Popular Tips
How To Replace Your Lawn In 1 Day
Stage 1:
2 weeks before the planned replacement date, spray off the old lawn with full rate roundup and/or MCPA. Roundup will work brilliantly on all your old grass weeds and a lot of the less persistent weeds. You need a MCPA or MCPA mix to kill off thistles and large dockens.
Stage 2:
Find your local HSS or A-Plant hire shop. I have included links to both their websites:
www.hss.com/g/62356/Turf_Cutter_Light_Duty.html
www.aplant.com/locationFinder.asp?subPage=2
Ask for a Turf Cutter, if you don’t have a trailer you can request the turf cutter to be delivered out to you. Book you turf cutter for the day before the change so that you are not waiting.
Stage 3:
If you don’t have an area in the garden where you can compost your old lawn, then hire a skip for this job. As with the turf cutter make sure it is there the day before the change. You need? Yard skip for every? square metres of lawn to be removed. I haven’t given links here as there are so many companies that will supply this. Check your Yellow Pages.
Stage 4:
Order your turf and topdressing, yet again take delivery the day before lawn change. I include the two links to our site where you can purchase your turf and topdressing. For this job order 0.5 Tonnes topdressing for every 25 square metres of lawn to be replaced.
Turf: www.turfandstuff.com/product.php?xProd=4&xSec=2
Topdressing: www.turfandstuff.com/product.php?xProd=146&xSec=7
Stage 5:
That is the planning and ordering stages over, now it is time to get your hands dirty: Have a hearty breakfast and get you self warmed up eg stretching etc (I am not kidding, try to avoid injuries!!). Set your turf cutter as deep as it will go and set off on your longest straight side. Check that the turf being cut off is at least 0.75” thick. Make sure that machine runs level as if you lift back of machine while pushing, the turf is cut off too thinly.
Now start you second run back down the garden. Watch that you are overlapping the previous cut slightly or you will end up with strips of grass to remove by hand.
Keep going back and forth until garden is completed. Only then start rolling up cut turves. Roll up a turve until roll reaches a manageable weight for yourself. DO NOT roll to large as injury is possible. I would rather you created a series of small lighter rolls. To cut turve just tear by hand. Load rolls into barrow and remove to compost or skip.
Stage 6:
There will be small strips left at the edges of your lawn and where your join has been wide. Remove these by slicing with your spade horizontally. Watch you don’t slice too deep. Tidy the area up such that all high bits and residue of previous lawn have been removed.
Stage 7:
Were you bothered with dampness or moss in you old lawn? If so, at this stage, fork or hollow core your area at 4” spacings.
Stage 8:
Barrow the topdressing onto your lawn and spread out. At this stage you can amend any level problems that existed before. We have calibrated the amount of top dressing supplied such that there should be plenty for this job. Level the topdressing out on the surface of the old lawn. There is no need to use the teeth of the rake. Give a final smooth out with the back of a rake. (if you hollow cored then make sure you have worked the topdressing down into the holes).
Now follow this link to the turf laying page where the last and most satisfying stage can be completed, the laying of your new lawn. You should start from Stage 5 on the turf laying page.