New lawn but when is best?

Hi, having recently moved into a new house I am looking to take up the turf on my rather tired and bumpy lawn, turn over the soil, level it off and start again with new turf. When is it best to start this kind of plan of attack on a lawn? Obviously I down want to lay new turf for the frost to get it, but is it worth taking up the old lawn first and leaving the soil for a bit before putting new turf on top?

 

Hi there and welcome - the only problem with taking the old turf up and preparing and then leaving - will be that spring is just about to start, and so will the weeds :(

I would leave the preperation for another couple of weeks if you can and then lay the turf straight away - should be fine

 

would you suggest using roundup on old grass be4 lifting?
where are the old turves to go [eg compost]
would you dig over the soil to improve drainage and what about liming and fertilising?
will you use topsoil to even out the surface
what about rolling, seems to me theres a lot more to this

 

Thanks for the advice, I think that I will try and dig up the old turf and lay the new turf in one go. I plan to use the old turf as compost.

 

Before you go ahead with your plans to dig up and re-turf, what are the main problems with the old grass? What do you mean by tired? too many weeds? moss? Would it be possable to re-juvinate this sad grass, and save you money, time, and back ache.
Lawn sand applied in February will kill off moss and broad leaved weeds, you could fill in hollows with turf dressing and re-sow with a general purpose grass seed.
Of course that is just the beginning, what do you want from a lawn? Hardwaring for kids to play on? a good looking patch of grass or a top quality lawn the envy of all your neighbours?
A good lawn is a joy to look at but hard work to achieve.
Buy or borrow from the library a book about lawns, or I would beglad to help with my limited knowledge.

The grass is always greener.