Maintenance · 5 min read
How to Clean Dog Pee From Artificial Turf (And Stop the Smell Before It Starts)
The GI Landscape Team · July 18, 2024
The good news: properly installed turf is easier to keep clean than real grass. The bad news: do it wrong and your yard smells like a kennel by July.
Here's the system we recommend to every dog owner we install for.
Daily: Solid waste
Pick up solids same as you would on grass. Pooper scooper, biodegradable bag, done. Turf doesn't absorb anything solids leave behind — the backing is sealed.
Weekly (summer): A 60-second rinse
Hose down the high-traffic spots once a week. Don't worry about flooding — quality turf drains 80+ inches of water per hour. You're flushing residual urine salts down through the gravel base.
Monthly: A vinegar rinse
Mix 1 part white vinegar to 3 parts water in a garden sprayer. Spray the dog's favorite spots, let it sit 5 minutes, hose off. Vinegar neutralizes ammonia from urine and breaks down uric acid crystals that build up over time. Cheap, non-toxic, and works better than most commercial turf cleaners.
Quarterly: An enzymatic treatment
For multi-dog households, hit the yard with an enzyme-based pet odor cleaner (Simple Solution, Nature's Miracle, or any commercial turf deodorizer) every 3 months. The enzymes break down protein-based residue that vinegar misses.
Annually: Zeolite top-dress
If your install includes zeolite infill (and any quality pet turf install should), top it up once a year. About 1-2 lbs per square foot will recharge the ammonia-absorbing capacity. We do this as a $200-300 service call for our annual maintenance customers, or we can show you how to DIY.
What NOT to do
- Don't use bleach. It degrades the turf backing and voids most warranties.
- Don't use power washers on the high setting. You can lift the seams.
- Don't ignore the problem until it smells. By then it's harder to fix.
The 4-week summer rule
If you're doing nothing else, hose the dog area down once a week from June through September. That single habit prevents 90% of the smell complaints we hear from people who installed turf with someone else.