Turf installation

The work happens before the turf arrives

A new lawn is only as good as the ground it’s laid on. Our process:

1. Remove the old lawn. Old grass and weeds are cleared and taken away.
2. Fix the levels. High and low spots are evened out, and the lawn is graded to shed water away from the house.
3. Fix the drainage. Where the ground stays wet, we install drainage before anything else.
4. Prepare the soil. A quality turf underlay is spread and levelled, so the roots have good soil to grow into.
5. Lay the turf. Rolls go down tight, in a staggered pattern, with no gaps, and are trimmed neatly at the edges.
6. Water in. The new lawn is rolled and watered in, and you get instructions for the weeks ahead.

Choosing the right grass

Sun, shade, foot traffic, kids, pets and how much watering you want to do all change which turf suits. The main choices for Sydney lawns:

Soft-leaf buffalo

Soft underfoot, handles part shade better than most grasses, and stays green through much of the year. A popular choice for family backyards.

Kikuyu

Tough, fast-growing and quick to recover from wear, so it suits big, sunny, hard-working lawns. It needs full sun and regular edging to keep it out of garden beds.

Couch

Fine-leaf and hard-wearing in full sun, with a neat, sporty finish. It can lose colour over winter.

Zoysia

Dense, soft and slow-growing, so it needs less mowing. A good fit for low-maintenance and modern gardens.

We’ll recommend a variety for your yard at the site visit, based on how much sun each part of the lawn gets and how it will be used.

Lawns with problems

• Soggy lawns. Usually drainage and compacted clay underneath. New turf on top won’t fix it, so we fix the cause first.
• Bare patches in shade. The wrong grass for the spot. A shade-tolerant variety, or garden beds where grass won’t grow, solve it.
• Bumpy, uneven lawns. Fixed by stripping the turf, re-levelling and starting again.
• Weeds taking over. Cleared out with the old lawn, so the new one starts clean.

Looking after it

New turf needs plenty of water while it roots, then less often and more deeply. Keep foot traffic light for the first few weeks, and hold off mowing until the roots have taken hold. You get clear watering and mowing instructions at handover. If you’d like the lawn to look after itself, we can install irrigation too.

Part of a bigger project

Turf often comes last on a full backyard build, after the drainage, walls and paving are done. Laying it last means the lawn meets the edges cleanly and isn’t damaged by the rest of the work. See complete landscape construction.