Artificial grass buying guide
Updated: October 2026
You have a tape measure, a balcony or a patch of garden, and rolls that all say premium. An artificial grass buying guide is the order of the decision, before any brand gets a crown. Measure the area in metres, read the pile the bullet actually states, and only then look at a price per square metre. Peter F. checked the amazon.co.uk listings in the [artificial turf comparison](/hub/flooring/artificial-turf), in GBP. This is not a laboratory test, and this page does not name a top pick. Choosing a roll is not the same job as fitting it, or as choosing a dog toilet.
You have a tape measure, a balcony or a patch of garden, and rolls that all say premium. An artificial grass buying guide is the order of the decision, before any brand gets a crown.
You have a tape measure, a balcony or a patch of garden, and rolls that all say premium. An artificial grass buying guide is the order of the decision, before any brand gets a crown. Measure the area in metres, read the pile the bullet actually states, and only then look at a price per square metre. Peter F. checked the amazon.co.uk listings in the artificial turf comparison, in GBP. This is not a laboratory test, and this page does not name a top pick. Choosing a roll is not the same job as fitting it, or as choosing a dog toilet.
Our top picks
| Badge | Product | Pile height | Coverage | Sand infill | Note | Price | Offer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best overall |  GardenKraft GardenKraft 15 mm, 4 m x 1 m | 15 mm | 4 m x 1 m | Not stated | 9.2 | about £24.99 | View offer |
| Best value |  WADOODI WADOODI 30 mm, 1 m x 4 m | 30 mm (title also says 20 mm) | 1 m x 4 m | Not stated | 9.0 | about £30.99 | View offer |
 Ark Mat Ark Mat Cotford 35 mm, 1 m x 2 m | 35 mm | 1 m x 2 m | Not required | 8.6 | about £21.95 | View offer |
On this page
What you are actually buying
A garden piece, a potty pad and a sports pitch are three different products, and the listings blur them. Most pieces in this set are 1 metre wide rectangles or rolls for a patio, a path or a small lawn. The potty pack is two pads of about 46 by 58.5 cm at about £18.99. That is a tray surface for a flat, not a substitute for 4 square metres of grass. Sports turf sits outside this folder. BS EN 15330-1:2013 covers outdoor hockey, football, rugby training, tennis and multi-sport surfaces. A bullet that mentions sport is not that standard.
UK shop guides often split short pile around 20 to 30 mm, medium around 30 to 35 mm, and long pile from 40 mm upward. This amazon.co.uk set states 15 mm, about 20 mm, 30 mm and 35 mm. Nothing here is a 40 mm lawn. A 15 mm roll can still be the right strip on paving, and it will not feel like a 35 mm piece under bare feet. If the title offers two heights in one line, keep the variant you selected and check the parcel. Treat a photograph as a photograph.
Pile, density and backing
Read the bullet, not the mood of the title. GardenKraft states 15 mm on a 4 m by 1 m roll. LITA and the Petgrow ECO mat state about 20 mm on 1 m by 2 m. WADOODI’s selected variant states 30 mm on 1 m by 4 m, while the title also mentions 20 mm. Ark Mat Cotford states 35 mm, and it is the only listing here that also publishes a density: 14,700 stitches per square metre, a 6,500 dtex yarn, 32 strands per tuft, and 1,915 g/m2 including the backing. Seller blogs that call 16,000 stitches a minimum are their own bands. Cotford’s published 14,700 would fall short of some of those bands.
MYOYAY’s 10 m by 1 m bullets do not state a pile height. Reviewers who expected 30 mm said the pile was shorter and that the backing showed. Turosur’s title says 30 mm and 2 m by 3 m, and a bullet says 1 m by 10 m, so the height and the area stay unsettled until you measure. A drainage hole passes water to whatever is underneath. The Horticultural Trades Association and the Association of Professional Landscapers note that a domestic garden install has no British Standard equivalent to paving, and that clay, sand and chalk behave differently. Cotford says no sand infill is required. Silence on the other listings means the file does not say.
Price bands on amazon.co.uk
Divide the shelf price by the stated area and label the result as arithmetic, not as a unit price the seller printed. On 19 October 2026, where the area is clear, this folder falls into two loose bands. About £6 to £9 a square metre covers the larger or shorter pieces. GardenKraft at about £24.99 for 4 square metres is about £6.25. WADOODI at about £30.99 for 4 square metres is about £7.75. tonchean at about £78.89 and MYOYAY at about £79.99 sit near £8 over 10 square metres. The dearer band, about £11 to £15, is the smaller specified pieces: Cotford at about £21.95 for 2 square metres is about £10.98, and Petgrow’s 20 mm mat at about £29.99 for 2 square metres is about £15.
The two pads stay at about £18.99 and are not priced per square metre. Turosur at about £62.99 is left out of both bands because the title and a bullet disagree on the area. As Good As Grass publishes its own 2026 supply prices, about £12.50 to £28 a square metre by height. Those are their prices, not these shelf prices, and they usually exclude fitting. A lower rate is a weak reason if the pile was never stated or the size text fights itself.
Checks before you order
Five checks, in this order. First, write the metres on paper. A 1 m width is usual here, so a patio wider than a metre needs a join or a second piece, and the listing will not plan that join. Second, if the title and a bullet disagree, treat the area as unknown. Paying about £62.99 for either 6 or 10 square metres is not a bargain until one of those numbers is in the box. Third, colour is a batch. GardenKraft reviewers found two boxes that matched an existing lawn and two boxes that did not match each other. MYOYAY reviewers bought two rolls in different greens. Fourth, read the infill line and the backing as written. Only Cotford says no sand is required. Fifth, permission is local. A conservation area, a listed building or a rented balcony is not settled by the product page.
If the ground holds water, the fall runs toward the house, or you need several joins and a compacted base, that is a landscaper’s job. The method, once you have a piece, is on how to lay artificial grass. A dog toilet is a different brief. A qualifying purchase can earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.
Common questions
What pile height should you buy for a small UK garden?
For a small patio or a patch you will walk on, the stated piles in this set that behave more like a lawn are 30 mm and 35 mm. A 15 mm roll is a short strip, useful on paving, and it will not feel like the longer pieces. Nothing here is the 40 mm-plus pile that some shop guides call long. If the bullet never states a height, do not invent 30 mm from the photograph. Check the variant name as well as the title, because some titles mention two heights at once.
Is a higher stitch rate a British Standard?
No. There is no domestic British Standard that sets a minimum stitch rate for garden artificial grass. Cotford publishes 14,700 stitches per square metre, which is a figure you can compare with a listing that publishes nothing. Seller sites sometimes start their own quality bands at 16,000. That is their catalogue language, not a UK rule. BS EN 15330-1:2013 is for sports surfaces, not for these mats.
How do you work out a price per square metre?
Divide the amazon.co.uk shelf price by the area the listing actually states, and call the result arithmetic. GardenKraft at about £24.99 for 4 square metres is about £6.25 a square metre. Cotford at about £21.95 for 2 square metres is about £10.98. Do not do the sum when the title and a bullet give two different areas, as they do on the Turosur listing at about £62.99. The pads at about £18.99 are a pack price, not a rate per square metre.
What if the title says 2 by 3 m and a bullet says 1 by 10 m?
Treat the coverage as unsettled. You cannot know whether you are paying for 6 or 10 square metres, so a price per square metre would be a guess. The Turosur file also shows a different ASIN in the technical-details table, which is another reason not to treat the size as settled. Measure the piece when it arrives, and do not rank that listing against rolls whose area is printed once.
Do you need sand infill?
Only Cotford says no sand infill is required. The other listings in this set do not say. Silence is not a yes and it is not a no. Installers who work with dog toilets often warn against sand on top because urine sits in it. That is their guidance. Do not copy a kiln-dried sand weight from a trade blog onto a mat whose listing never mentions infill.
Do you need planning permission to replace a lawn?
The Planning Portal says that, in most cases, replacing a lawn with artificial grass needs neither planning permission nor building control, and that you should check locally if the building is listed or in a conservation area. Laying a mat on an existing patio is a different job from digging out a lawn. The portal wording is the English guidance. It does not prove the change is harmless to soil or wildlife, and it does not cover every rule a landlord might still apply.
Related pages
Sources
Public UK sources and amazon.co.uk listings used for this comparison, last checked on 19 October 2026.
- Planning Portal — replacing a grass lawn with artificial grass (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- BSI, BS EN 15330-1:2013 — synthetic surfaces for outdoor sport (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- HTA / APL domestic guide to artificial grass (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- ESTC — UK REACH work programme for 2022–2023 (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- GOV.UK — General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- WWF — artificial grass and its impact (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- Natural History Museum — artificial grass controversy, August 2022 (retrieved 19 October 2026)
- amazon.co.uk — Artificial Grass Direct listing, checked 19 October 2026 (retrieved 19 October 2026)