lawn
Turfing and new lawns
£15 to £30 a square metre supplied and laid is the national range, £20 to £38 across London and the South East. A lawn of 50 square metres therefore lands at £750 to £1,500. Turf itself accounts for only £3 to £10 of that; groundwork and labour take the rest.
What this covers
What it costs. £15 to £30 a square metre supplied and laid covers most of Britain, while £20 to £38 applies across London and the South East. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Stripping the old lawn and grading the ground
- Rotavating and raking to a level bed
- Laying turf with staggered joints
- Seeding as the cheaper alternative on a big area
- Watering instructions for the first month
Worth knowing
Once the load carries soil, turf, slabs or fence panels it is no longer only the gardener's own green waste, and an upper tier registration is required to move it. Upper tier numbers begin CBDU and lower tier CBDL.
Control of Pollution (Amendment) Act 1989, section 1
What is involved
Groundwork decides whether a new lawn lives or thins out in its second summer. Old grass and weed go first, either sprayed off with glyphosate three weeks ahead or stripped away by machine. Rotavating follows, then grading so water falls away from the house, then firming by heeling rather than rolling. A full strip out and relevel adds roughly £20 a square metre. Soil depth is the part nobody sees: 100mm of decent loam beneath the turf is what lets roots travel down, and importing it costs £45 to £135 a cubic metre, or one cubic metre per ten square metres of lawn.
Laying happens within 24 hours of delivery, because stacked turf heats on the pallet and yellows from the middle outwards. Rolls go down in a brick pattern, worked off a plank rather than walked on, joints butted tight, perimeter cut last. Two people cover 30 to 35 square metres a day including preparation, so 100 square metres is a three day job. Grade runs £3 to £5 a square metre for budget, £5 to £7 mid range and £7 to £10 for hard wearing rye mixes.
Watering is the part the householder owns. New turf wants 25 litres a square metre a week for the first month, and a lawn laid in July that misses two waterings will shrink at the joints and never fully knit. First cut comes at about three weeks, blades high, once the turf resists a tug. Seed costs a fraction of this and roots more deeply, but it needs a whole growing season and no foot traffic, which is why almost nobody chooses it for a family garden.
Choosing someone for the job
What happens to the existing lawn: sprayed off, stripped by hand, or dug out by machine? Soil depth comes next, along with whether imported loam sits inside the price or outside it. Turf grade and supplier should be named rather than left as 'quality turf'. How many days pass between the turf being lifted at the farm and laid in your garden? Watering through the first fortnight falls to you unless somebody says otherwise.
Common questions
When is the right time to lay turf?
October through to March gives the easiest establishment, because rain does the watering for you. Turf laid between May and August works too, but it needs 25 litres a square metre a week without fail. Frozen or waterlogged ground stops the job either way.
What does ground preparation add?
Around £20 a square metre for a full strip out and relevel, so roughly £1,000 extra on a lawn of 50 square metres. Imported loam adds £45 to £135 a cubic metre beyond that. Turf laid straight onto compacted builder's subsoil looks fine for six weeks and then thins out.