# Backyard Lawn Expansion Plans



## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

I currently have about 900 SqFt of lawn area. The previous homeowner thought it would be funny to make the lawn a completely irregular shape, and I hate it. It makes it tough to mow, tough to not have overspray from the irrigation, and frankly wastes space I could have grass. I have been planning to expand the area, but often bite off more than I chew, and so I am looking for some guidance from the more experienced members.

Here is a google maps overhead of the lawn and the proposed expanded area:



The lawn is bordered by ~85 linear feet of decorative brick laid in a shallow concrete base, excavated here:



It looks pretty thin in the area I dug up.

I am wondering if you guys think it would be too difficult to rent something like https://www.homedepot.com/tool-truck-rental/Small-Breaker/HM1307CB/index.html to break up the brick/concrete and remove it?

I have never used a breaker before so I really don't know what to expect. I may be able to remove it all with a sledge hammer, but I am trying to be efficient ( and kind to my body).

Also, what are your thoughts on using a breaker like that to try to break up the 5-6 sandstone landscaping boulders nearby? Here is a pic of one with gloves for scale:



Once the border and boulders are gone, I plan to remove the plants from within the blue line, dig a new shallow trench and lay in some concrete and top it with brick again to form a new larger border.


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## MrMeaner (Feb 21, 2017)

I feel ya on the curved curbing... when I built my house, we did a lot of curved things including the circle driveway sandbox, pool, patios and flowerbed curbing. Honestly, I hate the curves now especially using my triplex reel mower. Would live to just have straight edges to mow against as the reel mower tear up the turf while turning.

I've never used a breaker so don't have an opinion there.... I would at least see if you can sledge hammer it out first. Secondly instead of adding another 500sq ft of turf, I would certainly consider redoing the border/curbing to something straight. With you living in the desert area, may be a lot of work getting all the rock removed, adding/reconfiguring the irrigation, have new top soil brought in along with new sod. Personally, I would maybe bust up what you have and have a concrete crew come in and make straight edges on the 900Sq ft you have.

I have a concrete borders and driveways around my property level with the grass and I let the reels ride half on the concrete and half on the turf when mowing. Works like a charm and easy to mow and edge.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Thats a good point, I had not thought about the grading, removal of clay, adding topsoil, etc. for the new areas.

Honestly, a driving force for this is that my 2 1/2 year old wants a swing set, and with the lawn so small, it's tough to still have a lawn if I put a swing set, even a small one, there. I was hoping expanding the lawn area would make a little more room for grass and the play set.

Also, your yard looks amazing from the overhead view! I should move to Texas...


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Curious, what depth of topsoil would you put down if you were planting grass from seed in a new area?

Trying to figure out what depth I would need to remove from the new area to then add topsoil before seeding (I have common Bermuda adjacent).


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## Still learnin (Sep 9, 2017)

stogie1020 said:


> Honestly, a driving force for this is that my 2 1/2 year old wants a swing set, and with the lawn so small, it's tough to still have a lawn if I put a swing set, even a small one, there. I was hoping expanding the lawn area would make a little more room for grass and the play set.


Why don't you put the swing set in the landscaped area? They are a $!'?& to mow around.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Still learnin said:


> stogie1020 said:
> 
> 
> > Honestly, a driving force for this is that my 2 1/2 year old wants a swing set, and with the lawn so small, it's tough to still have a lawn if I put a swing set, even a small one, there. I was hoping expanding the lawn area would make a little more room for grass and the play set.
> ...


Well, there is really not enough room for it there, so if it's going to be in the grass, I want more grass!

I just got a quote of $500-600 to remove the six boulders...


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

I may have less than six boulders...

I just took a sledgehammer to one of the boulders, and in about an hours time (hey, I am out of shape), it became a pile of rubble.

This (top smaller boulder without gloves on it)



Became this



Not sure I want to break up all of them by hand, but at about $100 per boulder for removal, I may save some cash and get a workout.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

The breaker with the chisel bit is going to weigh around 45lbs, it'll be a workout. Even so that's the way to go if you want to get it done fast. That'll be easier on you than the sledge on all of it. You can use it on those boulders as well.

Before you break up more of the boulders, throw up an add on Facebook and Craigslist. You may find some people that want them and will remove them for you.

What's your plan for all of the debris? With that border and everything else that you're going to remove, factor in the cost of a small open top dumpster.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Good points Gilley, and thanks for the pointer on the chisel bit for the breaker.

The front yard has fake rock "rivers" on both sides on the property lines, and mine could use a little more rock in them, so I had planed for any boulder debris to add to those, assuming no one from Facebook/CL wants the stones. I only have 42" of clearance to get equipment in to move them, so that may be a complicating factor for the boulders. The brick debris I was planning to call a "junk haul" type guy to come remove, but if a small dumpster or those dumpster bags are cheaper, I will go that route.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Well, some flaky guy from FB Marketplace "says" he is coming by tomorrow at 10AM to pick up the remaining 5 boulders....

Based on my experience with FB Marketplace, I will believe it when I see it.

He says he has a dolly to load them onto and roll them through my 42" gate to his truck. I have some plywood to lay down to protect some of the grass he will need to roll over, but it won't cover an entire pathway, so I am expecting a little damage.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

If that doesn't work out, are you able to relocate them? You could move them to the street and in addition to FB Marketplace, put out a "FREE" sign.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Gilley11 said:


> If that doesn't work out, are you able to relocate them? You could move them to the street and in addition to FB Marketplace, put out a "FREE" sign.


If I could I would, but the only equipment I have to move them is an 8# sledge hammer...


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

One left! The guy from FB arrived with a hand truck... we managed to wrestle 4 of the five left onto the hand truck, and then up onto his trailer. Holy shit that was tough.

He would have taken the last boulder, but the tires on his trailer were looking very squishy and he thought it better not to have a blow out on the trailer tires just to get one more boulder.

So, now I need to smash the last one and move on to the next phase of the project. The last boulder is listed online, but I doubt anyone will pick up a single boulder.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Two of the four loaded onto his trailer. And the hand truck we used.


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

Heck yeah! That's impressive. And WAY easier than busting them up!


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

You should have taken the last one out to the street while you had the hand truck. Maybe a neighbor has one?


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Honestly, I don't think either one of us had an ounce of gas left in our tanks to move the last one, even to the street.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Now that most of the boulders have been removed, I started the process of removing the plants that have to go. First up, the two giant desert spoons. These should actually be called desert barbed wire, as each of the hundreds of leaves have hundreds of super sharp teeth along each edge. Long sleeves, eye protection and lopping shears required.

This:



Became:



And here's a close up of the trimmed leaves:



Ouch. Many times over.

Will remove the stumps shortly.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Made some progress today. The goal for the day was to remove the landscape gravel and start removing the plants that have to go.

I started with this:



And ended up with:



In the process I relocated about half the landscape gravel to a temp location. Not sure where I am going to relocate the other half to.



I managed to get this done with shovel, bow rake and a wheel barrow. It's going to be an Advil and bourbon evening.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

I've made some progress, but need a little advice at this point.

All the landscape gravel and plants (except one I need to transplant) have been removed from the expansion area.







I ended up with a nice pile. Most of it will be re-purposed, but the rest will go on OfferUp or similar after the pandemic clears..



Next up was the curved brick border. I was afraid it was set in concrete and I would need a jackhammer to break it up. as it turns out, it was set in a thin layer of mortar, and broke up easily in three or four brick chunks that lifted out of the ground pretty easily.





So, now for the issue I need advice on. As I mentioned earlier, I am expanding the lawn area from about 750sqft to 1000sqft. As you can see from the pic below, the grass (and expansion area) slope downward toward the house (house is on the right in the below pic).



I have no drainage issues other than some pooling of rain when we occasionally get really heavy rains, but I want to be able to put a swingset or a trampoline on the lawn for the kids. As a result, I am thinking about paying someone to come in and level the ground over the area the lawn will sit in. It will require removing dirt from the high side to make it the same level as the low side (near the house). The catch is that there s only a 42" gate access to the back yard. I know of a landscaper with a 36" skidsteer/Dingo who removed one of my landscape boulders, but I just dont know how tough this work will be.

My options are to leave it sloped, level the lawn area with sand once established and just bury the supports (or raise ) for whatever swing/play structure I put out there or I can level the area before putting down topsoil and replanting, and never have to think about the slope again.

Any thoughts or ideas?


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Finally made some progress on this project.

Covid + record 110 degree temps + running a day care at home put a lot of this off for a while. I finally got it re-booted and am in the home stretch.

All landscape gravel, brick border edging, plants and boulders removed. Also, all existing sprinkler bodies dug up and removed with the PVC capped off.



Then it was time to get rid of (most) of the grade. I found a guy with a Bobcat S70 that has a 36" clearance to fit through my 42" gate. They removed about 8-10 tons of clay-ish soil and rocks and leveled the area almost flat. I was told not to make it perfectly flat because there would be no runoff. Not sure I care in Arizona where it rains three times a year, but it is so close to flat I am happy.





Once that was done, I needed to extend the sprinkler lines. I was looking forward to learning how to do the PVC myself. I needed 5 13' runs trenched to the locations of the new sprinkler heads. I trenched one by hand with a pick and decided it was never going get finished if I needed to do the other four myself. My soil is basically like kiln fired clay with softball to shoebox sized rocks all over the place. I hired a crew to come out and extend the PVC. They also installed 5 tons of sod base across the area.



I then dug out the PVC caps, installed risers and Hunter PRS40 bodies and MP Rotator (MP1000) heads on all.

I had hoped to have this all done in time to get bermuda down for long enough to get good growth (we never really go fully dormant), but I missed my window. The Arden 15 seed will have to wait until March/April. ChampionGQ just arrived today, so it goes down tomorrow and then once it is established, the playset will go up.

I still have a few items to complete like a concrete capstone border around the grass area, backfilling the surrounding area with the previously removed landscape gravel, and a concrete stepstone pad to move the grill off the current patio, but I am going to wait about a month until temps really come down to tackle these.


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## gonefishn2010 (Jun 15, 2020)

I had a slope worse than yours in my back yard. I cut most of it out with a pick, shovel and a wheel barrow. I was worried it might screw up the drainage so I had a buddy come over who is an engineer and he said taking a bunch out wouldn't hurt anything. I have had some bad rains a few years back and everything is fine.


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## stogie1020 (Sep 10, 2019)

Wow, I am impressed you were able to get rid of your slope by hand. If your "soil" is anything like mine, that is a serious endeavor. I think you are right, I am not too worried about the rain. I mean, if we ever get any.


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