No-Machine easy sod/turf removal method

let's say you have a hard to use area of turf in your yard that you'd like to convert into something else i did such a job last summer myself and i'd like to share a little know-how that worked really well i did it myself because it's hard to hire a landscaper to do such a small job if you do hire it out they'll charge you a lot to cover their minimum costs and it'll take a while for them to get to it so it makes sense to do it yourself the main problem you face here is the removal and disposal of the existing turf renting a sod cutting machine is not trivial if you can find one to rent for a day it's still a 300 pound machine that takes an open top pickup truck to transport and it's not that easy to use doesn't make sense to go through that much trouble for such a small area now tearing up the side by hand bit by bit is back-breaking and tedious on top of that when you're done you have a bunch of random sod scraps that you have to dispose of so you beat the dirt off each one and throw them into your trash or compost bin or to avoid that maybe you decide you can load them all up and run them to the dump well that's usually a long way away and you have to pay a dump fee and then you have to unload it all by hand instead it's so much better if you can strip off the turf in nice neat rolls like a powered side cutting machine would do but without the machine you can skip the work of removing the backing dirt all together and the side can be reused by someone else if you put rolls of freshly cut sod out on craigslist for free it'll be gone within an hour and if it's in good condition without much weed growth you could probably even get some money for it this is all way better than driving it to the dump and then paying them to take it so here's a diy method for making that happen so get a few tools and miscellaneous items together first you'll need a pointed shovel a pickaxe that has a flat side to it a tape measure a hand shovel a circular saw with a masonry blade or just an old wood cutting blade you don't care about a drill a scrap of maybe a half inch rebar that's uh two to five feet long and a scrap of four by four lumber kind of like a fence post that's maybe two and a half or three feet long a dolly or a wheelbarrow is helpful for moving the sod rolls around but it isn't required you'll need to drill two perpendicular holes through the four by four scrap near one end for the rebar to pass through loosely for half inch rebar i drilled three quarter inch holes i drilled the holes in both ends of mine but it turned out that they were only needed on one end furthermore you probably only need to drill one hole the second one just gives you more options for how you position the rebar which acts as a lever if you drill two holes you can position it like every 90 degrees versus every 180 degrees or half turn if you've only drilled one hole so start by taking a picture of the turf you're removing for your craigslist add later this helps measure about two feet from one edge of the area being removed and lay your tape measure longitudinally long ways on that line to temporarily mark the edge of the strip of sod you're going to remove now cut along that line with the circular saw as deep as the saw will cut you know a couple inches cutting dirt will dolly wood cutting blade that's why i recommend using an old worn out blade that you don't care about for this project or a masonry blade if you've got one the saw moves a bit slow but it's still much less work than trying to stand there and chop a straight clean line with a shovel you will look really silly cutting turf with a circular saw so try and do this part while your neighbors are at work or at night or with a bag over your head maybe you'll think of something now use the shovel on the pickaxe to lift the first foot or two of the sod strip this is tedious but i don't think there's any way getting around it once you have a flap of sod free maybe you know a foot or two wrap it around the four by four scrap leaving holes that you drilled sticking out at one end and put the rebar through the holes to use as a lever to roll the four by four along as the side is ripped up i found this to be a two person job or one person applies pressure to the lever while another slashes with a small hand shovel across the line where the sod is being separated from the ground when i tried to skip the slashing i found that the grass would try to like take up too much dirt with it or the strip of sod would want to tear from the amount of force required to do the ripping so you help it along a little bit with the slashing this could also vary you know depending on how long the grass has been there mine was about six years old since it had been installed the slashing seem to help keep the amount of backing dirt nice and uniform which helps the next person when they go to reinstall this sod somewhere else now with a longish lever my wife or one of my kids easily had the strength to apply the right amount of pressure to roll the 4x4 along the job of slashing with a hand shovel was fairly demanding and tiring so i did that part myself after every half turn of the roll push the rebar back through the hole and continue prying slashing and rolling sod becomes heavy quickly as the roll grows so each strip will likely produce multiple rolls of sod when the roll looks big enough and feels heavy enough make a cut using a tool of your choice being careful to leave a nice two foot flap of lucid to start the next roll to wrap around the bare four by four when you get it out um i use some tin snaps but circuit the circular saw might work okay again if the cutting depth is set just right don't cut too deep again you'll look silly cutting grass with a circular saw but it's worth it if it saves jeffrey once the roll is free pound the 4x4 wood piece out of the center using the butt of the pickaxe handle or whatever and cart the sod roll off to your pile on the dolly or the wheelbarrow or just heft it now use the 4x4 piece of wood to start the next roll wrap that two foot flap that we left loose around the 4x4 and get you know get cranking after the last strip of sod is off and on the pile take a picture of the sod rolls all together post it on craigslist and don't forget to include the picture of the turf before removal i posted mine for free on a saturday in august and i had eight people who wanted it within about 45 minutes the first guy showed up in under 30 minutes we loaded it up and it was gone in less than an hour from the time when i posted it once i had the process figured out i was able to crank through my 200 square feet of turf removal in less than a day including getting it into the hands of someone else who could use it instead of just throwing it away having a process was a big help to me and i hope it helps you too thanks for watching

Channel: Eric B

Views: 99,330

Rating: 4.7938519 out of 5

Keywords: DIY, Sod, Landscaping, Turf

Id: kZkx6lbVCm8

Length: 4min 59sec (299 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 16 2021