Installing Sod That My Friend Gave Me

 

Last November I helped a buddy install sod into his front lawn. He had about 100 square foot of leftovers and instead of throwing them away, he decided to give them to me. This sounds fine on paper, but in reality there is a lot of prep work involved. First the old lawn needs to be torn out, then compost needs to be mixed into the soil, everything then has to get leveled out and flattened, and finally you can add the sod on top.

A part of me wanted to refuse his generous offer, but the frugal side of me couldn't resist. So I took them and began work right away, as they need to be installed within a certain time frame. I began the project by manually removing the old lawn by hand, and this was proving to be quite a challenge. I worked for a whole day to the bone  which resulted in installing about 4 pieces. It would be impossible to continue on at the pace I was going, and I would probably end up in the hospital with long term injuries.

So I reluctantly decided to make my way over to Home Depot to rent a cultivator at a whopping $100 for the day. The Cultivator made quick work of our yard, but it was a beast to handle. Me and my wife worked together as a single unit, and 8 hours later we got the rest of pieces in. I have to be honest, it looked terrible, with most of the grass looking a bit dry. I hope over time it will grow out to look nice, considering it's bermuda grass and they tend to be very hardy.

As of writing this post, the grass is looking a bit greener but still terrible with weeds growing through. I'm still hoping for the best, and I think it will come around, but at this point I wish I could pull it out and install new sod. The free sod was anything but free at the end of the day. It cost me $100 just to rent the cultivator, probably another $50 for compost and my body felt broken for a few weeks. Lesson of the story, when a friend gives you free sod, don't take it.

Tools Used: Tamper Bar Cultivator Steel Garden Rake Tamper Hand Tiller

Material: Lawn Starter Soil Bermuda Grass Seed Bermuda Sod Total Cost: $150 for starter soil, grass and cultivator rental