RetireJapan

Our house has a nice little balcony area, about 4m x 2m, and I'm thinking to put down some of that roll-out artificial grass stuff.

Does anyone here have any experience with that? Or any other surface (tiles, outdoor carpet, etc) that you've been happy with?
I thought I'd ask, as I've seen mixed results just walking around my neighborhood -- some of it seems to wear away quite easily.

The owner of this Twitter account is the ultimate balcony decorator I know of. They put a hot tub on their previous balcony, and make amazing outdoor spaces for themselves in Tokyo: https://twitter.com/powderbum75/status/ ... 3285083137

Our balcony tiles are now 20 years old. A few have cracks, but no pieces breaking off despite daily laundry and frequent BBQ usage.

Not really relevant to your case, but my neighbor put down a lot of loose white and black stones in front of their house a few years ago. Looks pretty clean, simple and low maintenance, like a "Japanese Garden." However, my wife told me they have to periodically hand clean the stones in their front yard as they get covered with dirt and weeds grow in between.

TJKansai wrote: ↑Sun May 22, 2022 3:07 am Our balcony tiles are now 20 years old. A few have cracks, but no pieces breaking off

That sounds great, and maybe a decent option. I've never put down outdoor tile, but it doesn't look too hard.

TJKansai wrote: my neighbor put down a lot of loose white and black stones in front of their house a few years ago.

I have those in front of my house; just a small area that runs along the front of the window. They look great. I might consider them for the irregular, non-walking areas on my patio (it's sort of a weird irregular shape). I hadn't thought of that, so thanks for mentioning!

I'm thinking to put down some of that roll-out artificial grass stuff. Does anyone here have any experience with that?

When I pulled my deck down 3-4 years ago I decided to lay artificial grass in my garden as half of it doesn't get the greatest amount of direct sunlight - Tokyo houses are so close together! It was easy to lay and I've had no problems at all yet.

I got it off Rakuten https://item.rakuten.co.jp/dondon/wt004 ... 2af3535118