How to Lay Artificial Grass Around a Hills Hoist Clothesline

Why the clothesline needs its own plan

Most backyard turf jobs are a rectangle with a few edges. A Hills Hoist breaks that neat picture. A steel pole sits in a concrete footing in the middle of the lawn, and the circle of ground around it cops more foot traffic than anywhere else in the yard. Wet washing drips onto the same patch every few days. None of that stops you laying turf, but the hoist deserves a few minutes of planning. Our step-by-step installation guide covers the base build and the rest of a standard lay, so here we stick to what the clothesline changes.

What is under the hoist

On a modern Hills rotary hoist the pole (Hills calls it the main standard) drops into a galvanised steel ground socket, and the socket is what sits in the concrete. Hills' own installation instructions call for a hole roughly 250mm across and around 600 to 650mm deep, with coarse gravel in the bottom so water draining down the socket has somewhere to go. You pour wet concrete around the socket, finish it below the locking collar, then leave it about 24 hours to cure. Tapering the concrete away from the socket so rain runs off rather than pooling at the pole is sensible standard practice, though not something Hills specifies.

Two details matter for turf. First, the top of the socket sits a little proud of the surrounding ground, in the order of 6 to 12mm, which is what keeps surface water out. Second, the hoist is removable: lift it out and a cover cap fits over the socket so it stays free of water and sand. The current Hills socket has a 59mm internal diameter to suit the 57mm main standard, and comes with two spacers that raise the hoist if it ends up too low.

Getting the level right

If you are putting in a new hoist, install the socket first, let the concrete cure, then build the turf base around it. That lets you set the socket height against the finished turf level, and it beats digging a 600mm hole through freshly compacted road base. More often the hoist is already there, and the socket height then decides how the job finishes.

A standard turf job strips the old lawn to 70 to 100mm below the finished level and builds back up with compacted base, as our measuring guide explains. The socket stays where it is, at a height set against the old lawn surface. If your finished turf ends up higher than that, the collar disappears under the turf and you have built a dish that collects water and sand at the pole; finish much lower and you get a lump of exposed concrete in the middle of the lawn.

The target is simple: the turf backing should finish at or just below the top of the collar, with the fibres standing a little above it. Measure from the collar down to your base before you spread crusher dust, and screed to that height. Bring the base right up to the concrete and compact it firmly, using a hand tamper for the last bit rather than swinging the plate compactor into the collar.

If the hoist sits lower than you would like once the turf is down, that is what the spacers are for: lift the hoist out, drop a spacer in, and the whole head rises. A head sitting a few centimetres lower than before lets long sheets on the bottom lines brush the turf, so check this before you judge the job.

Cutting the turf around the socket

Roll the turf over the footing with the pole removed and the cap on, and let it relax in the sun first, because trimming cold turf around a fixed object guarantees a gap by the afternoon. Then cut one of two ways:

1. A cross cut. From the back of the turf, find the socket and cut an X just large enough to let the collar through. Fold the four triangles back, drop the turf over the collar, then trim each triangle so the fibres sit snugly against the steel. This gives the tightest finish.
2. A round hole. Trace the collar's outside diameter onto the backing and cut a circle a few millimetres larger. This is neater on the bench but harder to centre once the turf is down, so measure twice.

Either way, resist cutting the hole generous. A 10mm gap around a 60mm collar reads as a ring of grey concrete from the back door, so keep the backing within a couple of millimetres of the steel and let the pile lean across and close the gap.

Turf that lands on the concrete footing cannot be pinned. Run a bead of outdoor turf adhesive on the concrete around the collar and press the cut edges into it, so the flaps cannot curl at the one spot where everyone stands. If the socket falls on a join between two pieces, run the join through the pole rather than beside it; a seam through the socket is far less visible than one that skirts it.

The drying circle gets the hardest wear

A 6-line Hills Hoist head is around 3 metres across, a 7-line about 3.6 metres and an 8-line roughly 4 metres, and the manuals ask for at least half a metre (500mm) of clearance all round. Inside that circle the turf wears in two places. A track forms from the back door, and a peg ring gets trampled at arm's length from the pole, where you stand to hang the washing. Every load also drops a few litres of water onto that same patch.

Water is easy to deal with. Turf drains through perforations in the backing into the base, and a footing tapered away from the pole sends water outward too, so drips near the pole end up in the base like everything else.

Wear is what decides the pile height. Cheap short-pile turf flattens under a regular standing spot and stays flattened, while a very long plush pile lies down where you stand and shows every footprint. A dense mid pile is the sensible compromise, and the pile height guide goes through the trade-offs.

Tier	Pile height	How it goes under the hoist
Budget	15 to 25mm	Fine for a small courtyard hoist used lightly; the peg ring will flatten sooner
Mid-range	25 to 35mm	Best all-rounder; dense enough to recover from traffic, short enough to brush up quickly
Premium	35 to 45mm	Softest underfoot, but the tallest fibres lie down in the peg ring and need regular brushing

On price, the Australian market broadly runs around $15 to $30 per m² supply only for budget turf, $30 to $45 for mid-range and $40 to $60 for premium, all including GST, with professional installation typically adding $30 to $70 per m² and DIY base materials around $10 to $20 per m². Those are general market figures rather than ours; for our range, see current pricing on the product page, where the mid-range option has an instant sqm calculator to price the whole lawn, hoist circle included.

Sand infill and summer heat

Sand infill and a clothesline are an awkward pairing, because loose sand near the pole finds its way into the socket. Brush infill in with the hoist out and the cap on, then sweep the last metre around the pole before the hoist goes back. A brush against the pile every month or so keeps the peg ring standing up, the same routine our maintenance guide recommends for any turf.

Heat is the other thing to plan for. Turf gets noticeably hotter than natural lawn in full sun, and the clothesline lives in the sunniest spot you own. Hanging out a load barefoot at 2pm in January is a different experience on turf; our guide on whether artificial grass can burn bare feet covers what helps, and a pair of thongs by the back door covers the rest.

One last advantage of the socket system: the hoist lifts clear whenever you want the lawn back, and if you ever remove it for good, a disc of matching turf glued over the capped socket makes the lawn whole again.

Frequently asked questions

Can I lay turf around an existing Hills Hoist without removing the socket?

Yes. Lift the hoist out and cap the socket, then build your base around the footing so the turf backing finishes just below the top of the collar. Cut the turf snugly around the collar, glue the edges to the concrete since you cannot pin into the footing, and put the hoist back once infill is down and brushed away from the pole.

Should I install the clothesline socket before or after the turf?

Before, if you have the choice. Set the socket so its collar will sit just proud of the finished turf surface, let the concrete cure for the full 24 hours, then build the base around it. Digging a 600mm footing hole through a finished, compacted base is hard work and disturbs what you just built.

Will wet washing dripping onto the turf cause problems?

No. The turf drains through the backing into the base underneath, and a footing tapered away from the pole sheds water outward onto the lawn. A well built base with some fall handles a load of dripping towels easily, and the regular rinse keeps that patch cleaner than the rest of the lawn.

What pile height works best around a clothesline?

A dense mid-range pile of roughly 25 to 35mm is the usual sweet spot. It stands up to the worn track and the peg ring around the pole better than cheap short pile, and it recovers with a quick brush where a very long premium pile tends to lie down and hold footprints. If you want the plush feel of a longer pile, plan on brushing the peg ring more often.