We replaced all of our grass in our backyard with about 600 square feet of artificial turf last fall. We used Tiger Turf Marquee Pro Natural and we love it. My wife and girls now spend 2-3x more outside because it is hardly ever wet, never muddy, no bugs, etc. (I have a very picky five year old).
We had our landscape contractor perform the work and he did fine. However, he had not installed turf in a backyard where he had to worry about Low-E reflective windows. The day after install I had four or five melted streaks across the yard as the sun reflection from my windows was coming back in a laser beam and melting the turf. The turf itself can withstand 240 degrees!
After a long four month battle, my window manufacturer replaced half of my windows in my house for free (no more laser beams), the turf store provided new turf for free, and my contractor re-installed for free.
Initially I thought I was paying a little more than I wanted to spend, but after all that I went through with the melted turf which ended up not costing me an additional dime, I am fine with the original amount!
At the time, we qualified for the SoCal water rebate. As another posted stated, take the relevant pictures and get approved prior to starting the program. We ended up with a $2300 check where we replaced turf with artificial turf and other plants/shrubs.
We now save $80/month on a gardner and probabaly $40/month on water, so it will breakeven in ~4 years with a +/-20% IRR after 10 years. No brainer for us.
[img_assist|nid=20814|title=Artificial Turf|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=75]
