Garden lawn levelling

piperm87

Hi all. 

Im trying to get my garden lawn prepared for summer for the kids to play on. At the minute the lawn is sloped and there is a 1foot - 1.5foot difference between the highest point and lowest point.. could i just put soil on top of the existing grass to level it up or do i need to remove the old lawn first. . . 

The garden is around 20 ft wide x 30 ft long

Many Thanks

Matt

CliveOfIndia

You can just put more soil on top, then you'd need to either seed or turf it on top.

Easy enough in principle, but ....

That's going to be one heck of a lot of soil that's needed - it's going to cost to get some half-decent topsoil, and you really want a mini-digger to shift it all, it's going to be an awful lot of heavy work to try and do it by hand.

And the new soil is going to need retaining by some means.

And whilst you're at it, what's the current drainage like?  If it's OK then no problem, but if water tends to pool on the surface, you want to be tackling that whilst you're at it.

So yes, it's do-able - but don't underestimate the amount of work involved.  Does it really need to be level?  A 12 - 18 inch drop over 30 feet is not exactly North face of the Eiger   I reckon (from what you've described) that it's going to be more trouble than it's worth.

grumbler

CliveOfIndia said:

That's going to be one heck of a lot of soil that's needed

6m x 9m x 0.4m / 2 = 10m3 - that's about how much soil you need to make it level and horizontal. I think it's about 25 ton bags.

piperm87

I've built a wall around the lawn with railway sleepers to the height ill need and ive got plenty of soil on my front lawn thats clean. I want rid of it anyway so i can re use it. . The digger is a no go as i won't get one down the side my house! Can only just get a narrow wheel barrow down so its going to be a busy tiring few days i think

MikeJXE

The cheapest option is a mini digger and turf cutter 

Cut and remove all turf 

Remove the top solid at the high end and the low end and store it in the middle

Remove excess subsoil from the high end and place it over the low end

Make sure the subsoil at both ends is roughly level and spread the topsoil over both ends

Relay the turf

No material costs 

Only raises the low end by 6" - 9' 

CliveOfIndia

piperm87 said:

I've built a wall around the lawn with railway sleepers to the height ill need and ive got plenty of soil on my front lawn thats clean. I want rid of it anyway so i can re use it. . The digger is a no go as i won't get one down the side my house! Can only just get a narrow wheel barrow down so its going to be a busy tiring few days i think

Any chance you could enlist the help of a couple of strapping teenage lads in exchange for a few beers?  That's going to be backbreaking work to shift 20-odd tons by hand.

twopenny

Just soil is going to compact, sink erratically and possibly wash away.
You need to lift the turf and store then use sub soil mixed with small hard core and topped with 8" or so top soil which will need gently compacting before relaying the turf.

You shouldn't walk on new turf for about 3 weeks and football longer
If seeded you're looking at 4-8weeks before it germinate. Then it needs to grow and thicken.

FreeBear

piperm87 said:

I've built a wall around the lawn with railway sleepers to the height ill need and ive got plenty of soil on my front lawn thats clean. I want rid of it anyway so i can re use it. . The digger is a no go as i won't get one down the side my house! Can only just get a narrow wheel barrow down so its going to be a busy tiring few days i think

You can hire micro-excavators that are small enough to fit through a doorway (~720mm). And for shifting 14-19 tonnes of soil, a 0.5t powered barrow is well worth having (again, small enough to go through a doorway).

baser999

Rather than build up the low end, is there any reason why you couldn’t dig out the higher end and move the displaced soil to the lower end. The turf could simply be laid grass side down and then a final layer of top soil raked over. The whole lawn would obviously be a little lower but would save shipping in all that topsoil and barrowing it round the house.

TELLIT01

grumbler said:

CliveOfIndia said:

That's going to be one heck of a lot of soil that's needed

6m x 9m x 0.4m / 2 = 10m3 - that's about how much soil you need to make it level and horizontal. I think it's about 25 ton bags.

I did the calculation in old money and assuming an even slope it comes out at around 16 cubic yards of soil.  That will take a lot of shifting. Something in the region of 200 wheelbarrow loads.

IvyFlood

Our garden is also on an incline, the very top was about 2 1/2 foot higher than the bottom.

I say was because last year me and my hubby dug it out to make way for our new patio. We decided to dig it out ourselves (by hand!) to save on labour costs. In total we filled three 8 yard skips which is about 24 tones and it took us 3 weekends to do. It was hard work but I did all the digging and my husband did all the wheelbarrowing to and from the skip as our side access was too narrow to allow for a digger. Personally I enjoyed doing it and for years to come I'll be saying to him 'do you remember that Summer when we dug out the garden' to which he'll roll his eyes!

We now have a lovely level patio at the back but the grass in the middle is still on an incline. 

Some before during and after photos below. We still need to turf the area in front of the patio.