Laying turf - any extra tips?

paintguy · 16 Sep 2013 at 10:23

Hi all,

This weekend I'll be laying some turf over a small section of mums garden that the previous owners had let turn into a jungle. It's around 20M².

The area has been ready for several weeks, with the top few inches of soil and matted weeds scraped off leaving nice rich looking soil underneath that we've dug over to about 6" depth, levelled, and lightly trodden down. Over the last few weeks mum has been removing any stones and the odd few weeds that have grown back. I plan to rake it level again and tread down just before laying.

I know turf ought to be put down ASAP but I refused to pay £54 extra just for a Saturday morning delivery so it's coming on Friday, ready for laying first thing on Saturday. Will that be okay?

Apart from trying to stagger the joints and watering the life out of it afterwards, are there any other tips you can give me? Anything I've missed?

Thanks

paintguy · 16 Sep 2013 at 13:06

Thanks all. Weather looks like it'll be cool, possibly with some showers so that ought to help.

I've got some feed for my own grass, so may give it some of that.

paintguy · 16 Sep 2013 at 16:12

john_s said:
Green side up!

Almost had a major disaster there. Thanks for the tip!

paintguy · 22 Sep 2013 at 13:53

All went well yesterday

There was a minimum order of 25M² so we had loads left over, but a friend managed to find a use for it.

I soaked the soil first, laid the turf, then soaked it all afterwards. It isn't perfectly flat and level, but then it has to follow the lie of the land so was never going to be.

Now we need to decided what to do with the bottom of the garden. There is a massive concrete slab and mum doesn't want to go to the expense of having it dug up. She wants to keep the very bottom section where the shed sits, but would like to hide / disguise the first half somehow, where the angled bench and wheelbarrow are in this picture:

I've suggested decking, but she isn't keen, then yesterday I thought about some artificial grass and she's up for that. I'm pretty sure this can be put straight down over the top of concrete. Any known issues with that idea?