Turf beside the pool inside a Hunters Creek screen cage

Turf around a pool or inside a screen enclosure in Hunters Creek prices in the same $8–$18 per square foot range as a lawn, as of September 2026, since it's the same washed-rock base and backing doing the work. Almost every home from the community's original build-out carries a screened pool cage under the HCCA's five-foot side and rear setback, which usually leaves only a narrow strip of ground for grass or turf between the shell and the enclosure wall.

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

Why the guideline bans turf on the pool deck itself

The HCCA's Artificial Turf clause is specific on one point that matters most for a pool project: turf or turf-like carpet isn't permitted on a patio or an entry, and a pool deck counts as exactly that kind of hard surface. What a pool-area turf job actually covers is the narrow planted strip between the deck's edge and the screen enclosure's aluminum frame, or a side yard visible through the cage's mesh panels, not the concrete or pavers underfoot. Getting that distinction right on the ARC application, turf on the ground strip rather than the deck, is usually the difference between a quick approval and a request for revisions.

A five-foot setback squeezes the layout before turf even starts

The association's guideline holds a pool, spa or screen enclosure to a five-foot side and rear yard setback and 15 feet on a side-street yard, and rules out an above-ground pool outright, standards that shaped almost every back yard built here from the late 1980s on. That geometry usually leaves a planting strip only a few feet wide running around two or three sides of the cage, a different design problem than a wide-open lawn: narrow curves and corners mean more cuts and seams per square foot than a rectangle of the same size, one reason pool-area turf often prices toward the upper half of the range.

Why a lanai floor skips the rock base entirely

A screen enclosure or lanai floor around a Hunters Creek pool is almost always bare concrete, so there is no soil underneath to build a normal base from. Instead of two to four inches of washed, open-graded crushed rock, the crew glues a thin drainage underlay straight to the slab, and that underlay carries splash and rinse water sideways toward whatever drain the deck already uses. An open border between the same cage and a side fence still gets the standard rock base, graded one to two percent, because that strip sits on native sand able to take water straight down. Two areas on one Hunters Creek property, built on completely different foundations underneath the same green surface.

Capping the sprinkler zone that used to reach the deck border

Any irrigation head that used to water the strip along a Hunters Creek pool cage gets capped at the valve during base work, the same step any residential turf conversion goes through, since the state's rule against watering synthetic turf with an in-ground system applies right up to the cage wall. From that point on, the hose bib already mounted near most pool equipment pads becomes the rinse source for that section, which is convenient since it is usually closer to the border than the nearest hose bib elsewhere on the property. Nobody has to run a hose across the whole yard just to reach it.

Say you have a 280 sq ft strip inside a screen cage

Say you have a 1990s pool home in Eagles Landing with a screen cage roughly 30 feet by 20 feet, and once the concrete deck and a small paver landing are subtracted, about 280 sq ft of ground remains along two sides for turf. At the published $8–$18 per sq ft range, that strip prices between $2,240 and $5,040 installed, typically $10–$16: about $2,800 to $4,480 for the full 280 sq ft, with the narrow curves around the cage's support posts pushing toward the higher end.

What does a small deck border cost, worked out?

Installed turf runs eight to eighteen dollars a square foot, typically ten to sixteen, and price does not change by Hunters Creek ZIP code, only by access, base condition, and drainage. Say a homeowner wants a 250 sq ft strip between the pool cage and a side fence turfed rather than reseeded: at the typical range, that job runs somewhere between roughly twenty-five hundred and four thousand dollars, before accounting for anything unusual about the site. A quote well outside that range for a plain open border, high or low, is worth asking about specifically, since the underlying material and labor do not vary by neighborhood.

Drainage under an old slab, not just around it

Many pool cages here sit on a concrete deck poured in the 1990s or early 2000s, and turf going in beside that slab, rather than the strip of dirt a plain lawn conversion works with, needs a drainage underlay and glue-down edges where it meets the concrete so water doesn't collect at the seam. The same slow-draining flatwoods sand common elsewhere in the community makes that detail matter even more right against a slab, since water that can't move sideways through the base has nowhere to go but up against the concrete edge. Installing turf over concrete or pavers covers that underlay in more detail.

What happens when a septic lid gets buried during a pool project

If a Hunters Creek pool-area turf project doesn't keep a septic lid's location protected through a multi-day build, staged material or compacted base can end up covering it, and the state's rule requiring that access stay reachable doesn't help much once turf and infill are already finished on top of it. A pump-out crew arriving later without a clear record of the lid's exact spot sometimes has to probe through finished turf to find it, which damages a section that was otherwise built correctly. A marked stake through construction, not just a note on the layout plan, is what actually prevents this.

Watching infill near the splash zone specifically

Coated sand or zeolite infill along the section of a Hunters Creek border closest to the water depletes faster than infill further back, since regular hose rinsing and pool splash both wash a small amount out with every use, on top of whatever a summer storm contributes. Checking depth in that specific stretch every few months, rather than assuming the whole yard wears evenly, catches a thinning spot before it shows as a bare-looking patch in the exact area guests and family see most often. Topping off just that section is a smaller job than waiting for the whole border to look thin.

Questions people ask

Can turf go directly on my Hunters Creek pool deck?

No, the association's guideline specifically bars turf or turf-like carpet on a patio or entry, and a pool deck falls into that category; turf goes on the ground strip around the deck instead.

Does an above-ground pool change the turf plan?

The HCCA's guideline doesn't permit an above-ground pool at all, so every project here works around an in-ground pool with a screen enclosure, and the turf plan follows that enclosure's footprint accordingly.

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