Full-lawn turf conversions for Reunion homes

A full-yard grass swap in Reunion runs $8–$18 per square foot installed, typically $10–$16, as of September 2026, the same Central Florida range as anywhere else we work. What changes here is the ground: fairway-adjacent pads built up well beyond the county's native sandy soil, an association review step before the sod comes out, and, on the oldest interior streets, live oaks old enough to carry a protected root zone.

Reviewed by Luis Austin, owner · Last reviewed September 21, 2026

What's actually under a Reunion lawn

Osceola County's soil survey marks the flat land around Kissimmee and Four Corners as poorly drained sand series such as Immokalee and Basinger, with a seasonally high water table USDA's soil survey. Few Reunion lots show that profile untouched, since the resort's own golf courses carry engineered elevation changes of up to 50 feet, and the building pads under nearby homes were cut, filled and compacted during construction rather than left in a natural state. We treat the county soil map as a starting assumption, not a substitute for checking the grade at the actual address, before laying two to four inches of washed, open-graded crushed rock or crushed concrete and compacting it firm.

Why the subgrade slopes away from the house

Grade comes before rock on a Reunion lawn: the bare soil gets shaped to fall one to two percent moving away from the foundation, following the direction water was already heading before construction started, whether that's toward a rear fence line, a side yard low point, or a street-facing curb. That fall gets rechecked with a level once the first lift of rock is compacted, since two to four inches of stone can flatten a subtle slope if nobody's watching for it. A lawn shaped this way sends a downpour toward the yard's natural low spot instead of pooling against the house, which is the entire point of doing this step in Reunion before turf ever gets involved.

Getting a full lawn past architectural review

A resort property owners association reviews landscaping changes on Reunion lots, a step that sits apart from anything Osceola County's Building Department handles reunionwestpoa.com. Bringing a simple site sketch, a product sheet and a photo of the current yard to that submittal, the same package the HOA and ARC packet checklist walks through, tends to move faster than a bare description of the work. The community development districts that maintain Reunion's roads and gatehouses don't review individual yards at all, so a homeowner only deals with the association on this front, plus the county if the scope touches drainage or an irrigation permit.

What infill goes into a plain lawn

A residential lawn takes silica sand as infill in most cases, brushed in at roughly one to two pounds per square foot to weigh the backing down and keep the blades standing upright instead of matting flat. Coated silica sand and zeolite are also allowed under the state's natural-material rule, and either one can go into a plain lawn if a Reunion homeowner wants the odor control those products were built for, even without a pet in the yard. What never goes on a residential lawn is rubber or another synthetic infill, since the rule reserves that material for the ground directly under playground equipment, not for grass a family walks across barefoot.

Say you have a full backyard

Say you have a 1,600 sq ft backyard on one of Reunion's older interior streets, away from any golf frontage, with a mature live oak holding down one corner near the fence line. At $8–$18 a foot, that yard prices between roughly $12,800 and $28,800 depending on grade, tree work and edge detail, with most Central Florida jobs this size landing closer to $10–$16 a foot, or about $19,200 to $25,600. The oak's drip line takes a bite out of the buildable area, so the actual turf footprint often runs 150 to 250 sq ft smaller than the fenced yard once that setback is drawn on the plan. Add the association's review window before demo can start, and a project like this typically runs four to six weeks from measure to finished lawn once the paperwork clears, longer if the arborist letter for the oak takes time to schedule. None of that changes the per-foot price; it changes how the schedule and the layout come together before the crew shows up.

Capping the sprinklers before turf goes down

Any spray head that used to water a section of Reunion yard gets capped at the valve box before turf goes anywhere near that spot, since the state's rule bars using an in-ground irrigation system to water synthetic turf once it's installed. That step happens early in the process, usually right after strip-out and before the base goes in, so a crew isn't cutting into finished rock work later to reach a buried line. From that point on, a hose bib does the rinsing a lawn needs, and the old zone valve for that section typically just gets left capped and unused rather than removed.

The window that can melt a lawn from across the yard

Low-emissivity glass, common on newer replacement windows, reflects enough concentrated sunlight to soften a synthetic lawn from several feet away, since polyethylene blades start to give around 175 to 200°F under that kind of focused heat. The damage shows up as a scorched or melted patch in an odd shape that doesn't match any known cause until someone traces the sun's path back to a south- or west-facing window. It's worth checking any low-E glass near a Reunion lawn before or after installation, since the fix, usually a window film or a repositioned pane of turf, is far cheaper than replacing a burned section later.

Live oaks on the older interior streets

Reunion Resort & Club of Orlando was first approved as a Development of Regional Impact in 1992, so some interior sections have had thirty-plus years for planted oaks to grow a real canopy, while streets that filled in more recently carry younger trees with a smaller footprint. Florida's turf standard keeps synthetic grass outside any tree's drip line, on the property or the neighbor's, unless a certified arborist signs off that the work won't cause harm, and that rule applies the same way whether the oak is a decade old or three.

Brushing against the grain to stop matting

Blades on a Reunion lawn lie down naturally in high-traffic paths, a straight line to a trampoline, a gate, or a mailbox, and brushing against the grain a few times a year is what stands them back up before matting sets in permanently. A stiff push broom or a rented power brush both work, and the goal is lifting the fiber and redistributing infill evenly, not scrubbing hard enough to pull blades loose from the backing. Skipping this for several years in a row is usually what turns a worn path into a permanently flattened one that brushing alone can no longer fix.

Questions people ask

Does a Reunion lot need a survey before a full lawn conversion?

Not for the turf itself in most cases, but the association's review often wants a site sketch showing the yard against the property line, and a drainage change or grading question from the county can call for more. Ask early rather than after ordering material.

Can I convert the front yard, not just the back, in Reunion?

Florida's HOA statute only protects turf that isn't visible from the street or an adjoining lot, so a front-yard swap in Reunion goes through the same association review as any other exterior change, with less legal cover if it's turned down. The residential installation guide covers the base build the same way for either yard.

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Send the basics and we call back to set a time to measure. Prefer to talk? Call or text (689) 202-3710.

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