Can artificial turf be installed over concrete, pavers or existing grass?
Yes over concrete and pavers with a drainage underlay and glued-down edges, yes over existing lawn grass once the sod and root mat are stripped to bare graded soil, and no, never glued or stapled directly on top of living grass, which traps moisture and rots the backing within a season, as of September 2026 for Kissimmee-area installs.
Reviewed by Luis Austin, owner · Last reviewed September 21, 2026
Can turf go straight over concrete, pavers or grass?
| Existing surface | Can turf go over it? | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Concrete patio or pool deck | Yes | Drainage underlay plus glued and taped edges; can't nail into concrete |
| Pavers | Yes | Same drainage underlay approach; edges secured at the paver joints |
| Living sod or lawn grass | No | Sod and root mat stripped to bare graded soil first |
| Bare compacted dirt, no base | No | A proper washed-rock base has to go in before turf, same as any new lawn |
| Old, worn-out artificial turf | No | Old system torn out first; the base underneath is inspected and often reused |
| Existing putting-green base still draining well | Yes | New turf can often be seamed onto a sound existing base |
Underlay and edging methods are ours; every yard still gets a site visit before we commit to reusing an existing surface or base.
Yes over a concrete pool deck or a paver patio with the right underlay, and yes over an existing lawn once it's stripped down to bare, graded soil. What doesn't work, ever, is gluing or stapling turf directly on top of living grass, which traps moisture underneath and rots the backing within a season.
Why can't turf just go over living grass?
Grass under turf keeps growing for a while in the dark before it finally dies, and as it decomposes it releases moisture and gases that have nowhere to go once turf seals the surface above it. The result is an uneven, spongy feel within months, an odor as the organic matter breaks down, and settling as the old root mat collapses unevenly beneath the new surface. None of that shows up on day one, which is exactly why it's a common shortcut on lower-end jobs. It always shows up eventually.
What does turf over concrete or pavers need that a lawn install doesn't?
A hard surface can't be graded the way soil can, so a foam or perforated drainage underlay does the job the base and native soil normally handle, moving water sideways to an existing drain or the slab's edge. Nails aren't an option on concrete, so the perimeter gets glued or mechanically fastened into the slab instead, and seams are taped and glued rather than pinned. Any existing slope or drain on the pool deck or patio has to be checked and, ideally, kept working exactly as it did before turf went down, since there's no regrading a slab after the fact the way there is with soil.
What about turf over an old paver patio with weeds in the joints?
Weeds in paver joints need to be killed and cleared before the underlay goes down, since the same moisture and root pressure that pushed weeds up through the joints originally will do the same thing under turf if it's not addressed first. Uneven or heaved pavers get reset before turf covers them, because turf follows the shape of whatever is under it and won't hide a lumpy or sunken paver field the way people sometimes hope. A patio that's heaved badly enough in multiple spots is sometimes cheaper to address by resetting the whole field at once rather than chasing individual high and low pavers one at a time.
Say you have a screened lanai in a Storey Lake vacation rental with existing pavers that pond near the drain after a hard rain. Installing turf directly over that low spot without addressing it first just moves the ponding under the turf instead of on top of it. Correcting the underlay thickness at that one low area, sloping it toward the existing drain, fixes the pattern before turf ever goes down rather than after.
What about turf over a wooden deck or a rooftop?
The same underlay logic applies to a wood deck, with an added check: the deck's structural boards and flashing need to handle the added weight and moisture cycling of turf, infill and an underlay layer over years of use, which is worth a look from whoever built or last inspected the deck rather than assumed. Rooftop and balcony installations add drainage-plane and structural-load questions specific to the building, which is why those go through a site visit before we quote a per-square-foot number the way a ground-level yard can. A building's roofing membrane and its warranty terms also come into play on a rooftop job in a way they never do on a ground-level lawn, so involving the property's roofing contractor early avoids conflicts later.
Does turf over a hard surface behave differently day to day?
It runs a little warmer than turf over soil, because the slab beneath holds heat longer after sunset the way concrete does in our surface-temperature comparison. It also drains differently: water moves sideways across the underlay to a drain point rather than straight down into soil, so the underlay's slope matters as much as the base's slope does on a soil install. Everything else, infill, brushing, UV fade, wears the same regardless of what's underneath.
Questions people ask
Does turf over concrete get hotter than turf over soil?
Yes, somewhat, because the slab holds heat longer after sunset. Published surface-temperature data shows concrete running hot in its own right, and turf directly above it inherits some of that lingering warmth.
Can turf be installed over turf that's already there?
No. Old turf and any degraded infill underneath it need to come out first so the base can be inspected, since it's impossible to tell from the surface whether the existing base still drains and compacts correctly. Turf over pavers still needs infill the same way a lawn does, doing its normal job of holding blades upright and adding weight; the underlay and edging change, not the infill approach.
What happens to turf laid over grass that wasn't fully removed?
Patchy sod or lingering root mat left behind decomposes under the turf the same way a full lawn would, just in smaller, uneven pockets. It shows up as soft or sunken spots scattered across the yard rather than one uniform low area.
Can an existing drain in a concrete patio be reused under turf?
Usually, yes. The underlay is built to direct water toward it the same way the bare concrete did before, as long as the drain itself is clear and still functions. A drain that was already slow or partially clogged should be serviced before turf covers it and makes the problem harder to see. A drainage underlay in otherwise good condition can often stay in place under a new layer of turf during a later replacement, too, once it's inspected and its slope toward the drain is confirmed.
Is turf over pavers noisier or harder underfoot than turf over soil?
It can feel slightly firmer underfoot than turf over soil, since a compacted washed-rock base still has some give that a paver or concrete slab doesn't. A thicker drainage underlay narrows that gap and is worth asking about for an area where people will sit or lie on the surface often. On a rooftop or balcony, the infill rules stay the same, but weight becomes a bigger factor, so a lighter infill loading is sometimes specified once the structure's load limit is confirmed.