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Turffed out of the Nation


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the-e-dealer Wrote:

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> I've got a really small back garden and have been

> quoted ?800 for turfing it half labour and half

> the turf. Seems a lot to me anyone know a cheaper

> supplier than plantnation?


How small? ?800 does sound a lot.

Looking on-line you can get 60 square metres (i.e. will do a 10 x 6 metre lawn, for ?140 including VAT & Delivery - much smaller amounts cost proportionately more per sq metre when you include delivery (which must have a fixed cost element). Estimate about ?2.50 a metre. That's quite a large lawn for ?400.


Most of the effort, as said above, goes into preparation, to ensure a solid earth base with no hollows or humps (even if you were to seed a lawn, that amount of preparation would probably be necessary for a quality finish). And now's not the time. At a gardening labour cost of ?20 an hour - ?400 buys you 20 hours work - or a full day (and then some) for 2 people.


On my estimates ?400 buys you 160 sq m of turf, i.e. a lawn size of 16m x 10m. Which would probably take less than a day for 2 people to prepare and lay - but that assumes that there isn't concrete to be brokem up and moved etc. (and assumes that you won't need loads of lawn sand and topsoil to achieve a level, which you might). Some gardens need quite a lot of preparation work, particulary where the surfaces are bad/ compacted etc., before they can take a lawn that survives.


I would suggest that you get more than one quote.

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