laying a lawn

20 years ago

Hi there.

First post on this forum and I am looking for some advice.

I have hired a landscape gardening firm to help me sort out my lawn as i have had problems with drainage.

We have dug trenches and put in over 100 metres of drainage pipe and gravel so hopefully this will help.

I asked them to supply new turf and relay the lawn which is about 1/4 acre.

They are having difficulty removing the old turf as their machine wouldn't cut it.They then suggested rotovating it and they advised that their rotovator wouldnt turn the soil over.

They then advised me that they can put down 4-6 inches of new topsoil onto the old lawn and lay new turf.

My query is will this work effectively?

I have my doubts but they have had 10 tons of topsoil delivered,which doesn't look like its nearly enough to give us the 4-6 inches of topsoil required for laying turf onto.

I think i have hired a firm of cowboys who don't like hard work but am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt if their suggestion is feasible,but i have my doubts.

Can any one advise as the costs are high and i dont want to bugger it up and have to repeat the excercise again?

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Comments (6)

shrubs_n_bulbs
20 years ago
My first thought? These guys know less than you and are more interested in your money than your lawn!

Still, I haven't seen the garden so what do I know? But lets see what I do know. 4-6 inches of topsoil on a quarter acre (over a thousand square yards, really?) would be something like 100 tons of soil by my ready reckoning. I may be a little off but 10 tons isn't going to cut it.

Turfing said thousand square yards? Very expensive. You would normally seed such an area.

Can't remove the turf? Can't turn the soil over? Sounds like the sort of thing they shsould have looked at a long time before they started digging trenches. Trenches and pipes is a fairly extreme measure for drainage problems and I have my doubts that it would work. Where is all the pipework going? What sort of grade do you have?

My last thought? You hired a bunch of cowboys who are more interested in your money than your lawn. Did I say that already?
weatherlawyer
20 years ago
Just change your mind.

1/4 of an acre is 4849/4 square yards = 201.6 cubic yards at a depth of 6" = 0.1666 yards is it not?

At 1 1/2 tons a yard that's 302.4 tons = 15 lorry loads.

Price it yourself. And get a rotovator. Or hire one for a week. Make sure it is good condition. Hire one for a day to see if it will turn the sods over with a plough fitted.

Bear in mind an acre takes a day to plough with one horse. That was in February in the goode olde daies this is in June.

You have to wait for the grass to disintigrate to break it into a tilth to sew in October. Maybe weedkiller?

So it's a lot of raking vss a lot of barrowing and a lot of raking and ....a lot of money.

If you want someone to do it for you tell them rotovate or get off your property and advertise in the local paper for an handyman.

What sort of state is the garden in? Any chance of a piccie?
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irishguy
20 years ago
Im with the others on this, I think you may have a couple of Cowboys, or at least people who havent a clue how to lay a lawn. As said above I havent seen your garden but unless it is on top of a wet bog its uhnlikely that you would need to go to the extremes of digging trenches and laying miles of pipe. Quarter of an acre is huge, lucky you but there is no way you would turf it, even trying to keep it watered for weeks afterwards (and you need to) would take forever. I recommend removing the grass and rotavating and as said above as this is such a big area its a job for a tractor with a plough. I would kill the existing grass and weeds first and plough them into the ground. Then you need to even out the dround again using a machine for such a big area, and then seed it. Unless you have really stoney soil like we have in some parts of the west of Ireland there is no reason whay it couldn't be rotavated. As for the topsoil that is a joke, you dont need new topsoil to grow grass on these islands. What were they going to do with it anyway, put it on top of the old grass so all the grass and weeds would just grow up through it, thats crazy. Fire them and get some advice from a local farmer or hire some labourers and supervise the job yourself. Good luck and beware the 'jobbers'.
Kazzie
20 years ago
Not sure if this helps any, but I think my situation 2 years ago was the same as you find yourself in now. I certainly had the same anxieties.

The landscapers laid topsoil over the old lawn, then laid turf. Here's some pictures...

You can see the old lawn beneath the topsoil:

{{gwi:2117215}}

These pictures were taken last week - 2 years on. Touch wood, I've not had any problems - oh, the light shaded area is where the daffodils have recently been cropped (mowed flat):

{{gwi:2117216}}

{{gwi:2117217}}
alison_froglady
20 years ago
As usual Kaz your garden looks so beautiful. It was worth all the stress and anxious moments. I hope wulliegunn has the same success.
Alison

Here is a link that might be useful: Alisons pond and garden
Kazzie
20 years ago
Ta very much Alison... it's still bare though... saving hard now for trees and stuff!!!

Just remembered that the landscapers put down a strong weedkiller a few weeks before they started work. They did slightly miscalculate the amount of topsoil required which they realised about half-way through. They ordered more but didn't charge me for the extra.