Synthetic Grass in Dubai: What Buying It Involves
Synthetic grass and artificial grass are the same product. What changes from one Dubai garden to the next is the ground underneath it.
By Stephen Pickering
Synthetic grass in Dubai is the same product as artificial grass and fake grass. Three names, one roll. What you're buying is a grade of grass, made of fibres stitched into a backing, and on most jobs the installation under it too.
Choose the grade with a sample in your hand. The ground preparation mostly chooses itself.
Suppliers here mix the names freely, and we've written up what each of the names means if you want the detail.
What is synthetic grass made of?
A roll has two parts you can see and one you can't.
The first is the yarn, the fibres you walk on. It comes in more than one shade of green, sometimes with a brown thatch fibre running low in the pile, and in different shapes. Shade and shape are what make one grass look real from the house and another look like a snooker table.
The second is the backing. That's the fabric the yarn is stitched into, coated in latex underneath, with drainage holes so water can get through. You'll never see it again once it's installed.
The part you can't see is UV stabilisation, and it's settled in the factory. Fibres that weren't stabilised go brittle after a year or two. They break up underfoot, the pile looks short, and the backing starts to show. Ask every supplier whether the fibres are UV stabilised. Use those words.
Then there are the two numbers on every specification sheet:
- Pile height: how long the fibre is, in millimetres.
- Density: the stitch rate per square metre, which tells you how thick the grass is. More stitches means more blades in every square metre, so a dense grass looks lusher and feels softer underfoot, even when its pile is shorter.
There's one option on top: Stay Cool, a reflective technology extruded into the yarn, so it can't wash off. In comparable conditions it can feel up to 15°C cooler underfoot than standard artificial grass.
How do the four grades compare?
Maze Grass sells four grades for gardens, and the full specifications for each grade are published. This is how they differ:
| Grade | Pile height | Yarn or density | What it's known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duramax | 33 mm | Resilient tri-colour | Our most durable grass, made for heavy footfall |
| Sienna | 35 mm | C-shaped yarn | Durable, with a natural look |
| Milan | 35 mm | Ultra-dense thatch | Our best seller: soft, with a natural colour blend |
| Naples | 42 mm | The highest density and stitch rate we sell | The longest pile in the range |
Milan is the one most people choose: it's around 35% of all our sales.
All four are pet friendly. You don't need to pick a grade for the dog.
Don't choose on pile height. 42 mm sounds like more grass than 33 mm, but a short, dense grass can look fuller than a long, sparse one. And what you see from the majlis window is the colour and the yarn, which are exactly what a photo gets wrong.
Take a sample pack. It's free, the samples come from the manufacturer rather than being cut off a roll, and you can collect one from our showroom in Al Quoz. Put them down on your own garden, in daylight, and look again in the evening.
Two of our recent gardens show the range: 220 m² of Milan 35 mm round the pool at Alvorada 2 in Arabian Ranches, and 1,100 m² of Naples 42 mm on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi.
What changes the price of synthetic grass in Dubai?
I'm not going to publish a figure. Five things move a quotation, and only one of them is the grass.
- The grade. The grass you pick changes the price.
- The area, in square metres.
- Supply only, or supply and install. You can buy the grass and have your own contractor install it. If they prepare the ground to our specification, the installation itself is a dry fit.
- What surface your garden is now. That sets the type of ground preparation, never the budget. Tiles, concrete or screed that's sound, stable and draining properly won't normally need a new aggregate base. Existing artificial grass over a black sand base usually needs semi preparation. Natural grass, sand or large gravel means full preparation: excavation and waste removal, a black sand base 7 to 10 cm deep, compacted and levelled, and a cement gluing edge.
- Access, and how the garden gets used. A survey checks both, along with the base.
On a full installation the silica sand, the adhesive and the seam joining are part of the job too, and a good quotation lists each of them.
If the number's higher than you hoped, the grade is the line to move. The preparation isn't. Your garden set that before anyone quoted. Our guide to buying artificial grass in Dubai covers comparing two quotations side by side.
Who should skip synthetic grass?
It isn't the right call for every garden, and I'd rather say so here.
If you want to walk barefoot at lunchtime in summer, skip it. June to August, the grass is too hot for bare feet around midday, and so is your paving. Afternoon shade cools a garden quickly, and it's comfortable well before evening, but shade won't help at lunchtime.
If the garden sits under trees that drop leaves all year, you'll be clearing it more often than you'd like.
And if you love real grass and don't mind the water, the mowing and the reseeding, keep it.
FAQs
How long will synthetic grass last in Dubai?
At least 10 years. The warranty is the manufacturer's, and its term depends on the grass we specify for your garden, so have it written on the quotation.
Do you check the ground if my own contractor prepares it?
Only where we're installing. The day before, we confirm the area's been compacted and levelled and the site's ready for the team. On supply only, the specification goes to your contractor, and we don't carry out that check.
Get the samples home first.
If you'd like to know which preparation your garden needs, book a site survey and I'll get someone from our team out to measure it.
Stephen Pickering has worked for Maze for over three years and is highly knowledgeable about grass product specifications and product quality. He has over 20 years' experience in sales and product roles in the UK and the Middle East.
