Anyone know about putting a layer of top soil (or something) over concrete to then turf over?

[NatalieJane]

We want to make our lawn bigger, but half the garden is taken up by a drive way to the garage, which we never use, the house is quite raised so we were thinking if we put down 3-4" of top soil and then turf over the whole lot, it would be a lot easier and cheaper than breaking up the concrete drive.

Is this even feasable? Is top soil the best thing to use? Is 3-4" of it going to be enough for the turf to be OK?

Also, we are looking at around 45 square metres to cover, does anyone know a way of working out how much we'll need to buy, and/or how much we should be looking at paying? DH would be doing the work, so there won't be any labour costs.

TIA

I think you need to put down layers - gravel, sand, and soil. If you put down just soil, you won't be providing any scope for drainage and will end up with mud if you get a particularly wet period. If you put down course materials, the water will be able to drain away.

breaking up concrete is quite fun though, get a big hammer . though you then have to get rid of it.

Sorry for late reply.

The drive, as it is, slopes down towards the garage slightly, there is a shallow gutter thingymebob that already stops the water running into the garage and that runs into the lawn area we already have. If we didn't put stones down, wouldn't the water still run off in the same direction and along the gutter thingy? We wouldn't be covering the gutter with the soil or turf.

If not, at least over the area of lawn we already have, will that need the stones as well? Or can we assume that the water will still run off as it does now?

I wouldn't think that 3 to 4 inches of top soil would be anywhere near enough to get grass that would survive drought in the summer - it'll quickly go brown and die, and drainage in the winter would be difficult. We had a pathway that had been buried in topsoil to about 6 inches and then grassed over - you could really tell the difference in the summer as it went yellow and sick looking and just mossed over in the winter.

I think you really need to break the concrete up - as southeastastra says, it could be fun!