Grass over concrete

Grenage

snnl wrote: »

All good replies, and yes we are paying him - very little by any standards, so what he has done for us (aside from the grass) has been great. There is no way we could have done what he's done in a day!

As for the subject, the area is/was block paving. He's taken that all up and there is a base layer of concrete underneath that is slightly cracked and broken and he has said this will be fine to drain when it rains. There will be about 8-10in of soil laid down. Would grass be 'ok' on this or is it still a strict no?

As for doing all this in the hottest weather not being ideal - i know! However it was a last minute, bargain price to have a small jungle removed and a garden returned in just two days! I'm just going to have to water it day and night if we do go with grass.

Thanks

If you're happy with the rest of the garden work, then by all means have him continue doing other stuff - but skip the lawn-over-concrete idea. You'll just be wasting time and money.


For the cost of the turf you could dispose of the concrete, and seed is cheap. Again, don't bother trying to grow a new lawn in summer.

snnl

LadyDee - we have them rubber play matts and they are great - but they come up, move and my 8month old likes to pull it up and eat it! You really cant beat a good bit of grass. As for watering - it is what it is.

Grenage - Thanks, i'll see if i can get him to break up the concrete and take it away instead of throwing soil/grass over it. Then when the weather cools off i can either sow my own seeds or lay turf.

Cheers

zaax

Artifical grass look good, and does not need mowing. But does need laying correctly as well as pegging down on the edges (as a carpet does). Though the price is the same as a carpet.

Barny1979

snnl wrote: »

As for watering - it is what it is.

What an irresponsible statement, there is the potential for a hosepipe ban, so you'll get around it by filling buckets/watering cans to get round the ban and still waste water?

spadoosh

LadyDee wrote: »

Please don't waste precious water on a patch of grass. Why not put one of those thick rubber play mats down for the children to play on. The interlocking play mats are currently on offer in B&Q.

Its only precious because the water companies dont look after it. Id encourage people to waste as much water as possible. I live around (usually) the third wettest place in the UK and united utilities are threatening us with a hose pipe ban because we had the audacity to use an additional 500 million litres of water a day (Across the north west) recently. How very rude of us. Yet they neglect to mention that across the UK, including now, 3 billion+ litres of treated water every single day leaks through their (the water companies, not specifically UU) pipework.

Ive got a relative who lives in the south of spain. Spends most of the year at 30 degrees. Never once had so much as a murmurring about hosepipe bans. And heres me in the 3rd wettest place in the country, a country that is one of the wettest places in the world outside of the tropics (and Excluding the frozen places) and im being told i cant use a hosepipe. Dont be daft.

Telling me to do without because they cant be bothered doing their job properly.

You pay for a service, a service thats ripping you off and that blames you when they fail at their job. Every time i see a UU rep having a press conference i cant help but imagine what theyre like off camera. "thats the 17th year in a row weve spouted the youre drinking too much line, might have to chuck in a bit of cryptosporidium next year spice things up a little."


Sorry OP for my rant.

snnl

Barny1979 - no thats not irresponsible it literally is what it is. I pay for what water I use therefore I will use it how i wish - be it watering my lawn or running a bath for my two kids. If there is a hosepipe ban then i will consider the circumstances. But I'm not going to tiptoe around on the maybe's...

I have to heavily agree with spadoosh here and thank you, also don't apologise it was brilliant!

glasgowdan

I'd ignore the "don't waste water on lawns" chat... it's up to you what you do with your water!

10 inches of soil would make quite a change in height of the garden if plonked on top of the base, so I'd make sure you decide what level you want the lawn to be at before committing to anything.

Davesnave

Barny1979 wrote: »

What an irresponsible statement, there is the potential for a hosepipe ban, so you'll get around it by filling buckets/watering cans to get round the ban and still waste water?

I agree with Spadoosh; there is no need for hosepipe bans in this country, which has perfectly adequate rainfall to support drought periods like we're experiencing now.


What's lacking is the investment to stop waste and increase capacity where it's needed. That would cost people more, but some of us already pay more and get a proper service, though I dare say improvements are still possible.


In the SW our reservoirs were still at 80%+ last week. No hosepipe bans likely for the forseeable future here. How does that make you feel now?

moneyistooshorttomention

I tend to agree that it's the Water Companies fault for having so many leakages - and not ours for using the water we're paying for.

There have been mutterings here in Wales about a possible hosepipe ban - and I'm thinking "Wales!!!! But there's so much rain here...:cool:. How could there possibly be any water shortage here?"

But going just by what I've seen near me - of water leak, followed by bodge repair, followed by another water leak, followed by another bodge repair etc etc - and I've watched an awful lot of water just getting wasted flowing away down the street.

Davesnave

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

There have been mutterings here in Wales about a possible hosepipe ban - and I'm thinking "Wales!!!! But there's so much rain here...:cool:. How could there possibly be any water shortage here?"

Quite a lot of the water in all those Welsh reservoirs ends up somewhere other than Wales.