re turfing lawn

i want to re turf my lawn and i have been told by the gardener that i have asked to do it that he will put the new turf on top of the old
suerly this can not be right
your help would be greatly appreciated
cheers

 

Well, you can, but I wouldn't if I had the choice. Making a fresh start is such a good opportunity to get it right.

What I would do, is to dig the current grass in, by digging out to a spade's depth, and turning it upside down, thenlevel and firm the soil, and re-seed in April, or re-turf.

The RHS gives good advice on seeding and turfing a lawn....

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0900/lawns_seed_turf.asp

 

Hi, I agree with Dendrobium. I would do it slightly differently though.

First dig a trench slightly depper than a spade depth and place the soil/grass sods onto an old piece of boarding.

Then I'd remove the next line of grass sod and place it upside down in the bottom of the trench that you've just created, then pile the next row of soil into that trench - this will then create another trench where I would then follow the process again.

Keep doing this until all of the lawn is completely dug in and reseed/turf about April.

If it's you have terrible soil this is a great chance to get it right, rather than suffer the consequences later (see my question!)

BTW if you have a massive lawn and all this sounds like too much hard work - rotivate it lol

 

But only after taking out the perennial weeds.... or you'll have lots more of them!

Otherwise, agree with David! Other than mentioning the trench, that's actually the same as what I said, obviously not very well, though!

Plenty of good healthy exercise there, Carleton!

 

Hi
Really you should have the old lawn taken out because any diseases that was in the old lawn you could get in the new one.

kind regards boygardener

 

If the old lawn was unsatisfactory then you wonder why. Very oftem with a house there is a load of rubbish left by the builders with just a thin layer of soil and then the turf.
On my old house I dug up the entire back garden - it was a rubbish lawn on heavy clay. I double dug the whole lot and had two big skips of builders rubbish taken away and I built a sump in one corner. I don't reckon you can get a decent lawn unless the foundations are properly prepared. On my present garden which was a newly built house I found another skip load on just 1/3 of the front garden - I think it is disgusting the way they just bury stuff in the soil.