The yard before

Small backyard. Original Tudor off Camp Bowie. Rock beds that had been there long enough to collect years of debris and weeds growing up through every gap. A paver patio that had stopped functioning as a patio and started functioning as a weed platform. Barely any green, no usable lawn space, nothing that said “backyard you want to be in.”

The homeowner’s ask was simple and direct: get the rocks out, kill the weed problem, bring some color back, and reclaim the patio footprint so the yard actually has room to move.

What we pulled out

The before photos tell the story. Rock beds where the original intention was probably “low maintenance” but the reality was anything but. Rock beds in Fort Worth’s climate become weed nurseries over time: the gaps fill with caliche dust, organic matter washes in from the trees, and whatever weed seeds land in the debris have everything they need to establish. Pulling the rocks and the weed layer underneath them is the only real fix.

The paver patio was another conversation. The pavers themselves had settled and shifted, and the reclaimed footprint made more sense as continuous lawn than as a surface that wasn’t being used as a patio anymore. Removing it gave us a clean, contiguous backyard footprint to work with.

Why Malibu 80

Malibu 80 is a Superior Turf Supply product, and the color is the reason it got specified here. On a small backyard on a Tudor with brick and wood detailing, the visual play between the architecture and the lawn surface matters. You want rich, full green, not the olive-tone or yellow-green that some entry-level turf reads under Texas sun.

Malibu 80’s pile height and color hold their saturation in full Fort Worth summer light. On a yard this size, that color pop is the whole point. The “glow up” was always about what the eye lands on when you step out the back door.

The pile weight also handles the weed suppression goal on its own: the backing system, combined with the base prep we do on every install, stops weed germination without any ongoing chemical treatment. The weeds that were coming through the rock beds don’t come through a correctly-built turf base.

The install

With the rock removal and paver demo done, the yard had a clean slate. Base prep, drainage, and a compacted crushed-stone sub-base before any turf goes down. The Malibu 80 went in across the full backyard footprint, with clean edges at the fence lines and transitions at the house.

The result is a small yard that now reads as finished. Not a project still in progress, not “we added turf and called it good.” A backyard that matches the quality of the house it belongs to.

What a backyard like this costs

A Fort Worth backyard conversion at this scope in 2026 Bearcat pricing:

Turf install (base, drainage, premium product): roughly $8–$14 per square foot all-in, depending on site complexity and final square footage
Rock removal and disposal: $500–$2,000 depending on volume and access
Paver demo and disposal: $500–$1,500 for a standard residential patio footprint

Get a free quote for your backyard — we’ll walk the site, measure, and put together a real number the same week.

About Bearcat Turf & Outdoors

Bearcat Turf & Outdoors is a family-owned, Aledo-based outdoor contractor serving the full DFW metroplex. We install artificial turf, hardscape, and outdoor living improvements on residential and commercial properties across Tarrant, Parker, Denton, Dallas, and Collin counties. HUB Certified by the State of Texas, BBB Accredited, fully insured.

See all projects · Fort Worth service area · Free quote

Before

What we started with.

Decades of neglected grass and bare zones. Good bones — pool, sports court, kitchen all in place — but the surface tying it together had been losing the fight for years.