Children’s Areas and Kindergartens: 20–30 mm

For children’s areas, pile height should not be treated as a direct indicator of safety.

The critical question is whether the complete surface system achieves the required impact attenuation, vertical deformation, drainage and other safety requirements.

Depending on the jurisdiction and project type, standards such as EN 1177 and applicable national playground or sports-surface requirements may be relevant. For Chinese school sports facilities, the applicable Chinese mandatory standards should be checked against the latest edition and the specific project.

In other words:

A thicker or taller artificial turf product is not automatically a safer children’s surface.

The turf, shock pad and base need to be evaluated as one system.

Pet Areas: 25–30 mm

For dogs and other pets, a 25–30 mm pile can provide a reasonable balance between appearance, comfort and maintenance.

Shorter turf can make it easier to:

• remove pet hair,
• rinse the surface,
• remove organic debris,
• inspect the surface.

For pet applications, drainage and cleaning design can be more important than adding several millimeters of pile height.