I'm going to be putting a mini golf in my backyard. The gophers have destroyed the lawn, so I am going to cover it with astroturf and a few putting holes.
I will post pics as time progresses.
Teaser:

I'm going to be putting a mini golf in my backyard. The gophers have destroyed the lawn, so I am going to cover it with astroturf and a few putting holes.
I will post pics as time progresses.
Teaser:

nice ... my neighbours did that ... it was fun for about 5 months ...
So yesterday I had this guy come and give me a quote on putting the fake lawn in. The booth at the show said $8 to $12 per square foot. When I told him this, he immediatly frowned and said the girls had no idea how much it costs (even though at the booth there were only guys).
After talking, he gave me a quote of $13,000 for my 600sqft backyard. Um, that's about $21.60 square foot.
Checking online, you can buy the turf for about $2 to $6 per square foot. So the cost for the material is $1800, and the cost to install it is $11,200? I don't think so.
I told him I think I will keep looking around.
I think he thought I was an easy kill and could rip me off and I would have no idea.
So the excavation is almost complete. I thought it would take 1 day to remove the earth from the backyard, so far it is almost 7 days of work and it's still not done. About 90% done though.
There is way more earth than I thought. 6 inches * 860 square feet is a lot of earth.
Next comes laying forms for concrete curbs and the patio forms. I am putting a large patio where you see that lollipop tree.
For this project, I need a tamper to compact the crushed granit before I lay the fake lawn. Rather than renting a tamper for $80 a day, which would turn out to be 3 days at $240, I figured would buy one, then sell it later. I could use it when I want for how long I want.
I was looking for a used one, they go for about $600-$750 on craigslist used, as they are about $1800 new.
Then I found a going out of business sale from a construction company. They happened to have a tamper, brand new, for $550.
Here is the tamper I bought. Brand spankin' new, still in it's crate.
Yes, so far this project has been a breeze. Everything I need has fallen into my hands.
Did I mention the truck I got?
I was out looking at pickup trucks, thinking to trade in my Lincoln LS (http://www.neverbuyalincoln.com) and get a truck. I was pricing them out, and visiting dealerships all Sunday about 4 weeks ago.
THAT EVENING, only hours after looking at trucks, my friend calls and asks if I can sell her truck in San Diego, because it's not selling in FallBrook. She wants to drop her truck off at my house and have me sell it for her.
So only hours after looking at pickups, I have a free truck sitting in my driveway. All I have to do is sell it after I am finished using it.
I must have an angel. But I have no idea why. I don't deserve it.
The concrete is done. I was going to do it myself, but just for fun, I called a finisher and asked how much he would do it for.
It was soooo worth it to have someone else do it. $1100 for two guys for two days. One day to set the forms, the other to pour the concrete.
Final pour - the white stuff is salt to give it texture that I will sweep off after it is dry.
$1000 in concrete (colored, with fiber)
$1100 in labor
$250 in wood, decomposed granite and rebar
$220 for pump truck
You know what's funny? Every time I've read this thread I keep thinking to myself, I would have just shot the gophers and planted a Japanese garden.
Gopher from Caddyshack

The synthetic lawn has arrived.
This project has become way bigger than I thought, but is sooo worth it.
Almost finished the patio resurfacing
After:

And my putters have arrived.
The rope lighting has arrived:

I checkedd out online for colored golf balls. You can get them, but only in packs of 10. So to get 8 different colors, I would have to buy 80 stupid balls.
So I went down to the local mini putt and asked if I could buy 10 golf balls. I think they thought I was nuts, but here are 10 official mini-putt balls for a whopping $5
The last step: leveling and tamping the putting surface, then installing the lawn.
Tomorrow I have two guys coming to my house to install the lawn. Just like the concrete patio; I did most of the grunt work, then I hired two guys to finish the job professionally.
So sunday, it will all be done.
JM
How thick is that stuff ?
How is it held down ?
Do the holes go in before or after the turf ?
Can't wait to see the picture of the finished putting green 😁 I've being following this thread like the mini golf was being put into my backyard...
As far as obstacles, even you don't manage to stuff a real gopher, I think there should at least be plastic or concrete one around the course somewhere. That way whenever someone asks what made you do it, you can just point to the gopher.
Well, I at LEAST need to make a "No Gophers" sign!!!
Like this:

Actually I just thought of it, next week my mom arrives, and she LOVES going to garage sales. She will be a wealth of useful garage sale eyes looking for useless stuff to go in course.
The idea is that anything I put out there, I can remove later. Someday I will sell the house, and I will need it to look like a professional putting course. Until then, it's windmills and gorillas, and whatever else.
By the way, If you think I am a do it yourselfer, has everyone seen the 200 foot trainset I put in my house?
And the Tardis comuter case I made to quiet my computer?
The lawn is not complete. It will be done 100% tomorrow, then I will take more pics. Until then, here is a sample of 2 months ago, and $9000 ago:
New lights, new patio, old patio resurfacing, putting green.
WHAT WAS I THINKING??!?!? Webmasters don't need to wait until work is done to see what it will look like:

Oh now that's good, but if you were really good you would have replaced and positioned your patio furniture too *lol
Better?

OH GOD I JUST REALIZED. I could have dug a 3 foot hole, and made a replaceable golf hole shaft that replaces with a stripper pole.
Too late now. 😟
Day 1 of final install:
Any idea what type of resale value this thing adds to the house ?
It's been kinda hard to tell so far, but now I think I see some. Are there any hills in the course, or is it all flat ?
DONE!!! Holy crap it was alot of work.
Now all there is to do, is clean up the garage, and sell all the materials and tools, and PARTY!
And a quick reminder, side by side:

Nice.
So I don't have to dig through pages I've already read, about how much would you say you saved doing it the way you did instead of having the guy you mentioned do it ?
That is friggin awesome. I want a mini golf course in my back yard.
As an aside, here is another vid I shot at the 1st Annual Ozzu Webmaster Forum Meet-up at Bigwebmasters house...
Who let that guy Greg in anyways?
And now for some photos at night:


Wow I made the front page of OZZU!!!
I feel like a celebrity...only without the hot chicks, fancy cars and alcohol abuse.
Next comes a mixer party to meet girls.
See, there was a method in my madness!! 🙂
I can't sit still. Today I made all the pieces for a 12x12 pergola.
(By the way, this is a Pergola)

Camperjohn... what's next? 🤣
Did you do the whole back yard? I figured you had just a little spot in the corner where you were doing it, and if that grass is real grass then you need to start a lawn care business. 🙂
I just noticed in this photo, that if you look at the before and after photos, you can see that trees and shrubs actually grew from the time I started the project to when I finished it.
How's the course holding up after ~ a year ? 😁
How's the course holding up these days ? 😁
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Awesome! 😁 You need a Bill Murray avatar.
— joebert
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I always dreamed to put mini golf on my backyard, but I have no spot to place it.
— Samuraii
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Man, I love this thread. I can't wait to see how this turns out. 👍
— digitalMedia
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Just finished reading from beginning to end. Very nice work. It is always nice to someone's ideas become reality.
— 2Direct
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The idea is very good. One of my friends made a mini-golf course for her house and ordered her outfits with online shopping. Every day of the evening, in the summer, with their kids, they go to their backyard and enjoy the whole thing. The kids play the game and love it!
— howard_moore
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I want to have one in my backyard too!
— Roulette73
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