I install both. We've put in real sod for clients who wanted real grass, and we've installed thousands of square feet of synthetic turf for clients who wanted to stop fighting their lawn. So when people ask me which one's "better," my honest answer is: depends on what you actually want from your yard.
Below is a five-year side-by-side, drawn from 22 of our own LA County clients we've kept records on. Front yards, average 1,200 sq ft, comparable neighborhoods.
The upfront cost
Real lawn (sod install): $4 to $7 per sq ft for proper soil prep, fescue or hybrid bermuda sod, and a basic drip-supplemented spray system. For 1,200 sq ft, call it $6,500 average.
Artificial grass: $14 to $20 per sq ft for a properly installed system — base, weed barrier, infill, premium turf with 8-year UV warranty. For 1,200 sq ft, call it $20,400 average.
Real lawn wins year one. By a lot.
Year-by-year operating costs
Water (LA DWP rates, 2026 tier 2)
A maintained 1,200 sq ft cool-season lawn in LA needs about 56,000 gallons per year. Even at LADWP residential tier rates with the new conservation surcharge, that's $720 to $980 per year. Bermuda or zoysia is roughly half that — call it $400.
Synthetic turf needs occasional rinsing. Real number: $30 a year if you're picky, $0 if you let rain handle it.
Mowing, edging, fertilizing
A standard biweekly gardener in West LA runs $140 to $220 per month, of which roughly half attributes to lawn care. Call it $90 a month, $1,080 a year. Add $180 a year for fertilizer, herbicide, and one over-seeding.
Synthetic turf: a leaf blower once a week. The same gardener will do it for free as part of your existing service.
Replacement cycle
LA's heat and our perpetual drought conditions mean even well-maintained cool-season sod usually needs partial re-sodding every 4 to 6 years, especially in dog households. Budget $2,000 every five years for patch sod, soil amendment, and labor.
Premium turf installed over a properly compacted DG base lasts 15 to 20 years. The infill needs topping up every 5 to 7 years (about $400 for 1,200 sq ft).
5-year totals (1,200 sq ft, dog household)
- Real lawn: $6,500 install + $1,300/yr water + $1,260/yr maintenance + $2,000 partial re-sod at year 4 = $21,300 over 5 years
- Artificial grass: $20,400 install + $30/yr rinse + $400 infill top-up at year 5 = $20,580 over 5 years
Effectively a wash at year five. Past year five, turf pulls away — by year ten the gap is roughly $14,000 in turf's favor for the same property.
What the numbers don't capture
The dog problem
Dogs are the single biggest reason people switch in LA. Two large dogs will destroy a real lawn in one summer no matter what you do. We've seen $9,000 sod installs ruined by a Bernese Mountain dog in eight months. Modern pet turf with a zeolite-based infill genuinely eliminates the urine smell — we have clients with three dogs whose yards are odor-free four years in.
The heat problem
Synthetic turf gets hot. On a 95° day in Encino, dark turf surface temps can hit 140°F. We mitigate this by specifying cool-deck infill (Envirofill or T°Cool) and lighter olive-green blades, which knock surface temps down 15 to 25 degrees. But if your dog walks across the yard at 2 pm in August, real grass is still cooler.
The aesthetic problem
I'll be honest. Premium turf today (multi-tone blends with thatch layer, varied blade heights) is genuinely hard to spot from the sidewalk. Cheap turf — single-tone, uniform pile, no thatch — looks like an Astroturf field from the 1990s. The difference is mostly in product spec and base prep, and it's why we don't install anything below a certain face-weight tier.
The resale problem
This is the question I get most. From talking to a half-dozen LA agents we work with: well-installed turf is neutral to slightly positive on resale for buyers under 50, neutral to slightly negative for buyers over 65. Front yards are more conservative — backyards are where turf shines for resale, especially with kids or pets.
So which is "better"?
Pick a real lawn if: you don't have dogs, you enjoy yard work as a hobby, you don't mind the water bill, and your aesthetic is traditional.
Pick artificial grass if: you have dogs or kids who actually use the yard, you travel a lot and the lawn dies in your absence, your water bill is a real concern, or you've already replaced sod twice and you're tired.
If you're not sure, call us. We'll come look at your yard and tell you honestly which one fits — even if the answer isn't the one we install.