Why your artificial grass went flat in the walking paths

A turf fiber stands up because infill is packed around its base. Each step compresses that infill and bends the fiber in the direction you were walking. On a path that happens the same way thousands of times, so the fibers lie flat in one direction and the infill under them compacts or gets kicked out to the sides. You see the flat side of the blade instead of the tip, which is why paths look shiny and a different color. Heat speeds it up; fibers are softest on a July afternoon, which is also when the yard is busiest.

Power brushing: a rotating turf brush run against the grain, in more than one direction on the worst paths, lifts the fibers and fluffs the infill. Where traffic has pushed the infill out of the path, it is topped up and leveled so the fibers have support again. The path stands up, feels softer and reads the same green as the rest of the yard. It is included in every clean we do.

Fibers that have broken off at the base, worn thin in a dog-run corner, or melted do not stand back up. A dog run after six years usually has some fiber loss at the turns. Brushing improves it; a patch fixes it. Faded fibers stand up but stay faded. We tell you which you have before we start.

Hand-broom the main paths against the grain every few weeks; it takes five minutes. Move furniture occasionally rather than leaving it in one spot all summer. Keep the infill topped up, because thin infill flattens fastest. And plan a power brush at the start and end of summer, which is roughly the interval at which paths start to show on the coast and is what the quarterly memberships cover.