I strongly urge you to reconsider this project - there is no payoff. It's extremely high maintenance, labor intensive & expensive to upkeep. How will you keep it clean? Weeds will sprout right on the surface as it accumulates dirt & sand which is quite a chore to clean up. Animal poop? mud? pooling rain water? flooding? My next door neighbor has artificial turf & the corners are always flapping in the wind and pose a tripping hazard (and it looks awful). Save the artificial turf for football field.

As an alternative, I would suggest paveres or step stones- set it and forget it. You can create an outdoor living room. Here is a website with some beautiful examples of what you can do.

http://www.belgard.com/products/pavers/

Hi & welcome to GOY.

Alternatively, I also know of people that are delighted with their artificial lawns that tell me that all they do is sweep it / hose it down.
I think it will all depend on how well it is laid. It's not as easy as you might think, you will need to prepare the site pretty much the same as if you were going to pave it. You'll need an edging strip & 6 - 10 mm layer of stone chippings for drainage, then sand, use compressor, then membrame. Here's a link explaining the process: http://www.lazylawn.co.uk/fitting.html

Yea, artificial lawn is great if its laid properly; you need to keep it clean if you have animals, but there are products available for that. But it is all in the laying, and what goes underneath - technically, it should be compressed granite dust rather than sand, which is less likely to move compared with sand, but you will definitely need to excavate more soil to take the different layers of aggregate and sand/granite dust.

Thanks for the unhelpful replies..

Unhelpful? One might be, but the other two simply give the facts about how it should be done. I realise that does not agree with what you perhaps wanted to hear, but had you been told whatever it was you wanted to hear, it would have involved bad advice. The link provided above gives the low down on how to carry out laying artificial turf and the information is quite clear, and it's clear from Green Finger's answer that the membrane goes on top... Also clear is that you have not yet done enough excavation...

Ultimately, its your artificial turf, and your choice to follow the advice you've been given, or not.

That's not nice Jessmads. Its an honest answer in your best interests. Its always a good idea to take seriously advice from people who really know what they are talking about. Bamboo has been a professional gardener all her life and you can trust her advice absolutely.

You were given a link that explains exactly what you need to do. If you decide to go ahead as you were planning you may find that you have wasted all your money in the long run. The most important part of most projects is the preparation, which nobody enjoys but skimping it is always regretted.

I just think it's more work & expense than Jessmads was prepared for or willing to invest. I wouldn't either to be honest. Pavers!

It is expensive too. I had pavers laid & it cost a fortune but I live on a hill & to get the area level over 20 ton of concrete & clay had to go, then retaining walls built to hold the hill back before any of the prep I outlined above could start.
I also looked into having artificial grass on an awkward area (I thought it would be an easy option - probably so did Jessmads) but after looking into it decided it would have to wait.