the roll, not the finished lawn. What makes an artificial lawn last in this climate is the ground prepared under it, and that is the part a cheap number quietly leaves out. So before you compare two quotes, ask each one the same question: does this price include the ground under the grass, or only the grass? We quote the whole lawn, itemised, so there is nothing left for you to fill in with hope.
You do not have to be standing in the garden
Most of the people we build for are at work while we are on site, and a good number are not in the country at all. That is a practical problem for a surface you are meant to judge by eye, so we take it off your plate: the design is built as a space you can walk through in Montera Preview before anything is ordered, and once we start, photographs come through daily.
It means the decisions that matter (where the lawn stops, how it meets the paving, whether the colour reads too green against your stone) are made during design, with revisions agreed in your proposal, from wherever you happen to be.
Where artificial grass earns its place, and where it does not
It earns it on roof terraces and podium levels where there is no soil depth, on small courtyards that get punished by shade and foot traffic, around pools where a real lawn would be constantly repaired, and in second homes that stand empty for months and cannot be watered on trust.
It does not earn it where you want the garden to feel alive. Planting cools a space; artificial grass does not, and in full afternoon sun it holds heat. Our usual answer on a villa plot is a mix: a laid lawn where it takes the wear, real planting and trees where they do the cooling and the screening.
Questions we get asked
Why is your artificial grass more than a headline price per metre?
Because a headline per metre is the grass on the roll and nothing under it. Our price is the whole lawn, prepared ground and all, itemised so you can see it. A number that only buys the roll leaves the part that decides whether it lasts for you to pay for later or go without. Ask any quote whether it includes the ground under the grass, or only the grass.
How long does artificial grass last here?
That depends on the grade and, far more, on the base beneath it. A quality grass on a compacted, free-draining base stays flat and usable for years; the same grass on sand will ripple within two summers. We tell you the grade we are specifying and why, and we build the base as a base.
Does it get hot in summer?
Yes, in direct afternoon sun it holds heat. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling. That is why we plan shade over the areas you use in the evening and keep real planting where it does the cooling.
Is it suitable with dogs and children?
With the right specification and a free-draining base, yes. Urine and washing-down water have to leave the surface, which is a drainage question, not a grass question, and it is where cheap installations fail.
Can you lay it over the existing lawn or tiles?
We lift what is there. Laying over an old lawn traps organic matter that rots and settles unevenly; laying over tiles without a bedding layer telegraphs every joint through the surface.
Do you do it as a job on its own, or only as part of a garden?
We do both, but the levels are always the tell. When we are also laying the paving or building the pool, the grass sits flush with everything around it, because it is one set of finish levels rather than three trades working to their own.
Do you install it in Abu Dhabi as well as Dubai?
Yes. We work across both: Dubai communities and Abu Dhabi from Saadiyat and Yas through to Al Shamkha and Zayed City.
Where we build
Arabian Ranches · Dubai Hills Estate · Jumeirah Park · The Meadows · across Abu Dhabi · all communities
What it costs
Real rates from our own priced jobs, and what actually moves the number: the Dubai cost guide, and swimming pool costs.
When you compare quotes, compare what they include, not just the number. The cheapest price on a page is usually the one that leaves out the ground, the prep or the parts you never see, and that is where a job fails.
Related services
Montera Preview
See your garden and pool in 3D and VR, and walk it, before a single block is laid.
Learn more →Pools & Water Features
Overflow, infinity and family pools, engineered properly, plant rooms included.
Learn more →Landscape & Gardens
Villa gardens designed and built as one: hardscape, planting, irrigation and lighting for the climate.
Learn more →