Yes. Artificial turf drains.
But the honest answer is longer than that, and the longer answer is what determines whether a yard we built is still draining correctly in 2040 or whether a yard someone else built is getting repair calls by 2028.
Water does not run off a properly installed turf surface the way it runs off a patio or a sidewalk. It moves through the system, through the blades, through the infill, through small perforations in the turf backing, and into the base material below. That base material is the variable. It is what we have built an entire product system around. It is what we call True Drain.
This post explains how the drainage chain works at every layer. The science behind the perforated backing. Why crushed-washed limestone holds its drainage structure in Lubbock conditions in a way that decomposed granite does not. And why the caliche layer below the base is the piece that closes the chain, or breaks it.
Landin Terry says: The base is the part you never see. It’s also the part that separates a 5 year install from a 15 year install. We’d rather spend more time on the base and have homeowners call us back in 2040 to say it still looks great.
The Question We Hear at Every Site Visit
Before we get into the how, here is the why this question matters so much.
When artificial turf drainage fails, it does not fail dramatically. There is no single event you can point to. The yard drains a little slower after a rain. Then a little slower the following summer. Then you start noticing a soft patch in one corner. Then the corner where the dogs go every day starts holding odor in July in a way it did not use to. By the time a homeowner calls us about a drainage problem, the system has usually been degrading for two or three years.
That degradation is almost always a base problem. Not a turf problem. Not a backing problem. The base material compacted, drainage slowed, and every other issue downstream, odor, saturated backing, soft spots, followed from that.
Understanding how the drainage chain is supposed to work makes it obvious why the base matters more than anything else in a Lubbock install.
The Full Drainage Chain: Six Layers in Order
Water enters a turf system at the surface and exits at the base or through a perimeter drainage outlet. Here is what it passes through at each step, and what goes wrong when any step fails.
| Step | Layer | What Happens | What Goes Wrong Without It |
| 1 | Turf surface and blades | Rain or rinse water enters through the open blade structure blades stand upright so water passes between them rather than running off | Blades laid flat (insufficient infill or old matted turf) shed water rather than letting it through |
| 2 | Infill layer | Water passes through the infill material ZeoFill and Envirofill pass water through their porous structures; silica sand passes water through the voids between granules | Dense, compacted infill or infill saturated with fines slows the flow water backs up and pools at the surface |
| 3 | Perforated turf backing | Water passes through the perforation holes punched through the primary and secondary backing the holes are the physical drainage path from the turf product into the base below | A non-perforated or partially blocked backing traps water above the base, backing degrades and backing-to-blade adhesion fails over time |
| 4 | True Drain crushed limestone base | Water enters the limestone base and moves through the open void space between angular particles toward the yard’s drainage outlet or perimeter | DG base with compacted fines chokes drainage, water slows, pools in the base, and eventually backs up through the backing |
| 5 | Caliche treatment zone | Treated caliche fractures allow water to continue moving downward rather than hitting a hard pan and pooling: the drainage chain continues below the base | Untreated caliche stops the chain: water with nowhere to go backs up into the base, saturates it, and eventually reaches the surface |
| 6 | Native soil and perimeter outlet | Water exits the yard through the surrounding soil or a designated perimeter drain, the cycle is complete | No outlet grade means water stays in the system regardless of base quality, proper slope is required at the design stage |
The table above is the complete drainage picture. Two things are worth calling out specifically.
First: the perforated backing is a physical structure, it either has holes or it does not, and those holes are either open or they are partially blocked by infill fines that have migrated down over time. Second: the caliche layer is where the chain ends or breaks for most Lubbock yards. A properly treated caliche layer lets water continue moving downward. An untreated hard pan stops it. There is no base material in the world that fixes a blocked caliche layer, the fix is treating the caliche before the base goes in.
The Perforated Backing: What It Is and Why It Matters
Every piece of artificial turf has a backing, the structural layer that the blades are tufted into and that holds the whole product together. Most residential turf uses a two layer backing: a primary backing that the blades pass through, and a secondary backing laminated underneath it that adds stability.
The perforations are holes punched through both layers at regular intervals. Those holes are the physical drainage path from the turf surface into the base below. Without them, water would have nowhere to go except laterally across the backing surface, which would create pooling and backing degradation rather than drainage.
Hole size and spacing
Standard residential turf perforations are typically around a quarter inch in diameter, spaced at four to six inch intervals in a grid pattern across the backing. The spacing determines how many drainage pathways exist per square foot of surface area, and therefore how fast water can exit the turf system under heavy rainfall.
Lubbock gets intense summer thunderstorm events that can deliver a significant volume of rain in a short period. The perforation density in the backing needs to handle that event without pooling at the surface, which is why we verify backing specification before any product recommendation, not after.
Pet Turf and backing density
The Pet Turf product we use on all dedicated pet yard installations has a reinforced backing with higher perforation density than standard residential turf. This matters for two reasons: urine needs to exit the surface layer quickly to minimize contact time with the backing material, and the higher drainage rate reduces the ammonia concentration that reaches the backing adhesive layer. Backing degradation in pet yards almost always traces back to insufficient drainage, urine sitting in the backing layer rather than passing through it into the base below.
What blocks the perforations over time
Two things progressively reduce perforation efficiency in an installed turf yard. The first is infill fines migrating downward through the perforation holes over time, particularly in yards where haboob dust has settled into the infill layer and created a fine particle blend that moves more readily than clean infill. The second is organic material, decomposed plant matter, pet waste residue, and in shaded yards, leaf decomposition, that accumulates at the backing surface.
Both issues are manageable with correct maintenance: periodic power brushing, light rinsing to flush fine material through the drainage chain, and infill top ups that maintain the correct particle size above the backing rather than allowing fines to dominate the infill layer.
True Drain: Why We Built a Base System Specifically for Lubbock
Most companies in this market use decomposed granite as the base material. It is widely available, relatively affordable, and it drains adequately when it is first installed.
The problem is not year one. The problem is year four.
What DG does over time in Lubbock
Decomposed granite contains fines by nature, small particles that are part of the material as it comes out of the ground. In a temperate climate with limited dust and moderate rain, those fines gradually wash out of the base over years, and drainage performance stays relatively stable.
Lubbock is not that climate. Haboob dust is relentless, it blows in, settles through the infill layer, passes through the backing perforations, and works into the base. In a decomposed granite base, that incoming dust combines with the existing decomposed granite fines and compounds progressively. The base gets denser. Void space closes. Drainage slows. What was a fast-draining base in year one is a marginal base by year four and a drainage problem by year seven.
We see this pattern on repair calls. The homeowner did not notice anything wrong for the first couple of years. Then a soft patch developed. Then the pet yard started holding odor through the summer. By the time we pull the turf back to assess the base, the DG has consolidated into something close to a hard pan, with a caliche layer waiting underneath that was never treated.
What makes True Drain different
True Drain is crushed-washed limestone, LBK Turf Guys’ proprietary base material, available through our wholesale channel.
The two words that matter most in that description are crushed and washed.
Crushed limestone produces angular particles. Angular particles interlock when compacted rather than rounding against each other the way sand or rounded gravel does. That interlocking structure maintains open void space, the gaps between particles that water moves through, under load and over time. A decomposed granite base under the same load closes its void space progressively. A crushed limestone base holds its structure.
Washed means the fines were removed before the material was delivered to the installation site. This is the step that most competitors’ base materials skip. A washed limestone arrives with the fine particles already gone, the material that would progressively compact the base under haboob dust accumulation is not there to begin with. What arrives on a LBK install site is clean, angular limestone with no pre existing fines to compound the problem.
Prevents odors — the connection to drainage
The True Drain wholesale page describes the system as preventing odors and preventing compaction. Those two things are directly linked, and understanding how makes the product make sense.
Odor in a turf yard, in a pet yard especially, is produced by bacterial breakdown of urine in the infill and backing layers. That bacterial process accelerates when urine has high contact time with the organic material in those layers. High contact time is a drainage problem: urine that drains quickly through a fast-draining backing and fast draining base does not stay in the system long enough to produce the same odor load that slow drainage creates.
True Drain drains fast. Fast drainage means shorter contact time. Shorter contact time means less odor production at the source, before any infill chemistry like ZeoFill does its part. The drainage system and the odor control system work together. True Drain is the foundation of both.
Base Material Comparison: What the Options Actually Do
| Factor | True Drain Limestone (LBK) | Decomposed Granite | Washed Sand | Concrete Base |
| Fines before install | Removed by washing, arrives clean | Present, fines are built into the material | Minimal fines | N/A — impervious surface |
| Particle shape | Angular — holds open void space | Angular but fine — voids close under load | Round — low void space | N/A |
| Haboob dust response | Angular structure resists compaction from dust infiltration | Fines from dust bond with existing DG fines — compound compaction | Dust settles into sand — progressive densification | Surface, not base — moot point |
| Drainage year 1 | High | High | Moderate | Via surface slope only |
| Drainage year 5 to 7 | Still high — structure holds | Reduced — fines compacted | Further reduced | N/A |
| Odor contribution | None — inorganic limestone | Minimal — inorganic | Minimal — inorganic | N/A |
| LBK use | Every install | Not used by LBK | Not used by LBK | Rooftop/specialty only |
The decomposed granite drainage performance numbers in that table reflect real Lubbock conditions, not manufacturer specs measured in a controlled lab environment with clean sand. By year five to seven, a decomposed granite base in a Lubbock yard that has been through multiple haboob seasons is a materially different drainage structure than the same decomposed granite base was at install. True Drain does not follow that trajectory because the washing step removed the fines that would have compacted under dust accumulation pressure.
The Caliche Connection: Closing the Drainage Chain
True Drain handles everything from the backing perforation down to the native soil interface. But there is one more layer that the drainage chain has to clear, the caliche.
We have covered caliche in detail elsewhere. For the drainage discussion, the relevant point is this: a fast draining base on top of an untreated caliche hard pan is a collection system, not a drainage system. Water moves quickly through the True Drain base and then hits a wall. It pools at the caliche surface. The base saturates. The backing sits in a wet environment it was not designed for.
Every LBK install begins with a caliche depth assessment. We probe the yard at multiple points before we spec the base depth or order materials. Where caliche sits close to the surface, we treat it, mechanically fracturing the layer to create pathways for water to continue moving downward, before any base material goes in. The drainage chain is only as strong as its least permeable link. In Lubbock, that link is almost always the caliche.
The Lubbock-Specific Drainage Challenges True Drain Was Designed For
Intense summer thunderstorms
Lubbock gets 16 inches of annual rainfall, much of it arriving in intense convective thunderstorm events during summer, short, heavy bursts that deliver significant volume quickly. A base system that drains adequately under a gentle half-inch rain may not drain fast enough to prevent surface pooling during a two-inch storm that arrives in 30 minutes. True Drain’s open void structure is sized for that volume, the same base that handles a light spring rain handles the intense summer event without backing up.
Haboob dust accumulation
We come back to haboob dust because it is the variable that separates Lubbock from nearly every other artificial turf market in the country. No national turf company’s base material spec accounts for it. True Drain does, the angular limestone structure resists the progressive compaction that haboob fines create in decomposed granite, and the washed material started without fines to compound the problem from day one.
UV and heat at Lubbock elevation
Lubbock sits at approximately 3,200 feet above sea level, enough elevation that UV intensity is meaningfully higher than at sea level. That UV exposure affects the backing material over a turf’s lifetime. A backing that sits in a properly drained, well aerated base ages more slowly than one that periodically sits in a saturated environment. True Drain keeps the backing dryer more consistently, which is a direct contribution to the 15 to 20-year lifespan we build toward on every install.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does artificial turf pool water or drain through?
It drains through by design. Water moves through the blade structure, through the infill, through the perforations in the backing, and into the base below. How fast it drains and whether the system holds that performance over years depends almost entirely on the base material and whether the caliche layer below was treated before installation. A properly installed LBK yard with a True Drain base clears a normal Lubbock rain event at the surface within minutes.
What is the True Drain base system?
True Drain is LBK Turf Guys’ proprietary crushed-washed limestone base material. It is crushed, producing angular particles that maintain open void space under load and washed, meaning fines were removed before the material was installed. That combination is what makes True Drain drain consistently in year ten the way it drains in year one, specifically in Lubbock’s haboob dust environment where decomposed granite bases progressively compact under fine particle accumulation. True Drain is available through our wholesale channel for homeowners and contractors doing their own installs.
Why does decomposed granite drainage fail in Lubbock over time?
Decomposed granite contains fines by nature. In Lubbock, haboob dust adds more fine particulate throughout the year, infiltrating the base through the turf and infill layers. Over four to seven years, those fines compound with existing decomposed granite fines and progressively close the void space in the base. What drained well in year one is a noticeably slower drainer by year five. True Drain starts without fines and its angular structure resists the compaction that decomposed granite develops. We have never put decomposed granite under an LBK install.
What does ‘perforated backing’ mean on an artificial turf product?
The backing is the structural layer the turf blades are tufted into typically two bonded layers (primary and secondary). Perforations are holes punched through both layers at regular intervals, typically around a quarter inch in diameter spaced four to six inches apart. Those holes are the drainage pathway from the turf surface into the base below. Higher perforation density means faster drainage, which is why our Pet Turf product uses a higher-density perforated backing than standard residential turf, because urine drainage speed directly affects odor management.
Does True Drain work for pet yards specifically?
Yes, and for pet yards specifically, the drainage performance of True Drain has a direct effect on odor control beyond what any infill product alone can achieve. Urine that drains through the backing quickly and into the base below has less contact time with the organic material in the infill and backing layers. Less contact time means less bacterial breakdown activity. Less bacterial breakdown means less ammonia production. True Drain works with the ZeoFill or Envirofill odor control infill rather than making those products work against a slow drainage system.
Can I buy True Drain base material from LBK for my own installation?
Yes. True Drain is available through our wholesale channel alongside our turf products, seaming tape, seam glue, PFS Board, and infill options. If you are buying True Drain for a DIY install, call us before you order, we will ask a few questions about your site, confirm whether caliche assessment is needed first, and give you the correct tonnage calculation for your yard dimensions. The base is where DIY installs in Lubbock most often go wrong, and getting the material right is only part of the solution.
Want to See How the Drainage System Gets Built?
The base assessment and caliche probe are the first things we do on every site visit, before we talk turf products or square footage. Come out and see what is underneath your yard before you make any decisions about what goes on top of it.
Reach out at lbkturfguys.com or call us at 806-999-4990.