# A question about sod installation



## atticus (Dec 30, 2021)

Hello all and a very happy new year!!

I've been lurking for a while, but this is my first post, I'll apologize at the top for the length.

I'm hoping those either in the business or with a bit more experience than me might shed some light on a conundrum I am having with a new(ish) zoysia lawn install. My question is less in the realm of how to care for it and more how you all would deal with an issue I'm having with the way the company graded the lawn.

A bit of background:
I had ~7,000sqft of zorro zoysia installed back at the beginning of August. We just moved into a new home and the previous owners had taken down a bunch of trees in the backyard, but hadn't done much to repair the divots where the trees fell or clear the stump holes where they had been ground and the mulch left to rot. We have two young boys and have been dreaming of a nice flat yard for them to run around and play in (and, selfishly- for me to take care of). My wife, always the more sensible one, talked me out of undertaking a large backyard renovation having just moved and with a brand new baby to take care of, so we hired a well-reviewed company to do it for what, to us, was not a small amount of money.

The install went pretty much as expected, they didn't lay the turf quite as meticulously as I would have if I'd done it myself, so I'm still battling some bumps and lines, but my issue is mostly with the grading. Part of the contract was for them to remove the existing lawn/roots/debris and grade the lawn before putting down the new turf. For the most part the lawn has a decent grade and shouldn't be too difficult to begin leveling out some of the seam bumps in the spring with top dressing/sand.

The left edge though, they basically turned into a drain basin. I didn't notice it at first because I was concentrating on keeping the turf wet. Then, once I scaled back my watering I began to notice the left edge stayed MUCH wetter than the rest of the lawn. I thought it was something to do with this Atlanta clay and could be partly mitigated in the spring with some good deep core aeration. Recently though we have gotten a few really big downpours and it has become an issue. It has turned into a soupy, muddy mess and I'm pretty sure if it ever dries out it's going to be mostly ruined.

My first question is this:
Is this normal when grading a yard? I do understand that obviously water has to go somewhere, but this feels like it could have been sloped in a more gradual way to avoid creating as much of a basin. The drainage issue is also cumulative by the time it reaches the lower portion of the yard in a way that, at the top of the yard maybe 3ish feet from the fence is problematic, but by the time it reaches the bottom of the yard it's more like 8-10 feet from the fence that's a mushy mess.

My follow up question would be this:
If this is not normal practice, I wonder if I have any recourse with the company that did the work at this point or, since it's been 4 months am I pretty much just stuck with a drainage project?

Final follow up to my follow up:
If I am stuck with this, any tricks or tips for drying out and rehabbing a mushy mess that was fresh turf 4 months ago?

Thanks for making it through an overly long post, I look forward to the insights of this great community!


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Welcome to TLF!! No need to apologize for the long post, better to have too much info than not enough.

Sorry to hear about your grading issues but I doubt there is a lot you could do now with the project being done already and several months have passed. I think if you had been able to catch it early on it may have been fixed but then how was anybody to know about the drainage issues.

I think if you post some pictures so we know what we are dealing with that there may be so way of fixing this for you.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

Welcome to TLF! It could just be the normal practice in the area and depending on the grade of you entire block, they may have been trying to limit the trouble area to a smaller area instead of having gradual issues over half of your backyard. 
It may be something you will have to remedy with some French drains and gradually shaping the yard so it moves water better.
There are lots of threads on this forum regarding moving water. Check them out in the search function and post any questions.


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## atticus (Dec 30, 2021)

Mightyquinn said:


> Welcome to TLF!! No need to apologize for the long post, better to have too much info than not enough.
> 
> Sorry to hear about your grading issues but I doubt there is a lot you could do now with the project being done already and several months have passed. I think if you had been able to catch it early on it may have been fixed but then how was anybody to know about the drainage issues.
> 
> I think if you post some pictures so we know what we are dealing with that there may be so way of fixing this for you.


Thanks for the kind welcome! That's sort of what I was afraid of. I don't mind putting in the work to correct the issue, just the sort of thing I was hoping to avoid by paying someone to do the work for me, haha. 
I tried taking a few pictures of the problem areas, but it really doesn't look like much in photos. I can assure you though, when walking in the area my shoes sink in to the ground. Since this year will be my first full growing season, I may try to be patient and see what I can accomplish by raising the level a bit, doing a good job aerating, and encouraging drainage by incorporating some sand into the mix. If it still looks hopeless after trying that I can always resort to some sort of plumbed drainage solution.


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## atticus (Dec 30, 2021)

Redtwin said:


> Welcome to TLF! It could just be the normal practice in the area and depending on the grade of you entire block, they may have been trying to limit the trouble area to a smaller area instead of having gradual issues over half of your backyard.
> It may be something you will have to remedy with some French drains and gradually shaping the yard so it moves water better.
> There are lots of threads on this forum regarding moving water. Check them out in the search function and post any questions.


Thanks, that is great insight- most of the yard is perfectly fine. I may end up looking at something like a French drain in the future. Like I said in my above reply, the pictures don't represent reality very well.


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## Redtwin (Feb 9, 2019)

atticus said:


> Thanks, that is great insight- most of the yard is perfectly fine. I may end up looking at something like a French drain in the future. Like I said in my above reply, the pictures don't represent reality very well.


Yeah, photos really flatten things out. I've noticed the same regarding waves. It looks like that is what they were trying to do in grading it all to the property line and then funneling it out from there.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Thanks for the pictures!! Looks like everything is supposed to drain to the back of the property. In the Spring when everything is growing you could aerate the areas by the fence and add sand to the holes to help with drainage and/or raise the area a little bit to help move the water to the back.


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