Infill is the part of your lawn doing the work, and it is the part nobody checks. Most Henderson turf over five years old is running well under spec.

Ask a homeowner what artificial turf is made of and they will describe the fibre. Ask what has failed on a matted, smelly, poorly-draining lawn and the answer is almost always the infill. It is the component doing the mechanical work and it is the one nobody inspects.

What infill actually does

Holds the fibre upright. Blades are supported at the base by infill weight. Take it away and they lie flat regardless of how good the fibre is.
Ballasts the turf. Infill weight is what stops the lawn shifting, wrinkling, and lifting at the edges.
Manages drainage. Correctly graded infill lets water move down to the backing perforations. Compacted or contaminated infill blocks it.
Moderates temperature. Infill mass buffers surface heat, which matters more here than almost anywhere.
Suppresses bacteria, but only if it is coated, and only while the coating lasts.

The main types

Type	Roughly	Strengths	Weaknesses
Silica sand	$0.30-0.60 / sq ft	Cheap, stable, widely available	No antimicrobial property. Holds odor on pet lawns.
Coated / antimicrobial sand	$0.60-1.10 / sq ft	Suppresses bacteria. Standard for pet turf.	Coating depletes over roughly 4-7 years.
Zeolite	$1.00-1.80 / sq ft	Traps ammonia at a molecular level. Best for heavy pet use.	Expensive. Needs periodic flushing to keep working.
Crumb rubber	$0.40-0.80 / sq ft	Cushioning for sport and play surfaces	Runs hot. Falling out of favour for residential use.
TPE / acrylic-coated	$1.20-2.00 / sq ft	Cooler surface, non-toxic, durable	Cost. Less common in residential installs here.

For a Henderson pet lawn the practical choice is coated antimicrobial sand, with zeolite blended into the actual relief zones where the load is concentrated. Zeolite across an entire lawn is usually money spent where nothing is happening.

Correct depth

Depth is specified by pile height. As a working rule, infill should come up to roughly a third to a half of the pile, leaving the top half to two-thirds of the blade free.

Pile height	Target infill depth	Approximate weight
1.25 - 1.5 in (putting green)	To spec for green speed	4-6 lb / sq ft, sand
1.5 - 1.75 in	0.5 - 0.6 in	1.5-2 lb / sq ft
1.75 - 2.0 in	0.6 - 0.75 in	2-2.5 lb / sq ft
2.0 - 2.5 in (most Henderson lawns)	0.75 - 1.0 in	2-3 lb / sq ft

How to check yours

Part the fibre with your fingers in the middle of the lawn until you can see the backing.
Push a screwdriver straight down until it stops on the backing, and pinch the shaft at the infill surface.
Pull it out and measure to your pinch. That is your depth at that point.
Repeat near an edge, in a traffic lane, and at the lowest point of the lawn. Variation between zones is the diagnosis, not the average.

Two patterns come up constantly in Henderson. Low in the middle and high at the edges means traffic and runoff have pushed infill outward: that is a redistribution job. Low everywhere means genuine loss over years of rinsing and wind, and needs volume added.

Why yours is probably short

Migration. Foot traffic, drainage, and monsoon runoff move infill continuously. On graded lots in Anthem and MacDonald Highlands this is dramatic: infill ends up piled against the downhill retaining wall.
Rinsing. Every hose-down carries a small amount of fine infill out. Over ten years of weekly rinsing that adds up to a serious fraction.
Installed light. Volume builders in Cadence and Inspirada frequently install at the low end of spec. The lawn is short from day one and nobody knows.
Wind. Fine sand at the top of the infill blows off exposed lots. This is not trivial in Anthem or Sun City Anthem.
Nobody ever adds any. Infill is consumable and virtually no homeowner is told that at handover.

What running short costs you

Matting, first and most visibly. Then drainage, because thin contaminated infill packs harder than deep clean infill. Then odor, because a depleted antimicrobial layer means urine reaches the backing with nothing buffering it. Then fibre wear, because unsupported blades take abrasion at the base rather than being held upright, and that damage does not reverse.

Turf Infill Explained: Types, Depth, and Why Yours Is Probably Short