How NOT to lay Sod

it's all about the side today we're gonna talk about what it takes to have a successful instant green backyard or go over grading we're going to go over the depth of black dirt and dispel a few myths there we're gonna talk about the watering schedule when to water and how much we're also gonna go over when you can mould the sod we're gonna teach you how to peel back the sod and determine how healthy your sod is and then the scourge of sod fighting the Japanese beetles what to look for so you can cut them off before they become problematic so let's get into it first thing I want to do is dispel a myth that you got to have four inches of pulverized screened black dirt if you actually put that much black dirt on top of your subgrade this soil this black dirt is going to compress and cause uneven waves in your side before inches isn't necessary and sometimes incorporating it can be a little difficult like tilling your entire backyard so if you can't incorporate it what I want you to do then is to layer black dirt an inch to an inch and a half maximum and sprinkle that over the top and make sure you do not compact that soil because if you compact that soil that black dirt you're not gonna get the roots to grow into it so you sprinkle the black dirt on and then you hand rake that out and lay your sod on top of that you can see in the background what Tim is doing is he actually hand rakes out all of the areas before the sod gets laid out we don't machine grate it we don't come in with a skid lay skid loader and level it all out because that'll compact the soil so he takes that big old rake over there and just gets everything laid out here's a rule you never put sod over existing grass if you got vegetation growing you've got to strip and remove it because the vegetation underneath when you lay that sod on top of it it will decompose while it's decomposing it will heat up killing the sod on top of it so you have to strip the vegetation underneath and lay that side whether it's on black dirt or whether it's just on sub-base it's better off and laying it on top of existing grass do not do that to create a clean line like you see in this shot using an echo bad too edger believe it or not they don't tell you to use this tool for this but it works phenomenal to create that line of separation works better than even a skid loader can do on its own a skid loader can't create a nice straight cut that's why we pulled out the echo bed edger and created all the cuts so that we had a definitive line from the turf that stays the turf that goes the next thing is the watering schedule this is a critical element to the success of your side do not over soak the side simply peel back your side look underneath and you just want the soil beneath the sod to be moist you don't want it to be mud moist as good mud is bad if you peel back that side and it's okay to grab a corner of the sod and literally peel it up that won't permit when you're doing that you can also do a quality test to see how your sod is taking as you feel that sod up you should see little white roots starting to grow that gives you an indicator that the sod is enjoying what is enjoying the benefits of your labour and it's starting to adhere to the subsoil you look behind me what you've seen is they're staggering the joint spacing so it'll be a full roll laid out then the next roll starts at the halfway point of the other roll next to it and then we will cut in individual pieces to fill these in in a bricklayer basic fashion that way we don't get all the joint spaces lined up and then ability for water to channel and knock the sod out of whack that much faster when to mow is another question that comes up you can start to mull decide anywhere from three and a half to four inches you don't want to mow it too soon can you don't want to mow it too short that's all that matters if you multiple oh three inches it can burn if you start to notice that you have brown patches pots throughout your yard that's a sure sign that you have an infestation of Japanese beetles and you need to go to your local hardware store and pick up materials all of the big-box stores now sell materials specifically to fight Japanese beetles and first indication which is those brown spot jizz that you just make no sense why they're showing up you have a Japanese beetle problem you need to cut it off at the pass just simply follow the directions on the bet on the package and you should be in good shape let's go out to a site and look at the pattern we want to use a brick pattern and there's specifically some suggestions of what to do on steep slopes so let's go there and check it out alright so the way we're gonna be laying this side is we're gonna be rolling it sideways on this portion of the hill and as we get to the closer the steeper portion of the hill we're actually going to be stapling it now if you lay it sideways and you get a torrential rain you can expect Assad to bend in the middle you may see that occasionally that's where the staples come in if you run it down the hill what can happen is you can get channels that form between the sod and you'll never see those until it's too late so it's a it's two different ways to skin a cat so to speak it's with the lesser of two evils we prefer to take the steep hills sideways but to really thoroughly staple them that way when the water rushes down the hill the sod helps slow it and if there is any bending you can go out and repair it versus laying the sod with the hill straight up and down where the channels create you can never see them because they go between finding the joint spacing in the sod and it just disappears until it becomes an issue the first time you go to mom follow these simple rules and you should be able to go from dirt and dust to a nice green lawn in one afternoon and make sure that you water immediately the day of the installation god bless go get them let me know your experiences with sod and any tips or tricks down below in the comments I'd love to hear better ways to improve upon the process you