# Landscape Fabric and How to Remove it



## quattljl (Aug 8, 2018)

I moved into a new house about 2 years ago that had a very wooded back yard. Upon moving in I told my wife we would be able to grow grass very easily once we got some of the trees removed. Well 2 years later, I finally have some funds saved up to remove several of these trees but I've uncovered another obstacle in my grass journey. Apparently the previous owners, in an attempt to combat the mud from all the shade that prevents grass from growing, laid down landscape fabric and covered it with wood chips and mulch. This was done several years ago so there's also many years worth of leaf build up as well. The leaves I'm not so much worried about. But what about the landscape fabric? It is basically buried under 2-3 inches of dirt, mulch, and leaves. I can't simply rake/sweep it off and roll it up. How do I deal with this when trying to grow grass? What are my options for removal?


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## Grizzly Adam (May 5, 2017)

Shovel and wheelbarrow to remove the top layer until you can grab the fabric and pull it up.


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## ABC123 (Jul 14, 2017)

Rent a compact tractor or a dingo with a bucket/loader.


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## BobLovesGrass (Jun 13, 2020)

Elbow grease.


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## quattljl (Aug 8, 2018)

Grizzly Adam said:


> Shovel and wheelbarrow to remove the top layer until you can grab the fabric and pull it up.


The problem with that is my yard is very uneven and so are the layers of dirt/mulch/leaves. It's more likely I'll dig right into the fabric and that stuff is so delicate it just rips into little pieces if any amount of weight is on it.


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## Lawn Noob (Jul 26, 2020)

I pulled up maybe 200sf in a half hour by digging down to it, hooking it and dragging it out. It ripped up quite a bit. Interestingly, there was decent grass cover growing over it.

Maybe look into renting a bobcat with a grapple tine bucket?


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## Phids (Sep 24, 2020)

@quattljl Sounds like you don't have many options besides sheer labor to remove it. What you're dealing with is kind of a reason why landscaping fabric is a no-no for weed prevention to begin with; if you don't remove it, the grass might not grow, but if you try to remove it, it will rip into little pieces. And to top it off, it's probably long since stopped preventing weeds from growing in that area.


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## quattljl (Aug 8, 2018)

Phids said:


> @quattljl Sounds like you don't have many options besides sheer labor to remove it. What you're dealing with is kind of a reason why landscaping fabric is a no-no for weed prevention to begin with; if you don't remove it, the grass might not grow, but if you try to remove it, it will rip into little pieces. And to top it off, it's probably long since stopped preventing weeds from growing in that area.


Uggh, that's not what I wanted to hear but kinda what I thought the reality would be.


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## dicko1 (Oct 25, 2019)

You at least have fabric you can pull on to rip it out. The prior doofus/owner of my house used empty fertilizer/mulch bags as a weed block. So not only does it not prevent weeds from growing anymore, when I try to pull it up it comes up in little pieces of plastic instead of long stretches of fabric. Talk about back breaking labor.

I have only a few unbreakable rules for living in my house. No landscape fabric allowed while I'm still alive and kicking is one of them.


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