Artificial Turf Toronto Research · RR-2026-ATT-02 · August 2026
Stormwater & Backyards: Toronto Drainage Resilience Review
Two 100-year storms in one summer pushed Toronto's drainage to its limits. What an engineered turf base can, and cannot, do for city backyards.
This report reviews Toronto's modern flood record, the July 8, 2013 storm, the July 16, 2024 cloudburst that shut the Don Valley Parkway, and the August 17, 2024 event that set a new daily rainfall record at Pearson, alongside published descriptions of how water moves through an engineered artificial-turf system, and asks where a synthetic lawn honestly fits in a flood-resilient Toronto backyard. The findings are deliberately two-sided: a well-built turf base gives stormwater a designed path and keeps the yard usable between storms, but turf is not a flood fix. Basements are protected by grading, downspouts and plumbing, and the City's Basement Flooding Protection Subsidy pays up to $6,650 toward those defences and nothing toward a lawn surface.
Key Findings
128.3 mm
rain at Pearson on Aug 17, 2024, the station's rainiest day on record
≈4.5 m³
rain on a 500 sq ft yard in a few hours, Jul 16, 2024 (depth × area)
21,000+
basement flood claims in Toronto from the Jul 8, 2013 storm
$6,650
max City basement-flooding subsidy, keys to plumbing, not lawn surface
Inside the Report
- Toronto's flood story: three storms that reset the baseline
- How water moves through an engineered turf system
- Turf vs natural lawn on infiltration: a balanced reading
- What actually protects basements
- Design notes for Toronto lots
Download the Full Report (PDF)
Cite this Report
Artificial Turf Toronto Research (2026). Stormwater & Backyards: Toronto Drainage Resilience Review. ATT Research Series RR-2026-ATT-02, Toronto, Ontario.
Further Reading
For more on how we design and install turf across the city, see our backyard turf overview, browse our blog, or contact our Toronto team for a free, no-obligation consultation. For a full overview of our services, visit the Artificial Turf Toronto homepage.