The first step to any cleaning of artificial grass is to clean all the debris from the top with a heavy duty rotary brush. It is much easier with professional gear, but you can achieve your goal with to good old fashion elbow grease. The tool of the trade is the TurFresh artificial Pet Turf Groomer. It’s a strong bristles brush specifically designed to remove hair from artificial grass. You can use other tools but this one seems to be the most effective tool for artificial turf cleaning. Its inexpensive and does a great job. It may take a while to do if you put off the cleaning for a prolonged period of time but once its done then its easier to keep up. Warning, do not wet the turf prior to performing this initial step. The hair will stick to everything and you will give up. We guarantee it. You may want to use a blower prior to starting the the pet turf groomer to get the easy contaminant out. If you decide to hire a professional, they will use a rotary tool similar to a weed wacher with a brush that has very strong bristles to fight its way between the blades.

Over time your artificial turf cleaning will get more difficult because of compaction. There are tiny gaps between your infill granules, blades and backing and over time dust and debris settles between these gaps creating a hard solid surface that hinders proper drainage. This layer of dirt also serves as a breeding ground for bacteria from pet urine, feces and pet saliva and weed growth. Fortunately, if you do a good job removing the hair you will typically de-compact the turf at the same time. You can also rent a pressure washer but you must be really careful to not remove all the infill. This is really a more advanced technique so consulting an expert pressure washer or a company who has the correct tools to control loss of infill. We know of a couple of companies that specialize in this service, see our Partners page for more information.

Now that your artificial grass is clean of most visual contaminants, its time to make it safe for your pets and kids. Your artificial grass not is it a magnet for hair, debris, dust etc but it can also hide pieces of metal that is literally naked to the human eye. We have seen more than 2 pounds of metal removed from some sports fields. Now you are saying, well we don’t play sports on our pet turf. We agree that the little exposure you have to athletes with gear is minimal and the odds of your artificial grass having a screw or a nail could be slim, we have seen it and is has injured people in the past. My own daughter slices open her hand from a screw that came from a football helmet while playing soccer on artificial turf. Make sure you have a professional magnet sweep your turf if you cannot do it yourself. You do not want your child or pet step on a nail or fall and have it driven into their knee.

CrabGrass and weeds are pretty normal to see over time. Don’t call your installer yelling at him that he did something wrong. Most of the time, overtime sediment builds up in area where water flows to. These are perfect areas for grass, weeds, crabgrass etc. to grown. Simply remove the weeds with pliers or use a weed killer. Be careful with your pets and kids using weed killer. Make sure to stay off for a couple of days after.

This step takes a little bit of work as well. You may want to contact the company who installed your artificial grass however again you can check with our partners for the important step in the process. Not only does replacing or adding infill help with making your turf clean and new again but there are products that will neutralize the pet urine. The product that we like is called Biofill. Its an all organic green infill that can be mixed with acrylic coating sand or installed all by itself. This will not netralize the pet turf odor after the fact but will help keep your turf odor free in the future. Once you receive BioFill, which usually comes if 5 gallon pails bucket you will need a fertilizer spreader to evenly distribute the product. Apply evenly as needed. Usually about 1 to 2 lbs per square foot is more than enough to control the artificial turf pet odor. You can also apply more to areas where there is heavier usage by your pet.

This step is a little redundant in the turf cleaning process, since most likely you have been using water to get to this step, however this will ensure that you completely get all the debris that you have been working so hard to remove out of the turf as well as cool the turf for the next application. It takes about three gallons per square foot to completely saturate the area correctly. Make sure you concentrate the hose on areas where the dog uses most often.

Now you have reached the most critical step in the entire clean process, which is removing the pet odor from its source. Assuming that you have cleaned the artificial turf of contaminants, there is one contaminant that will not leave unless you clean and treat the turf correctly. This is the urine odor that pets leave behind. Pet Turf Deodorizers using cleaning enzymes are the best in the artificial turf cleaning industry. There is a product called TurFresh which ranks as one of the most popular in the artificial turf cleaning industry. TurFresh BioS+ is a Bio-Enzymatic pet and child friendly odor removal product that will eat away urine, feces and many other hazardous contaminants.