Hi there, I have plan to do landscaping my lot, and I do not have any experience at all. One thing which I am afraid of mainly is to put the top soil and sod. I know that the slope of grade must be kept properly so that water cannot get in to my house foundation. Do you recommend it as Do it Yourself job, or just I have to hire a pro for it? If I can do it myself, can you please let me know of the steps ( as detail as you can. please) that I need to follow. All I know is that I have to spread top soil, compress it, and then put the sod. Of course that's not all. There should be many tips and tricks in this bussiness. By the way, can you recommend any good book on this matter?
Hello... You did not state how large your lot is but if it's more than 1500 square feet of turf, you may not like the price tag that goes along with sod. It adds up quite quickly. Besides that it tends to be a lot of manual labor, laying sod is quite easy and straight forward. If your base (native soil) is bad you'll want to bring in topsoil. This can go from 10 to 20 dollars a yard. A yard of soil will spread 10 feet by 10 feet at 3 inches deep. 3 inches is not really deep and I would consider it a minimum amount of turf.
The steps .... Rototill the native soil. Break it up rather good. (Many "pros" won't do this. They will lay soil right over the top of the native soil. This is not a great thing to due to the fact that the two soil types need to be intergrated. The "pros" do this to save labor costs.)
Spread half of the soil on the rototill-ed area. Till again. Roll the area with a lawn roller. Spread the rest of the soil. Roll the area again. Lay the sod. Water and fertilize. Go have a beer .. 80)
Personally I would suggest that you consider seeding your lawn area instead of sod. Besides that it's cheaper, if you buy seed for your area you'll have a better standing lawn over time. Where I live, most sod comes from California and the grass type is just not good enough for the western washington summers. I would suggest that you contact your local Master Gardeners extension office and see what they suggest for grass type for your area.
As far as grading goes, I wouldn't sweat it too much. Just try not to change the grade too much. The rule of thumb is to have 2 to 3 inches of drop from the foundation to ten feet out. But with that said, go out and look at other houses and you'll see that many folks don't have that good of drop. The end result is that you don't want the soil too high so that your house is in the middle of the bowl. If you find that your having water issues, then you may need to hard pipe the gutters to the to the street or curtain drain the foundation..etc.
A high bid for 1500 square foot lawn job...
15+ yards of top soil $300.00 lawn roller $100.00 to buy $30.00+ to rent rototiller $400.00 to buy $40.00+ to rent seed up-to 10lbs at $3.00 dollars pound $30.00 Sod $.50+ per square foot
Do it yourself price $400.00+ and a hard day's labor.
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