There is a place right at Dundas and Trafalgar in Oakville that sells firewood and soils including triple mix. I forget the name, but I know some people that ordered from there and it was good stuff and at a good price as well.

You will need to know how many cubic yards of topsoil you need. How deep is the clay soil that you are removing? Multiple 1500 sq feet by the depth of clay (in feet) to get cubic feet, then divide that number by 27 to get cubic yards. If your clay is 1 ft deep, then you will need 55 cubic yards, about 3 to 5 truckloads. And you will need to truck away the clay. I think you will need a professional landscaper with a BobCat tractor and a dump truck for this job, the landscaper will have a top soil source.

If you were intending to not remove the clay and to simply add top soil on top, this is a bad idea. The clay will block water and create a top soil bathtub. You need to amend the clay with lots of organic matter like compost and very coarse grit (stone screenings, pea gravel or very coarse sand) to a depth of at least 12 inches, not just add top soil on top.

See the link below for info, if you Google search using "Amending clay soil" as the search term you will find many other links.

Here is a link that might be useful: Clay Soil Tips

Thank you for the advice. I am going to hire people to remove the so called "top soil" by the builder, which is nothing but clay with cow pooh and replace it with triple mix soil. The area is about 1500 sq ft and 12 inches deep. I need about 57 cubic yard of triple mix about 5 truck load. The cheapest quote for triple mix is $25 per cubic yard + delivery. However, I bought some top soil last year, from a not so reputable tree guy. Now, the tree is dead and around that particular tree, I got a lot of weed. Therefore, I am wondering if there is good top soil availble which does not contains weed seeds.

The cheapest labour quote to remove the clay soil is $2.5 per sq feet. The quote was $1.5 per sq ft in June but when I ready to sign the contract in July, the guy increased his price to $2.5, so I am still looking for reliable people to do the job. Please advise if you know any good and reliable labour to help me to get the job done.

I know it sounds expensive. But in the long run, I think it's worth it.

Hi Judy,
Please advise what would you do if you were me. I have a contractor coming in to build 2 raised flower beds in mid September, one in front and one at the back plus excavate 200 sq ft at the back for vegetable garden. But that's all he wants to do as he's really behind his schedule. Therefore, the change order of work is going to cost me double as he does not want the job. Should I rent a tiller and remove the rest of 1000 ft graduately along the fence by doing the Lasagna Gardening or should I pay the guy a premium to remove the rest of the clay soil? Is there any power tools I can rent from Home Depot to remove the soil and fill the hole with triple mix quickly? My hubby is on the road all the time, so I need a machine easy to operate.

For the Lasagna gardening, where can I buy the straw?

Thank you in advance.

Vivian

Why remove the clay and have it trucked away? What is under the clay? If you remove it yourself, how will you truck away 57 cubic metres of clay? If your soil is all clay, then although you should not build on top of it, you also do not need to remove it, you can simply work a lot of organic matter and coarse sand into it. Are you sure it is clay?

All top soil will have weed seeds, they get into it while it is in storage, they get into it when it is spread on your yard and they get into it if you leave it unmulched after spreading on your yard.

I don't understand your comment about a tiller and lasagna gardening, with lasagna gardening you don't remove soil or use a tiller. See the link below for how to do it.

If your intention is to replace all the soil in your yard, I think you should simply have someone spread the triple mix or compost on top of the whole yard and then till it in to a depth of at least 12". This will need a crew of guys with shovels or a tractor with tiller attached.

Maybe instead of hiring someone to do this single job for several thousand dollars, you should call a landscape designer who can look at and test your soil and suggest a course of action. A designer will cost less than $500 and may save you the thousands.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lasagna Gardening

I know this is a long time after the original post but maybe mine will help someone.
I agree with the other poster who said it was not neccesary to remove all the clay. One needs to first take into consideration. How is your drainage. if one has wet ( very ) spring and dry summer soil or is it normal spring and some what dry summer it will make a difference. The second is easy. Mix in as much good soil and organic matter as you can. Leaves , sawdust , compost , commercially available amendments will all be good.
If you have the first condition you could make it worse by scooping out the clay unless you improve drainage.Many times when you scoop out clay soil it becomes a bowl , holding the spring moisture and summer rains regardless of what you put over the clay.And another bit of advice when dealing with clay do not have the temptation to roll it.Maybe in the beginning when you first establish a lawn. But after that back off. Happy gardening Johnny

i leave at north york area and i have a vegeatable garden every summer, and i doing it for the last 4-5 years now. my garden sims like loosing the energy. the fruit is getting smaller and lesser. what shall i do thank you.

Let's hope by now the job has been carried out successfully and the writer has a backyard she's delighted with.
I'd just like to suggest to others who have a soil job of size and wants to know how much soil to purchase for any size job.
Going on the phone and asking a dealer how much, given a particular size of square footage might get you an honest answer or somebody who sees a good thing and tries to take advantage.

Measuring the sqare footage of the area, multiply that figure times the depth IN INCHES...then times 3 and divide by 1000. (move the decimal 3 places to the left)
That gets exact number of cubic yards of soil.
From that you can figure out, if the seller sells his product in bags, how many would come up to the cubic yard.

A truck -- that normally is used to deliver soil to a driveway would carry about 18 - 20 cubic yards.