How do I compare two turf quotes spec-for-spec?

The short version — the comparison worksheet

Fill one row per quote. Any cell a quote leaves blank is a finding, not a footnote.

Line	What to write down	Why it decides the comparison
Exact product	The specific product, with a sample you've held	A nickname and a price is an advertisement, not a quote
Face weight	Oz of yarn per sq yd (ASTM D5848)	The honest density comparator — the grass you walk on
Total weight	Face + backing + coatings	Published alongside face weight, always; alone, it's the bait
Backing type	Construction named plainly, and how it drains	Drainage and tuft lock live here; pet yards need permeable, high-flow backing
Drainage rate	The rate for the product as quoted, with its test condition	Backing drainage decides whether rain and urine rinse through or pool
Base	What material, what excavation depth, what compaction	The base is the drainage system — and a warranty issue, not just a quality one
Edges	Glued border, or spikes through the turf?	The perimeter is the first thing to fail on a cheap install
Infill	Product by name, layer by layer, with rates in lb/sq ft	One unnamed "sand" line hides the whole pet/cooling story
Warranty	Manufacturer tier + what it covers; labor warranty length, in writing	"Warrantied" without terms is a word, not a warranty
Price basis	Measured in person, or estimated from a satellite photo / your dimensions?	Price creep between quote and invoice starts here
Payment staging	The percentages, in writing	How much is gone before work starts is a risk line

Start with the three questions

When a homeowner waves a competitor quote, the comparison that cuts through it is three questions: face weight, backing type, drainage rate. Cheap quotes almost always lose on at least two of the three — because those are precisely the lines where money can be removed without changing how the quote looks on install day.

Face weight first. Every product has a face weight (the yarn) and a total weight (yarn + backing + coatings). The industry bait is quoting only total, because a heavy backing lets a sparse turf weigh like a dense one. AJ Turf's rule: both numbers, always, with face weight as the comparator. Mainstream landscape turf clusters around 47–72 oz face weight; entry products sit near 25 oz. Full lesson on our face-weight page, linked below.

Backing type second. Ask what the backing is and how water moves through it — punched holes in a coated backing, or a permeable construction that drains across the whole surface. In a dog yard this is half the odor battle: urine that can't drain pools in the base, and no infill fixes architecture.

Drainage rate third. Get the product's drainage rate as quoted, with the condition it was measured under. Then remember the installer's half of drainage: the backing drains vertically, but the base moves water away. A fast backing over a flat, fine-clogged base still puddles — which is why the base row of the worksheet exists.

Then compare the build, not the brochure

Base. The AJ Method benchmark, so you have one concrete build to compare against: dig about 2–3 inches below the sod line, never build on topsoil; a screening-sand base at about 1 ton per 100 sq ft finished, a minimum 2-inch compacted layer, compacted to 95% Standard Proctor (ASTM D698) per Synthetic Turf Council guidance; crushed gravel only where feet of fill depth are needed, always capped with screening sand. Against that, a quote that says "base included" with no material, depth, or compaction has told you nothing — and a sand-only base with no compaction spec is the shortcut behind a season-two lumpy yard. Ask.

Edges. Two builds exist: spikes driven through the turf (point loads that work loose under thermal cycling until edges lift and panels creep), or a continuous perimeter — in the AJ Method, a 3×3×3-inch poured concrete border with the turf glued to it, using turf glue with a 15-year warranty, and nails or spikes only underneath, securing the weed barrier and seam tape, never through the turf. Put the edge method in the worksheet in the installer's own words.

Seams. Joined on seam tape with a full spread of glue, weighted for the cure — or strip-glued and hand-pressed. Seam failure is the most common first-year complaint in this business, and its causes (glue on wet backing, no cure pressure, starved adhesive) are all quote-invisible unless you ask how seams are built.

Infill. Named products, named rates. The baseline is 1.5–2 lb/sq ft. A pet quote should show its odor layer by name and rate — for example, ZeoFill, a zeolite mineral (97% pure clinoptilolite), at 1.5 lb/sq ft for a dog up to 45 lb, 2 lb at 50–65 lb, 3–4 lb for multiple or large dogs — or an antimicrobial coated sand such as Envirofill by Motz at 1.5–2 lb/sq ft. A cooling layer, if quoted, is its own line: TCool at ½–1 lb/sq ft, never mixed with zeolite. One blended line called "infill" is where pet systems quietly become plain sand.

Barrier and the small lines. A woven weed barrier on top of the compacted base, under the turf — woven, not pressed nonwoven. Sprinklers capped and left in place, never ripped out. Pile direction planned: backyard installs lean toward the house, front yards toward the street. Each is a small line; together they're the difference between a method and a crew improvising.

Then compare the paper behind the price

Warranty, exactly. Turf carries the manufacturer's warranty for the product you choose (8, 16, or 25 years depending on the product), covering UV stability and strength only, prorated, non-transferable — plus the installer's own labor warranty, which at AJ Turf is 1 year. Any quote implying the manufacturer covers labor is inventing a term: there is no manufacturer labor coverage in the AJ Turf story, ever. And one warranty fact reframes the whole worksheet: faulty installation and an inadequate sub-base are manufacturer warranty exclusions — so the cheap base doesn't just risk the yard, it risks the claim.

Price basis and staging. An exact price comes from an in-person measurement — one exact written price. Most installs run $9 to $15 a square foot depending on the turf and the site; a quote far below that band, written without seeing the yard, is telling you which worksheet rows it emptied. Staging at AJ Turf is 30% to schedule / 35% the first day on site / 35% on completion, deposits always non-refundable — compare that shape against any quote asking for most of the money up front.

Scope lines. Minimums and timing belong on the worksheet too: AJ Turf installs start at 1,000 sq ft, repairs are assessed free onsite with no minimum, and installs are typically scheduled within two weeks. And if an HOA is involved, one line decides weeks of your life: AJ Turf prepares and submits the HOA application on the homeowner's behalf — ask whether the other quote does, or hands you a packet.

Florida note

In Southwest Florida, weight the drainage and base rows heaviest. Summer storms test the system weekly, canal and flat lots give water nowhere obvious to go, and a base that puddles 30 minutes after rain is feeding the bacteria behind pet odor no surface treatment can out-clean. Florida's Rule 62-308.100 also makes two worksheet rows legal questions now — infill material (clean silica sand, rock, shell, or other natural material) and a washed, pervious subgrade — so a Florida quote that can't speak to the rule is behind the law as well as the craft.

The honest downside A spec-for-spec comparison takes real time, and it has a limit: it compares what's written, and a dishonest installer can write a premium spec and install a lighter product — the density bait-and-switch is invisible to your eyes on install day. That's why the worksheet ends at the truck, not the signature: verify the product that arrives against the product on the quote, both weight numbers. Specs also aren't the whole job — communication, follow-through, and whether the company answers in year two don't fit in a table, and post-install follow-through is repeatedly what separates four stars from five in this market.

The gotcha The cheapest quote is rarely cheaper — it's shorter. It wins by emptying the rows you can't see from the street: face weight swapped for a total-weight headline, an unnamed base, spikes instead of a border, plain sand wearing a "pet turf" label, a warranty with no terms. The worksheet's power is that it makes the cuts visible before they're buried under your lawn. If an installer resists filling it in, the resistance is the answer.

How AJ Turf handles this

Our quotes are built to be worksheeted: exact product named with both face and total weight, the AJ Method written out (screening-sand base at 95% Standard Proctor, woven barrier, glued concrete border, no spikes through the turf), infill named by product and rate, the exact manufacturer warranty for your product shown before you sign alongside our 1-year labor warranty, one exact price from a free onsite measurement, and 30/35/35 staging. Bring a competitor's quote to the estimate — we'll line the two up row by row, including the rows where theirs wins.