Evening all, as the title suggests I have been asked to quote/estimate the cost for relaying a 50 m2 lawn that was installed last April over what can only be described as builders rubble. The client is unhappy mainly due to the lumps, bumps and sunken areas and I see no other real way to remedy this apart from a relay.
My concerns are exactly what is waiting for us when we take the turf and minimal top soil off, I have taken a couple of cores out and it was tough going in places to even do this.
I haven't got the job yet and probably wouldn't even be quoting for it if it was a big lawn, my questions are as follows:
- How can I give a good estimate if when the turf is removed we discover some serious rubble/foundations need to be removed.
- what depth of top soil/ sand soil mix should I be looking to achieve.
- I'm thinking a pea gravel base should be installed on top of whatever is there but it seems to be very free draining anyway probably due to the large size rubble.
- here are a couple of photos, thanks for any advice.
Views: 4729
Replies
Additional, although the lawn looks o.k, when it's walked over it's very lumpy, and from the photos you can see weak turf running along the line from what must be the footings from the original path?.
No alternative but to quote for worst case, ie digging out and removing to depth of say 200mm and replace with good quality top soil, consolidate and re-turf.
Thanks Colin, i'll get on the case with it, I guess there alternative would either be to try to improve the lawn through the usual renovation methods although I think this would be a waste of time and money. Or for them to have it paved but i'm pretty sure they want a lawn.
have you ask them if they would consider doing away with the grass and haveing slate shailing or cotswold chippings with stepping stones to get to the steps, its only a small area and would be less maintenance than getting the mower out for a small amount of cutting
Michael, taking Phil's point further;
- what is the client's intended use of this piece of garden ?
- are you looking at this from an existing maintenance/gardening prospective or as a landscaper (ie what's your 'longer term' involvment here)?
- is an artificial lawn a possibility ?
What he said....critical questions
Gary RK said:
O.k, so basically they have recently (last april I think) had allot of work done on there house so they obviously wanted this to be lawn or they would have just had it done with the rest of the work, also they said they like to have bbq's out there in summer and have people lying around on the lawn.
But your right, personally I would do something like Phil has suggested, I was asked to look at the job only yesterday as they had found my web site so I have no existing maintenance work with them.
the lawn dos not seem to be well maintained (weeds and edging) but oviousley there is problems underneath and
with the amount of masonery round the edge of the lawn there will be problems in a dry summer unless it is waterd, 6 inch of good loam under a good turf
Thanks for all the advice on this one, another big problem with this job is the access, it can only be reached via two sets of narrow steps at the far end and the steps in the right of the picture leading to some more steps and then a drive.
My concerns are that when the turf is lifted we're faced with a serious amount of rubble and material that needs to be removed in order to provide the 150-200mm of root zone required. With the very poor access that is a serious amount of material that would need to be moved in and out by hand, time wise i'm not sure I can fit this in around my regular maintenance and lawn care work.
I'm going to call the customer tomorrow to discuss this and see if there is any way they would settle for taking on a better maintenance, lawn care and renovation programme, hmmmm???.
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next