Turf Experts

Associate
Joined
27 May 2007
Posts
1,041
Location
Leeds!
So seeking abit of advice - this is clearly work I cannot do until lockdown is over but that does give me time to plan it

When I first moved into my house, first job was to dig out and level by the patio as the garden has a fairly steep slope to the top

Phase 2 is now needed (ie I need to step it again to create another flat area)

I'm happy to do this myself short of 1 part

Can I hire a machine to take the existing turf up and then reuse this turf? I'd estimate a day to 2 days between taking it up to do the levelling and installing another step before it could go back down
 
Associate
OP
Joined
27 May 2007
Posts
1,041
Location
Leeds!
Thought it would potentially be ok, being not so green fingered and the vast volumes of conflicting advice on the general internet an all!
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Jul 2005
Posts
3,913
My little bro bought a new build. He wanted to create a larger area of patio just outside his French doors so he bought the slabs. A day or two later myself and my dad went over with a garden hoe each (all jokes aside) and cut rolls out of the lawn, rolled them and put them out the front to bed into some freshly prepared ground.

we didn’t need a machine to get the turf up primarily because the lawn was so fresh it wasn’t too deeply rooted that we couldn’t get it up easy enough with a bit of elbow grease.

Surprisingly it all survived and my bro now has a larger rear patio and a lovely extra bit of lawn to the front.

of course, if your lawn had been down longer then it will likely be a lot more difficult to get up in the first place
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,544
Location
Nottingham
I hired a turf cutter when installing decking, took a bit of playing around to get the right depth but worked well. I didn't reuse the turf but someone took it off my hands for their garden.

The key was getting the depth right, too deep and it wouldn't roll due to the amount of soil, it just cracked. Too short and it missed sections / broke up where there was slight dips in the lawn.

I'd suggest time of year is important, you'll struggle to lift it in the middle of summer when the soil is hard / dry. Aim for late September into October.

I found that VPS hire was cheaper than HSS for the turf cutter.
 
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