| Subject: |
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Rippled new lawn |
| Name: |
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bish ashleigh |
| Date Posted: |
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May 5, 08 - 9:47 AM |
| Email: |
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bish@tcp.co.uk |
| Message: |
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Hello .
Apologies for the saga ... but:
Six weeks ago, I had a 250 square metre lawn laid. I tried to save the old lawn but it was too compacted and the grass hardly grew. The moss did well.
A local landscaper came and rotovated the old lawn. The existing lawn was rotovated into the earth and then flattened by loose raking and boarding. After this, a layer of about 3cm peat-based topsoil was applied, together with dried cakelets of chicken manure - this being loosely raked and then boarded. By boarding, I mean that a length of scaffolding board was placed on the ground and a heavy man jumped up and down on its length and then turned the board over to the adjacent bit of ground to be boarded. This was repeated until the lawn looked like a patchwork quilt. Onto the topsoil was placed newly cut turves - mostly in brick-pattern. Some of the turves were a bit wedge-shaped where the cut was not all that true. As each row of turves were laid, the scaffolding plank was placed on top and the turfer jumped up and down on it. This was repeated until all the turves were laid.
Since that time, there has been a good amount of rain and the lawn has never been allowed to dry out. In fact, we have had a little too much rain over the past week or so.
I have noticed that as the lawnmover passes across the lawn, it judders up and down frequently along the mowed length ... it is rippled. There are numerous highs and lows - probably no high nor low any more than 1-2 inches different from the flat/even bits of lawn. I have cut the grass three times - every time on maximum height setting - and I have scalped the odd high bit of lawn. There are lots of lows that look lush green.... and the lawnmower judders and bumps along where the lawn is ripply and a little uneven. Despite all this, at a distance, the lawn looks lovely and healthy and stripey!
The landscaper has assured me that when the lawn beds down, it will flatten out. In any case, he says, if it still remains bumpy, he has promised to return in a couple of months and put down top-dressing in an attempt to even out the ripples. The problem is that I have never used this landscaper before and, from the way he treats his tools, I am not sure that he will be reliable enough to return in the summer to apply the top-dressing. I have retained 20% of the agreed price until either I am satisfied that the lawn will even out over time ... or that he returns to top-dress.
I was a little unhappy with him rotavating the existing lawn, since I was under the impression that the old turf should have been cut away first. Secondly, I was under the impression that after rotavating, the soil should have been tilled and raked and trodden on until it was firm and even - that the hours spent in good preparation should have yielded a flat lawn.
Am I being too pedantic? Is my insistence on a flat lawn at this 6-week stage unreasonable? Will top-dressing the entire lawn with a dragmat or levelling tool even out my new lawn? Is summer the right time to do this (July)? What sort of mix of top-dressing should be used?
Any comments would be most helpful. I am really not feeling too good in not having paid him ... but having been let down by fully-paid builders who never came back to correct defects in my home renovation has left me a little wary ... |
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