Pricey Turf?!

[ToonLass]

Hi, just looking for some opinions

We had our garden landscaped at the end of last year by a local contractor. It was a pricey job but they made a good job of it.

The only thing that needs some is to re turf the grass as its a total mess with all the work that went on, there's stones everywhere on it and large bare patches where bushes and trees once were.

Just had the same contractor round to give me a quote to re turf the area. I received the quote today....£1000 for 55m2.

That sounds an awful lot to me, about twice as much as we had hoped.

Is that just the going rate??

The turf has to be ordered in as we live in a remote town which will certainly add cost onto it, but still, £1000 to lay some grass???

Woah! That does sound expensive for a bit of grass.

Having said that, I would think the turf would cost £150-200ish, and then you've got to add at least a couple of bulk bags of topsoil, which I guess would be another £150ish. Then you've got to hire a skip to get rid of the old turf (another £100) - so that's already £400-450 just for materials. I would guess it could easily take two to three days for one person to clear and then to prepare and turf. So perhaps £1000 isn't too bad.

You could probably do it a cheaper way if you paid someone to clear the existing lawn and spread topsoil and then you could sow seed yourself. It takes a bit of patience while the new lawn grows, but it can be just as effective by the end of the summer. I would think this way would bring it within your original budget of £500.

A cheaper way still would be to try to bring back the existing lawn by resowing the parts that have died. A lot of people on here recommend those lawncare companies that come round and sort it out, and swear that they work miracles for you. It might be worth talking to them - it could save you hundreds.

we just laid 30sqm. turf cost £80, topsoil similar, but we stripped and levelled the rest ourselves, and already had a skip outside from building work going on.

it's usually labour that is the biggest cost!

I got quoted £1400 to level and turf 144 square meters, or £1100 to grass seed it ?? Was told it would take 2 men 1 week. My partner did it with grass seed at a cost of £40 and it only took him a few days. Daylight robbery!

Where are you? Im in Essex and that's a bit less than the quote that ive got for a similar sized area. You should get 3 quotes and compare though.

Ive tried the 'level yourself and put down grass seed' approach before and the result wasn't very good, so this time we've bit the bullet and have got someone in to do it for us but with turf instead of seed as we want to be able to use the grass area this summer.

I don't have the skill or the tools to do a good enough job myself.

I definitely don't trust myself to do it (and no way would I trust DH!)

Waiting on another quote so we'll see what that comes in at.

We're on the West Coast of Scotland.