Maintaining a lawn in California has always been difficult and expensive, but the historic droughts in recent times has made it much worse. As a result, there are brown lawns everywhere you look as many people have simply given up on having a green lawn altogether. Which is great for the environment, but not so great for property owners. In fact, brown lawns are typically seen as a blow to the neighborhood’s aesthetics, and having a brown lawn can diminish your perceived social status and lower your property value.
So what’s the solution?
The good news is that there’s a drought friendly way to have a green lawn without spending a bunch of money or doing any lawn maintenance, and it’s called lawn painting. In this article we will teach you everything you need to know to paint your lawn green.
What to Know Before Starting
Before you get started painting just keep in mind that most people will need to buy about $400 worth of materials in order to paint their lawns. We charge about that same amount to professionally paint an average lawn, so it may not make financial sense to do it yourself. If you would like us to do it for you, click here to get a free lawn painting quote from a pro in your area.
Step 1: Get the Needed Lawn Painting Equipment
Here’s the lawn painting equipment that you will need:
– An electric paint sprayer with an extension tip wand
– Grass paint
– A water hose
– Painter’s tape
– A pice of cardboard
– A mower
– An edger
– A wire brush
– Dish soap
– A measuring cup
Step 2: Prepare the Lawn
Before you can begin painting you will need to do a few tasks in order to prepare your lawn for painting. Here is what we recommend that you do:
1. Make sure that your lawn is mowed to an even length and all of the debris are removed off of it.
2. Edging your lawn
3. Tape off the edges of your lawn with painters tape to make sure that it is safe for painting.
4. Wet the hardscaping around the lawn so that any paint overspray will not easily stick to the hardscaping.
Step 3: Prepare Your Sprayer
If this is the first time your are using your sprayer you will need to follow the setup instructions from your manufacture to get it assembled and ready to load with grass paint.
Step 4: Loading Your Sprayer With Lawn Paint
Once your sprayer is fully assembled it is time to load it with grass paint. In order to do this you will need to dilute the grass paint concentrate with the recommend ratio of water. Follow the instructions on the back of your grass paint in order to find the optimal ratio of lawn paint to water. In most cases, 1 part paint to 6 parts water is a good ratio to use, but you can use as little as 1 part paint and 10 parts water if you want to go with a lighter shade of green. Just make sure to use a measuring cup and keep the paint to water ratio consistent across the entire lawn so that the color is uniform. Once you have decide on a ratio that you’re going to use, combine the paint and water into a 1 gallon water jug and cap the top. Then shake for at least 30 seconds in order to make sure that the paint and water are properly mixed, and put them into the sprayer or into a paint bucket depending on what type of sprayer you have. We suggest that you make a test batch at your decided paint to water ratio and spray a little bit of the mixture onto your grass just to see if the color is to your liking before you begin painting the entire lawn. If it is not, you can simply adjust the paint ratio until you achieve your desired shade of green.
Step 5: Painting
We recommend that you paint from the inside out and hold a piece of cardboard as added protection for the edges as you paint to prevent overspray. Just be carful as the cardboard can get saturated with paint at some point and that paint can spread to your hardscaping. We also recommend that you keep the sprayer on the lawn while you’re painting in order to avoid any accidental leaks on your hardscaping. You can also lay out a tarp for your sprayer if you prefer. If you accidentally get any overspray on your hardscaping, you should clean it up as soon as possible before the paint dries. The paint can be cleaned off of hardscaping even after it dries, but it be a lot easier to clean it when it is still wet. To clean it we recommend applying a mixture of dish soap and water and cleaning it with a wire brush.
Once you have gone over the lawn one time, it can be a good idea to look at it from a far to see if you missed any spots. We often find that a little bit of touch up work is needed for most lawns. That being said, be careful not to do too much extra painting as it may cause your lawn to be darker than you initially wanted. Keep in mind that lawns naturally have some lighter and darker spots, so a little bit of variation is totally fine.
Step 6: Cleanup
You should have been cleaning the overspray as you were painting, but if missed a few spots, no problem. Now is the time to clean them by with the same soap, water, and wire brush method that was discussed in the last step. Once you have gotten all of the overspray, it is time to clean your sprayer by running some water though it until all of the paint is gone. If you don’t clean your sprayer properly it can clog up and cause issues the next time you need to paint.
Conclusion
Lawn painting is an easy way to save time, money, and the environment. That being said, it is also more difficult and requires buying at least $400 worth of lawn painting equipment. For that reason, we recommend just giving us a call for a free estimate instead. We can paint most lawns for around $400-$600, so it will save you a ton of time to just hire us. Not to mention that it will give you peace of mind because the job was done by professionals. Get a free grass painting quote now!