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levelling a playing field

Hi all 

I have had a request in from a local school that have an uneven playing field that they would like me to level and seed(next spring).

I have spoken to the site manager and originally they wanted the existing grass removed and the ground levelled before installing fresh turf. But due to cost implications they now want to go with levelling out the low points and seeding. 

I have never done an area this size before and I'm not convinced that they are going to get great results. The existing ground is very poor and has a large percentage of weeds and I dont think they realise the amount of material its going to need to level this size of ground.

Your thoughts about tackling this would be appreciated

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Replies

  • PRO

    It will need "skinned and scalped" to get rid of as much of the dead grass as possible (cut and collected obviously) and raked with a tractor mounted / tow behind set up. Only then are you going to be able see where the highs and lows are. IF there's not too many lows then you may be able to do it by importing new soil via a small 1/2 tonne dumper and hand raking and leveling but if there are lots of areas needing attention you would be looking at a dozer / bobcat mounted land rake operation.

    If you can get a plant hire company to hire you a machine and operator then great but if you have no experience of this type of ground work, and it needs machine leveled, I wouldn't get involved, machine leveling is an art and best left to the master machine men.  You should be able to hire machine and operator for around £350.00 per day.

    By the look of the surface and grass condition its needing hollow tine'd also. You would also need to hire a chariot grass seeding machine, around £70.00 per day (plus vat).

    Would be a nice job to get and great for the portfolio, but only if you have the experience or can hire in the experience to do it. If in doubt, decline to quote, too easy to get caught out on a job of this size and nature, good luck with it :-).

    Regards.

  • PRO

    Gordon

    Sound like my cup of tea i love jobs like this..

    1,  you sub it out to sports turf contractor-  they can  KORO  the area off  than you come in add good topsoil to the low areas and overseed the pitch  using tractor and overseeding machine drilling in to the ground three directions done by the contractor and than you apply fertiliser for the spring,, the thing using a Koro it will take a thin layer of the pitch off but leaving the roots of the grass to come as well of the new seed ,  

     

    2,  you mow the area now clean all the rubbish up and nice and tidy ready for the spring work,, then in spring   you hire compact tractor with scarifier and go in two directions really clean the pitch up , then apply topsoil to the low areas , overseed the pitch with boardcaster than apply fertiliser for spring.     

  • well all sounds great but had a meeting with them this afternoon and all they want is several tonnes of topsoil dumped on the surface roughly levelled and then sown in the spring. Think I,m going to give this one a miss as it could lead to all sorts of problems, currently they have two quotes from large grounds maintenance firms for this work in the area of £2000

  • PRO

    Think I,m going to give this one a miss as it could lead to all sorts of problems.

     

    Good decision Gordon:-)

  • With my workload the last thing I need is an unrealistic customer expecting a silk purse from a sow's ear.

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