I'm building a house right know and there is some thick grass that I need to cut down. Since I'm going to need to maintain about 100 m2 (about 1000 sq ft) after the house is completed, I thought about buying a string trimmer like the GH1000 from Black & Decker.
Can it be used for the thick grass during construction and for general maintenance after the grass is installed? I'm also thinking about buying a reel mower (since the area isn't that big) for a better result with the grass.
String trimmers tend to leave the cut edges of grass rough and ragged, which is unsightly as well as not good for the grass plants. The strings on the trimmer are also generally not good for more than just a few yards of heavy cutting before they become weak and start to break off, requiring more string be let out of the reel to continue working. This can make mowing with a string trimmer rather frustrating. Because of these issues, I believe string trimmers are not the best thing to use for mowing whole swaths, so personally I'd go with the reel mower for doing more than just spot clean up of the lawn areas.
I bought a Ryobi trimmer many years ago that allowed several different attachments to be used. I have replaced the power head twice since then, but still have all the original attachments, along with two new ones I bought with the new Sears 4 cycle head. The attachments I have are: bump out string trimmer, heavy duty string trimmer, Brush cutter with blunt blade, cultivator, hedge trimmer, and blower. I use them all. The 4 cycle head works much better than the original because it is more powerful.
All that said, I agree that using a trimmer to mow does not leave a clean result. Typically, I trim first and then mulch mow. Unless you plan to use it as a lawn, in a small area of 1000 sq ft, you might want to plant something that does not require maintenance, like: ivy, pachysandra, or juniper.
For dealing with particularly thick grass, there are a number of companies that make 'brush cutting' heads that use replaceable blades (plastic or metal) instead of spools of string.
Unfortunately, they don't work with all string trimmers.
I don't believe that any of them state they'll work with electric string trimmers, and I many state that they should be used only on straight (not curved) trimmers.
