Due to past experience of the unreliability of some hired turf removal lifting machinery i have decided to estimate to remove 60 square metres of lawn using my preffered method .
first cut a line in the turf with a spade and then gently swing my heavy wide head pick / mattock to ease it up which causes the line of turf to curl up nicely and saves my back , less bending involved .
this works great on small areas of turf as the strips of turf are narrow in line with the width of my pick head , its a slow yet methodical process .
I have estimated it will take just myself 30 hours ( 6 x 5 hour days ) to remove the 60 square metres of lawn using this method which includes barrowing off into a skip .
Could this job be done more efficiently in less time using any other method to provide a more competitive estimate .
let me know if you think i am too slow as this will be helpful
Thankyou
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Hard work lifting turf by hand. Surely easier for you and cheaper for the customer to remove it with a digger and dumper. I've never bothered with a turf cutter, I just kill old lawns with round up then rotovate it and rake off the rubbish. What's the area going to be?
Thanks A digger and dumper might be overkill , there are some fixed delicate objects to negotiate plus a tree and its on a slope which they want to retain but its level is too high for what is required in its place .
I have used a turf cutter ... I couldn't get enough weight on it to keep the blade "underground", it kept coming up to the surface. Stony ground would be even worse. And it left a narrow strip of grass between each strip of turf so the manual "sort out" afterwards was a fair amount of work. Mind you, it was summer, not sure I would have wanted to do it by hand
Never used a turf spade, but they look the right shape for the job - but probably more relevant if the turf is then to be re-laid somewhere
Hi Kris Thanks i can't access the link unfortunately it says forbidden .
The turf needs to be disposed of or stacked out of the way to make loam once it starts to rot down .
I just pulled "any old image" from Google, sorry the link wouldn't have been useful (posting a linked-image here defaults to also putting a link on it as well, which just goes to where the image is stored and is unlikely to be useful, and likely to be "Blocked")
If you are looking for one then a Google for a "Turf Iron" should bring up some hits. I've looked at two, there is basically the £30 range amongst which Faithful is a name I have heard of
https://www.faithfulltools.com/p/FAICOUTURF/Countryman-Turfing-Iron....
and around £60 one from Richard Carter
https://richardcarterltd.co.uk/our-products/turfing-iron/
I've never heard of them, but their website doesn't have online sales so I assume they are a manufacturer and only sold through dealers (Available on eBay and Amazon for example).
I presume for £60 rather than £30 you get more metal :) but that doesn't always apply of course. I would certainly want something strong enough to take some abuse and not buckle ... and perhaps this sort of tool works better if sharp? so one that can be given a keen edge would be my choice.
But I've bought some expensive tools from the likes of De Wit and Sneeboer in the past and been disappointed ("Triumph of design over function" applies). Lovely to hold and own, but not necessarily efficient in use. Bulldog on the other hand ... I can jump up and down on them all day without them complaining :)
https://www.dewit.eu/en/products/lawncare-tools/
De Wit don't have a Turf Iron, but there is stuff there to get a Dandelion out ..
better than a Dandelion Puller Sneeboer have a Dandelion Spade ...
a snip at the best part of £100 quid ... I didn't find a Turf Iron on their site either.
https://www.sneeboer.com/en/our-collections-garden-tools/
Hi John,
If it were me I'd look to hire a camon turf cutter first. I had great success last year with one on heavy ,rubble marked clay. The best turf cutter iv used ,and I know there are some crap ones out there. That's an awful lot of man hours involved in what yourdoing in my opinion. If you were handy, very handy, on a mini digger you could sweep that lot up in no time. But I don't know the situation so I'm guessing. By hand I always use the half moon to chase out the squares and then pop up the turf with a light spade.The cleanest method iv found, but your back will cry afterwards.!!
Paul
I agree with you Paul, hiring the Camon turf cutter has saved me so much time and effort on a number of jobs now. Unless for a tiny area, I'd never lift by hand tools again!
yes it does seem like a sensible option , i have considered buying a used turf cutter and keeping it maintained and then hiring it out to the customer within the estimate , but it might only get ocassional use .
Thanks Paul , I have looked at the hire centre , they dont have the camon but other models £87.00 for the week with a tank of fuel , not a bad price but the reviews are terrible , breaking down and not even starting although it makes me wonder if its down to the user .
I have dug a fewer smaller lawns up but its one of those jobs which seems to affect every joint .
i will make some enquiries more local to the customers area regarding the camon , there are parts of the area which will need skimming with a spade .
The one I hired was from HSS and looks like the picture currently on their site
https://www.hss.com/hire/p/turf-cutter-light-duty
the web link includes "Turf Cutter - Light Duty" which is not mentioned in the description! but it was a decent., heavy, beast. It had a foot plate on the back to stand on
But the other photos on the page are each for completely different models, all of which have no stand-on-footplate etc. so no idea what you would actually get on-the-day.
But as I said above it was very difficult to keep the blade "underground". But I used it in Summer, right now with wet ground it may well work a treat.
I stacked the turf that I removed - it makes lovely loam.
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