# Basic question re: Turfing



## dw89 (Jan 14, 2020)

Hi All,

I wondered if people could tell me what they think about this and let me know? Finding a good knowledgeable forum in the UK is not as easy as I thought (well, not so far anyway!).

I just had a large back yard turfed after some, quite serious, re-work/drainage etc. All was going well until it came to the turfing. It was sooooo wet that the grading machines couldn't do their work. In the end the contractor used 'tens' of tonnes of 'compost' (a DIY one and not particularly well composted compost either) to 'level' the bog the soil had become and then just laid the turf on top. It's so wet that, if you stand on it, you sink....simple as that.

Obviously I wasn't too happy (to say the least). On the face of it (to look at it), it 'seems' ok but look closer and think we've got turf, on a lot of compost, on a bog. Surely compost should be rotavated 'into' the soil not popped on top? It will continue breaking down and leave divets wont it? And that's if the soil underneath all of that even dries out in the first place.

So...honestly, this can't be normal practice? I would have thought you'd simply wait until it was dry..or am I the mad one?

Thoughts, very much, appreciated

DW89


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

You can't grade and smooth anything out in any kind of slightly decent fashion in the mud. Unless the ground is dry, it's going to be crap.

It sounds like the guy threw the compost on top to try to absorb some of the water so that it would appear to be smoothed out at the time of the work. Without the ground underneath being mostly dry before throwing compost down and laying sod, you're just going to have spots that sink in every time you walk on it.


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## dw89 (Jan 14, 2020)

Hmm, I thought so. I can see it all having to come up again Thanks for the info Gilley


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## adgattoni (Oct 3, 2017)

I would be concerned for two reasons:

1) As you mentioned, compost is not soil media. It will continue to decompose over time, leaving you with an unleveled finish.

2) If you have several inches of unfinished compost, smothering it with sod could create an environment where it might start heating up again under your sod (it's got water and insulation to keep the heat in). This could burn out the sod's roots.


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