Raising level of lawn

Hi, I would appreciate some advice. I am raising the level of an area of my lawn (levelling a slope). I have added to the height of an existing retaining wall. I hope to raise from about 2ft to 0 on the slope. I have existing lawn. My question is: Is it necessary to remove the existing turf all the way up the slope, and if not, at what point should I do so? When the ground is level I intend to turf it, rather than seed it, as it will be difficult to seed with the children playing in the garden. If you can help, it would be very much appreciated.
David (new to forum)

 

As long as you will have a least a few inches of topsoil over the old lawn don't bother skiming off as John says ..If any of the plot will not be covered with a few inches of topsoil, just skim that area and turn upside down in the deeper area before topsoiling .If you have bad perennial weeds they would be best killed before hand, as they will grow up and through your new turf.
Firm the topsoil as well to avoid settlement..
Dave

 

We had an area of lawn where we had filled in a pond and that had sunk, so I lifted the turf, added topsoil, and relaid the turf - and bought some more turf in. We did it in June 2009 - so perhaps similar time to you? Some pictures on my blog
Ponds « K’s Garden

I had a struggle to get the new turf mowed for the rest of the season. Watering it well, in Summer, until it was properly rooted took a few weeks, and it was very long by then, and I could only cut 1/3rd off the plants, and after a couple of days it had grown back again!

If you were going to seed it, in the Autumn, then there would be no need to remove any turf - the existing grass at the high end, covered in only a thin layer of soil, would grow through and mix with the germinating seed.

But to get new turf established it will need some loosened soil underneath it, so won't work well just laid straight onto the existing grass, or where the grass is covered with only an inch or two of soil.

I agree that if you have weeds in the existing lawn it would be wise to use Roundup / Glyphosate to kill it all before covering it over.

At the 2' end you need to make sure that the new soil is compacted enough that it doesn't sink over the next year or two. The pond we filled in was 2' - 3' deep, I ran over it repeatedly with the 6 tonne digger, and we still have to lift the turf, add soil, and relay ...

If it only sinks an inch or two you can just add more topsoil in the Autumn (e.g. next year, and/or the year after) and lightly over-seed. More than that and you'll have quite a lot more work to sort it out

 

Many thanks for the replies to my question. Sorry for the delay in thanking you. We are well on the way to completing this project. Over 100 bags of soil so far, all of which we have sourced free, much of which we had to dig and bag. The cost savings do give us a warm glow, in addition to the digging! My little children have the job of marching over it to compact it, and they think it's wonderful. Also free of charge. I'm hoping to source some turf. Someone told me that B&Q is a reasonable price and reasonable quality? One again many thanks. David