Stage one: measure, set out and decide what leaves
Before anything is dug, someone should be standing in your yard with a tape. Two things get decided here that follow the job all the way through. The first is the shape: how the turf will be cut, where the joins land, and which way the pile will run, since pile direction has to stay consistent or the lawn reads as two different colours from one end of the yard.
The second is access. This is the stage where a quote quietly gains or loses a thousand dollars. Can a small excavator get in, or is this a shovel and barrow job? Can a truck park close, or is spoil going down a driveway and along a street? On the older, narrower blocks common through Corrimal, Fairy Meadow and Bulli, access frequently costs more than the product tier does.
Stage two: excavation, and the Illawarra variable
Existing lawn, roots and topsoil come out to roughly 75mm, or about 100mm where a vehicle will run over the finished surface. Any irrigation is capped off. That is the standard picture, and here it comes with a caveat the mapping makes explicit.
Unanderra is 47.3 per cent Disturbed Terrain, Shellharbour 14.8 per cent and Figtree 9.9 per cent. The report for that unit describes ground "disturbed by human activity to a depth of at least 100 cm" containing "demolition rubble, industrial and household waste", and recommends "a survey at a suitable scale as well as geotechnical analysis" before development because of the variability of materials. For a turf job that translates into a simple commercial reality: on a fill site, excavation is the line item nobody can guarantee in advance, and an installer who fixes it without looking is either very experienced with your street or taking a punt with your money.
Spoil disposal belongs in this stage too, and it is a genuine cost rather than a rounding error. Ask whether tipping fees are included.
Stage three: drainage, which is where Illawarra jobs are won or lost
On free-draining ground this stage barely exists. Here it often does. The soil reports rate gw3 in the Gwynneville unit as "Low permeability", the Shellharbour unit's sh3, sh4 and sh5 the same, and ka4 in the Kiama unit likewise, while the Berkeley unit under a fifth of Figtree lists "Locally impeded drainage" outright.
What gets built varies with the site: falls set toward a defined exit point at minimum, and on the worst ground an aggregate drain, a subsurface line to daylight, or a stormwater connection. It is a real cost and it is the one most often absent from a cheap quote, because it is the easiest thing to leave out and the last thing you will notice. Our guide to what reactive clay and impeded drainage do underneath a lawn explains the mechanics.
Stage four: the base build
Road base or crushed rock goes in, is wetted and plate-compacted, then a screeded layer of crusher dust, then a second screed pass to finished levels. At least two compaction passes, worked as hard as the plant allows. On a reactive or soft subsoil this layer is doing structural work: it spreads load, it holds shape, and it has to stay permeable while doing both.
This is roughly the 30 per cent of the job budget labelled base preparation, and it is the stage where the difference between quotes usually lives. A base built two passes short looks identical on handover day and different by the second winter.
Stage five: lay, join, fix and dress
Rolls are laid with consistent pile direction and left to settle. Joins are made by trimming two stitch lines off each edge, running synthetic joining tape underneath and keeping fibres out of the adhesive, which is fiddly work and the most common visible defect on an amateur install. Edges are cut in with a sharp blade, changed often. On soil the turf is pegged at roughly 30-40cm intervals; on concrete it is bonded with turf adhesive over about 5mm of foam underlay instead.
Then the dressing: 10-15 kilograms per square metre of silica or kiln-dried sand, power-broomed into the pile. That infill is not optional decoration. It weights the turf down, keeps the fibres upright and helps the surface drain. Pet jobs commonly add zeolite for ammonia odour control.
What the tiers buy you, supply and laid
| Tier | Supply only ($/m²) | Supplied & installed ($/m²) | Typical lifespan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | $25–40 | $75–95 | 5–8 years |
| Mid | $40–60 | $95–130 | 10–15 years |
| Premium | $60–100+ | $130–160+ | 15–20+ years |
Indicative Australian ranges per square metre compiled from published 2025-26 supplier and industry pricing (Premier Grass, EasyTurf, All Seasons and others). National figures, not Illawarra job records. Base preparation on reactive clay, escarpment slope or fill moves a real quote more than the tier does.
Reading the ratio, and what it tells you to do
Roughly 40 per cent materials, 30 per cent base preparation, 30 per cent labour. Three practical conclusions fall out of that split.
- Upgrading the turf is cheaper than it looks. Moving up a tier inflates only the materials component, while the lifespan gap between tiers is large: 5-8 years at budget, 10-15 at mid, 15-20 and beyond at premium, with CHOICE noting a well-maintained premium lawn can reach 25 years.
- Discounting is almost always in the ground. A quote a third under the field has usually economised in the 60 per cent you cannot inspect afterwards.
- Small areas cost more per square metre, not less. Mobilisation, plant hire, minimum material orders and set-out do not shrink with the yard. This is general trade pricing logic rather than a published Illawarra figure, but it is why a 20 square metre courtyard feels disproportionate, and why premium product often makes sense there: the absolute dollars are small.
Rough out the number for your yard
Enter your approximate lawn area to see a supplied-and-installed price range. This is a planning estimate built from published Australian supplier pricing. Your installer will confirm an exact quote after measuring your yard.
After it is laid: what the lawn asks of you
Brushing monthly or so, alternating direction, to keep the pile standing where traffic runs the same line. Debris cleared weekly, because leaves left on the surface block drainage and hold moisture, which matters more on a coast recording 1148.5 mm of mean annual rainfall at Bellambi AWS and a February mean of 150.5 mm. Moss and weeds around the edges treated roughly annually.
Watering is not part of it, which is the point. Sydney Water's Water Wise Guidelines still govern the rest of the garden: hoses with an instant on-off mechanism, sprinklers and watering systems before 10am or after 4pm, smart and drip systems permitted between 10am and 4pm, no run-off onto paths, and no hosing hard surfaces unless it is for safety, health, emergency, construction or contamination reasons. A synthetic lawn simply stops being subject to any of that.
If you are still at the stage of working out whether the job is worth doing at all, start with our overview of artificial grass in Wollongong and the data behind the local pricing.
Questions about the job and the price
What is the cost of laying artificial grass per square metre?
Published Australian tier ranges put it at roughly $75-95 per square metre supplied and laid for budget product, $95-130 for mid range and $130-160 and above for premium, with most households landing in a $90-130 band. Those are national figures compiled from supplier and industry pricing rather than Illawarra job records. On reactive clay, escarpment slope or fill, the base preparation share of the job is where a real quote departs from them.
Why is laying so much more expensive than the turf itself?
Because you are buying earthworks. Budget turf is about $25-40 per square metre as a product and about $75-95 laid. Industry figures split a job roughly 40 per cent materials, 30 per cent base preparation and 30 per cent labour, so more than half of the price is excavation, road base, screenings, compaction plant, edging, infill and hours. The grass is the cheapest visible part of a job that is mostly invisible.
Can I keep costs down by preparing the base myself?
You can, and it is the most common way a lawn ends up needing redoing. Both CHOICE and installer guides identify base preparation as where amateur installs fail, and the two usual culprits are insufficient compaction and no thought about where water goes. On ground the NSW reports describe with terms like 'low wet bearing strength' and 'Locally impeded drainage', those are not small errors. If you want to save labour, the safer place is demolition and spoil handling before the crew arrives, agreed with them in advance.
What does spoil removal add?
More than people expect on a tight block. Excavating roughly 75mm across 80 square metres produces about six cubic metres of turf, roots and soil that has to leave the property, and about 100mm where a vehicle will drive. If the only route is a side gate and a barrow run to a truck on a narrow street, the hours climb. On fill sites the spoil can also include rubble and building waste, since Disturbed Terrain is described as including 'demolition rubble, industrial and household waste'. Ask whether tipping fees are inside the quoted number.
Is a sloping escarpment block dearer to lay?
Usually, and for reasons that have nothing to do with the grass. The Illawarra Escarpment unit under half of Thirroul and 45.6 per cent of Bulli carries landscape limitations of 'Steep slopes', 'Mass movement' and 'Extreme erosion hazard'. On a steep block you may be paying for terracing or retention, harder access for materials and plant, and more careful set-out so the finished surface reads level to the eye. None of that is turf cost, all of it is job cost.
How long before I can walk on it?
Ask your installer for a figure in writing, because no Australian installer publishes a reliable general timeframe and we will not invent one. What we can tell you is the sequence: excavation and spoil removal, base construction with at least two compaction passes, screeding, laying and joining, then infill power-broomed in. The lawn is finished when the infill is in, not when the last roll is unrolled.
Do I need to tell anyone I am doing this?
Not for a lawn inside your own boundary. The picture changes at the property line. Wollongong City Council publishes no position on synthetic turf on the verge, though its Verge Garden Guidelines do say 'Do not install any structures or hard surfaces in your verge garden'. Shellharbour City Council publishes no verge policy at all. Kiama Municipal Council states that 'You need to get approval from Council before you do any work on public roads, footpaths, or land between a road and private property', under Section 138 of the Roads Act 1993. Check with your own council before anything crosses the fence line.
What should be in the written quote?
Excavation depth in millimetres and what happens if the crew hits fill or rock; base material, thickness and compaction passes; whether a weed membrane is included, since practice varies; the drainage detail and the point water leaves at; edge restraint and peg spacing; infill product and kilograms per square metre; and the turf by pile height, backing type and warranty term rather than a product name. Every item on that list is buried by the end of the job.
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