How Not to sod- Beginner Mistakes out on the job. Day at Work building a yard

If you guys are getting rolls like this on your job site, don't accept them. Don't accept these rules. [Applause] So sad is one of those things that's actually pretty easy to screw up, but it's also really easy to get it right. All you got to do is understand the very basics and from there you can have a successful saw job on your own. And so today's example I thought was the perfect opportunity to illustrate some of the things not to do when you're laying sod. You see a couple of my guys are pretty green when it comes to laying sod. In fact, this is the first year that they've ever laid it. And so when we get out to the job site, I kind of let them just do what they think is the right thing. And then I step in and teach them the right way to do it so that they can have a successful project and more importantly so you guys can have a successful project. So today we're going to be learning while we film the right way and the wrong way to lace out. Yeah. And there you see Xander working once. You like to pick on him, don't you? I do like Is that cuz he's a better camera operator than you are? No. No, I don't actually care. I got my own stuff. Okay. So, uh, Blaine, can you hold this a sec? The camera going that way. Right. Oh, that's correct. Look at Blaine. It's what happens when you got 50 years of experience under your belt, right? More efficient. You put the wheelbarrow the way you're going to start with. Right. All right. So, uh, how long do you think it should be before you use Here you go. I want to figure it out. How long do you think it is before you can use sod? How long can it stay in a pallet like that? In the shade or in the sun? That's a There you go. Tell me both. Um, I don't know really, but in the sun maybe a few hours in the shade a day or two. Okay. So, and do you want to water it in the in the sun? About a day and a pallet. You can get by with maybe two days. So, if you have a sod installer and he drops the sod off, it's been sitting out in your front yard or your backyard or whatever in the sun for 3 4 days, reject that sod. Don't let them use it. Now, if it's in the shade and it's in a cool spot, I'd say 2 days max. I I mean, our policy is the day we buy it, it's got to be laid down the exact same day. We don't we don't buy it like this whole pallet, it doesn't make a difference. I mean, this will be done in an hour, but we've done 10, 15 pallets at a shot. And if this the job's not done by 6:00 at night, we're staying till 7:00. We're staying till 8. Bla, how how many how many times have we stayed till freaking butt crack of dark? That's why laying sod. That's one of the things that you can't you can't do it any other way. Our our company policy is the day you get it, no matter under any circumstances, it gets laid. What if it starts pouring? That's good for it. Actually, that's not bad for it. So, that's a great question. That's a little dirtier job. That's a much dirtier job. So, if it starts pouring, I've actually laid plywood down so I could walk and keep keep laying sod. Yeah. Really? Yep. Yep. Yep. Laid plywood down. Laid the sod out. Moved the plywood. Laid sod down. Moved the plywood. Got the sod laid out. Cuz our policy is it's the same day. plain and simple. But if it's in the shade, like it's in a spot over here, two days max. Don't let them don't let guys hold it off any longer than that cuz it's it's just not right. Okay. But that and so does that mean that the place you go to buy this sod is getting new sod every day or uh the place I buy the sod from? That's a great question. I like I like even Blaine's over there shaking his head. Awesome question. The sad shake your head at me. No, he's shaking his head. Right. Good question. Because the saw that I buy is brought in every single day fresh off the trailer. Every morning, every actually twice, two, three times a day sometimes. Depends on how much they sell. But yeah, it's not stored. Gets cut and shipped right there. Yeah. We don't I don't buy anything from Menard's cuz that's been sitting around for couple days. Couple days. Yep. So the stuff So So do most like legit garden centers get saw? Nope. Really? Nope. We buy it from a sod company. Okay. And they bring it in off the fields that morning. So, there's been times where we've had sod delivered to our site before we get there. Where are the closest fields? You know, it doesn't make a difference for a video. I know, but I'm just curious. I don't don't I don't care if you're holding a camera or not. Yeah. There's a lot of sod fields up north of the cities. Yeah. I don't But they'll they'll bring it out. They'll cut it at They usually will start between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. cutting. They'll have the first trucks loaded up and the first deliveries on site by 7:00 a.m. Yep. So, can you ask questions and work or do you both got to stand there with your arms crossed cuz that does not look good. Uh, see, I'm working now. Uh-huh. Was Where did all this come from? Um, this is all the sidewalk. [Music] All right. So, on today's project, we're actually going to be removing a concrete sidewalk, and it was just littered with debris. So, the first step is to remove all of that to take the soil underneath that concrete out and loosen it up. That soil has been heavily compacted over years and years and years underneath that concrete sidewalk. So once that sidewalk's gone, the next step is to loosen up that subs soil. [Music] Now the most important thing you can do with the base is to make sure that it's loose. Compacted base will be almost virtually impossible to grow sod on unless you are willing to water it constantly. The simplest thing you can do is take your existing base material and loosen it up. Now, your sod rolls will actually come with a slight amount of organic material with them. But to add a little bit of extra on top of that is just like icing on top of the cake. The material you want to use when you're adding extra organic material is not pure black dirt. In fact, one of the myths that people have is to add 4 in of solid black dirt. And nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if you add 4 in of solid black dirt, you're going to create root rot in your sod. Really, you need free draining material in that top 4 in. So, the ideal mixture is to have 2/3 of organic material such as sod or pete or whatever happens to be indigenous to your local area and then to mix that in with one/3 of sand or free draining material. This allows the sod to take root, to have good uh vegetative material to hold on to, but it doesn't trap the water beneath the sod. It allows the water to disperse and move away until you can water it again. Those are the ideal conditions. I'm going to take you on a ride. We're going to breathe through the night. Why you're so salty? I'll still take a bite. Okay. We can take my Lambo. I'll put on a tight show. You sure you can handle? What next? Uh, well, we're going to lay sod, but we're going to go over the the signs of healthy sod because we've got a healthy roll right next to a not so awesome roll. Actually, a few not so awesome rolls. Okay, guys. This is the perfect time to show you the difference between healthy sod and not so healthy sod. If you take a look at this side right here, you see these wormholes real close in. That's that's not a bad thing, but it the problem is it's an indicator that there isn't a lot of vegetation here. See that? This doesn't give me a good healthy base for my sod to grow. I personally don't want to see rolls like this. This sod, if it's light and tearing apart like this, means it doesn't have a lot of black dirt with it. And your sod should have a ton of black dirt with it. We've got more rolls down here that have the same problem. Look at this. There's no dirt right here. There's nothing for these this grass right here to grow out and through. So these rolls, if you guys are getting rolls like this on your job site, don't accept them. Don't accept these rolls. So, we're going to set these to the side. This just is good. This has got good meat to it. So, here's an example. This is a better example of really good sod. It's just got a good thick base that goes along with it. Uh, and that's what you want when you lay this down because it does need that base. Otherwise, there's no roots left in it. All right. One of the things I want to do is jump in right here and talk about the best time of the year to lay sod. Now, a lot of people might think it would be June, July, August, September. No, absolutely not. The heat of the summer is the worst time of the year to lay sod because your sod can fry out really quick. As soon as that sun beats down on it, it can cook it in a single afternoon. And once your sod is dead, it's basically useless. The best time of the year to lay sod is late in the fall. In fact, the later in the year you can lay sod, the better. I've had my absolute most success laying sod in snowstorms. Not a lie. Snow's falling from the sky and I'm rolling outside. I've actually had to take a propane heater and thaw my sod rolls out because they're frozen into the into like giant tootsie rolls. Those those projects give the customer the least amount of maintenance. You see, when you lay sod later in the year or early in the year while the ground is still coming alive, the customer doesn't have to continue to water it, maintain it, watch it, worry about it. But if you lay sod in the heat of the summer, the way to get around that heat is to water it continually. Not once in the morning and once in the afternoon or once at night, but to mist it constantly. Have you guys ever been to like a state fair or a a valet wherever any any kind of a a function where you got tons of people and they have these misters out and people go underneath the misters to cool off. Well, the sod is absolutely no different. If you decide to lay sod in the heat of the summer, you have to keep it cool during the entire day. It doesn't work to water it once and to leave it. Instead, you have to water it gently all day long. That'll keep it cool and protect it from the heat and protect it from drying out. So hopefully you guys can see that laying sod in June, July, August, or anytime it's especially hot in your neck of the woods is the worst possible thing you can do. Lay your sod in the super early spring or the late or as late of the fall as you possibly can to have the least amount of maintenance and to have the best results. [Music] We use an X-Acto knife. Flip the saw over. Now, this piece, this piece will get reused at the end, right? Can get reused at the end or this this will be a full roll right here. And then we would put this piece in. But we're going to cut this edge. I want to straighten this edge out right here before we do that. All right. So, there's a lot of different ways to cut a straight edge. And really, that's what you want to accomplish with this next part in the video. When you're first laying sod down to next to existing turf, you want that sod to have a nice crisp edge because that sod's going to be one color. Your existing turf is going to be another color. And if you have that sod all jaggedy, that's just going to stand out like a sore thumb. So instead, cut a nice crisp edge. If you don't have an edger like we're going to be using in this video, you can simply use a flat nose shovel and just shovel that edge. It's more work, but hey, whatever works, whatever gets you through the job. [Music] Look at this. You've got stuff right here, right? You never lay that out. Yes. You never lay anything over, right? Yep. So, that's got to go and that gets thrown in the scrap pile and gone. Now, here's another thing that's going to stand out from you. Your sod is going to be a different color than your turf. They're not going to match up. They weren't grown in the same conditions. They probably don't have the same seed. But the easiest thing that you can do to get those two different species of sod or turf and sod to blend up is to overseed the entire area, the existing turf and the brand new sod. So, as the overseed grows in, it'll kind of blend the colors together. That's a little trick of the trade to keep you from having the sharp delineation from one color to another color. Okay. Another important point I want you to look at how we actually lay the joints together. Do it wrong once, will you, Elliot? Do it do it wrong. There's two wrong ways to do a joint. Well, wouldn't one of them be leaving a gap? Yep. And then, you know, let's get it let's get it right up. So there, that's wrong, too. You see how he's actually got one joint laid over the top of the other. So the what you want, you can see your edges. You want to just butt it up. And I even kind of just kind of do that sometimes. Marry it together just to make sure that it's it's not on top of it's not apart. It's just right up next to each other like this. Don't put it on top of each other. Don't have it separated. And the same with your edges. You want to pull contact with the ground, right? You you know, you want you want to make sure your edges are together. And after I work along a whole piece, what I do is I come back and I make sure this is together cuz sometimes by moving this around, it'll separate here. Okay. So, also lift lift one side up just a titch. I want to show it where it's actually doesn't have good ground contact. So, if So, lift up here. Just do it on this end over here. Fold it up just a little bit. Not like this. It'll look It'll look like it's got good ground contact. So, you never want to have it like that. It's this space right here that won't root. It's got to be down. So, what are the tools you need to actually lay sod? Well, I would recommend if you've got a giant sod job, a back brace, uh outside of that, you're going to want to have a good rake. Whether you have a short rake or whether you have a a long rake, it doesn't make a difference because ideally all it's about is making sure that the subs soil is as smooth and level as possible. And there's a number of different ways to accomplish that. But once your subs soil is nice and smooth, you can then lay the sod out, making sure that you get full adhesion to the ground below. One of the biggest problems that people have is leaving little tiny divots in their sod. and we're going to demonstrate exactly what that is. Now, if you're unsure whether you've got good adhesion to the soil below, the easiest way to ensure that your sod is making full contact with the ground below it is to simply roll it. But there's a few rules that go along with rolling it, and we're going to cover those right now. I need another roll. The only reason people roll sod is to make sure all of the roots have contact with the ground. It's not to compact the ground. It's not for anything, but to make sure that the roots make full contact with the ground below it. If you can make sure that the roots get full contact with the ground below it, however else you're installing it, you don't necessarily need to roll it. And in fact, make sure that if you end up rolling it, you don't roll it to compact it. That's the worst thing you can do. You're literally rolling only to get full contact with the ground. Some people roll their sod. So they take a roller after it's in place. I've seen people doing that. Yes. The only point is just to make sure that the sod is perfectly flat with the ground so the roots adhere. All right. But Xander. Okay. Yep. And now Xander, you're going to fold that twice. Twice. So So you're going to get it in place. Mhm. Then you're going to cut it so that it's a halfy. And then you're going to um cut it to me. Yes. Exactly. So you're gonna end up folding it twice and cutting it twice. And you can keep you can keep moving on with that next row while he's cutting. So on a typical job, we'll have one guy laying and one guy uh cutting. This is about right. Right. You just leave that gap. No one will notice. Nobody will notice that as long as you overseat it with that artificial turf. Exactly. Yeah. Don't Don't do that. All right. Now, fold that corner up that you're going to cut off, Sander. There you go. Now, you'll do that after you get all of your pieces and you'll create a nice straight line through all of the pieces together. But just leave it folded up cuz if you leave that folded down and you keep laying sod, you'll forget about it. you will forget about it. All right. So, now here's a good example. So, and maybe there's a better way to be doing this, but I've been laying my rows and I've been on this the previous row. Yeah. And you can look right here. It's not together. It's okay. Do you see anything wrong with being on the sod that you're laying? It moves it moves the sod. It moves the sod. It's also creating it's also creating uneven spots in the saw that you're sitting on cuz your knees are compacting the soil beneath it. Sure. So, unless you have a board or something underneath you, I don't recommend doing what you're doing. There you go. And the reason I'm letting all of this fly is because it's better for them guys to see and learn with us than for me to tell them, but not actually see exactly what we're talking about with this. There you go. That was perfect. Perfect. You seen that little edge was flipped up. That needed to be down. Okay, Xander, you can switch over to the next row. Okay, and get that flipped up and ready to go cuz you're at a cut row. This is a This is called a cut row right here. You see what you're doing right now, Xander? That's right. See how your joints are going to line up and you're going to have a nice even cut. Keep that side folded over so that when you make this cut, you're making it all one fluid motion. And then you just keep laying. You just fold up where you got to come back to cut to. [Music] Try to cut as deep as possible on the first one. Is your blade fully extended? Mhm. Okay. The less hacking and the less back and forth. Yeah. The better. You don't want a sawing motion. Yep. looking okay. Not bad for your first cut. I'm going to give you I'm going to give you a B on your first cut. If you want to see somebody really screw it up, don't look like [Laughter] actually. I don't know. So, correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think from from my eyes looking down so far what you've got, this is the part that's the worst cuz it go this seems like it goes in. Yep. But if this was a little bit straighter. Yep. It seems to follow pretty well. Yep. From piece to piece. Yep. I could see this being one of the harder hardest parts of laying sod is getting it so it all the cut. All right, I'm going to let these guys finish this job up. Now, you guys tell me. We covered a lot of the dos, a lot of the don'ts, a lot of the details. Seems like you guys hopefully like these more detailed projects where we take you out, show you hands-on what we're doing. But you tell me, was this a good video? Yes or no? I just want to know. [Music] You going to be okay with these whipper snappers? These youngans? I don't know. I got to go get rock form. So, we'll see how what happens when I'm gone. Oh, you got to leave them alone for a little bit. So, with no adult supervision? No. Hey guys. So, in today's video, we're going to talk about our stand to show up on the job site, uh, record some B-roll, do the fun stuff, and then hit the road to go do some editing. Isn't that right, Elliot? It is right. We haven't had a Skiddy on this job until about 10 minutes ago, and he shows up with the Skiddy. I get in it, pull it off the trailer, and then he kicks me out. I mean, that's the way the dirt monkey does, right?