Turf Tips
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Preparation
The quality of the preparation will determine the quality of the lawn. The flatter and smoother the area is before the turf, the better the lawn will look once the new turf has been laid. The area for your turf needs to be measured to determine the amount of soil and turf required and then needs to become flat and weed free.
Measuring
To measure the area or amount of turf you require simply measure the length times the width. For example in the box below the length is 10m and the width is 6m, therefore the area or the amount of turf required is (10 x 6) 60m 2.
In areas that are strange shapes the easiest way to measure them is to divide it into smaller shapes and add up each individual area. For example in the diagram below, the area can be divided into 2 different areas (area A and area B). The area of A is (10m x 10m) 100m 2. The area of B is (5m x 10m x 0.5 {because the area of a triangle is half of the area of a rectangle}) 25m 2. Therefore the total area = 125m 2 (100m 2 + 25m 2)
Topsoil
For areas that haven’t been turfed before the easiest and best way to do that is to incorporate some topsoil. There should be about 1 inch of topsoil (25mm). To work out the amount of topsoil you require simply times the area (length x width) by 25mm (or 0.025m), for example an area 100m 2 (10m x 10m) would require (100 x 0.025) 2.5m 3.
Note - Make sure the topsoil you get is ‘Screened’ topsoil, this just means that any seeds of weeds have been taken out of the soil.
If your area already has some old turf or weeds present they need to killed and removed. The best method of doing this is by spraying the unwanted plants with either Roundup or Weedmaster twice, 14 and 7 days before the new turf date and then simply place topsoil on top of the dead weeds and old turf. It is essential that there is a minimum of 7 days between spraying and laying the topsoil and new turf, to allow the chemicals to breakdown and not have an effect on the new turf.
Note – We recommend the use of Dynamic Lifter, simply scatter the pellets ontop of the soil just before you lay the new turf. The dynamic lifter gives the grass a good boost and speeds up the time it takes for the lawn to establish.
Laying the Turf
The easiest way to lay the turf is to lay around the perimeter or border of the area first, then run the strips of turf along the longest side of the area. This reduces the amount of overlaps of turf at the end of each run of turf and when there is an overlap, it is an overlap of turf and turf not turf and concrete or turf and a fence – making it much easier to cut. The diagram below illustrates this:
