SOD INSTALL Lawn Replacement | What Your Landscaper is NOT Telling You!

Hey, everyone, it's Mike Andes. And today we're going to be having the first episode of what your landscaper isn't telling you. And we're going to be doing a lawn replacement project. So whether you're a homeowner or a business owner, we're going to show every single step of the process from start to finish, right from the phone call coming in and getting the estimate all the way to the job being completed. Here we go.

Augusta Lawn Care Services, this is Brandon speaking. How may I help you?

Hi there, Brandon. My name is Jan and I'm needing some new grass in our house that we just moved into. I would love to meet someone. The grass, the whole ground is a little bit uneven and I'm not sure how the process works.

Awesome. Do you have any time available? Maybe tomorrow morning? Would that work for you?

I think I could be home by 12, maybe.

Yeah.

We could set you up in the window of noon to 1. Our estimator, Marcus can be out to your property to get you an estimate for a sod install.

Does that work?

Beautiful.

Awesome.

Our new address is on Barry Lane. You should see that there.

Awesome. Yeah, I will just get that entered in here as a new property under your client profile, and then I will set it up for Marcus and transfer all the notes over and he will come out to see you in the window of noon to 1 tomorrow morning. Or tomorrow. Tomorrow afternoon, I should say. Have a great day, Jan.

Here's the actual estimate for this client and you can see how we break down the estimate into specific line items to make sure it works for the budget of the homeowner. Also ask for details if you are the homeowner about the yardage type of materials so there is no gray area or confusion. Also, if the contractor that you're calling can't answer your phone and have great communication before the job, don't expect anything different throughout the project.

Hi there. I was wanting to accept the bid that you sent over the other day after I met Marcus. I just love your customer service. Could. Could I accept that and get that done soon?

Awesome. Yeah, we'll just have to have a couple things from.

When it comes to scheduling the job, make sure that the professional company you're trying to hire is actually able to give you a specific date and not just say, oh, yeah, we'll get done in like three or four weeks. Also, make sure you're in person on the job site when they're completing it to make sure it's actually up to your satisfaction and they don't just leave when they think the job is done.

Our crew will typically service your property and they'll be out in between the window of 8:30 to 9 in the morning for soda installs.

Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day.

You too. Have a great day, Jen.

Bye Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

So we're here to install some sod. The client has been struggling for a couple of years. It sounds like quite a few years to get anything to grow in here. Grass is pretty much dead and the moss has taken over. Primary reason more than likely is because of the trees that are around here. Pine needles fall and it messes with the phone and grass doesn't do real well. It's a common issue in this area.

When it comes to the excavation or removal of the existing turf. You want to be really aware of what type of equipment your contractor is going to bring on site. Is it a big piece of equipment like this, a skid steer? Is it a sod cutter? Are they using an excavator? It's important because that type of equipment can do damage to things like your concrete driveway or your patio if you have pavers. These are things you need to be aware of and make sure that if there is liability around cracking driveways or breaking things like your irrigation lines, that the contractor is aware of those. And by the way, if they are digging below just a few inches, you better make sure you call 411 so that your utility lines are actually marked and you don't hit a gas line. Also be aware and ask your contractor what type of soil they're going to be using for the new topsoil. Because if you're just taking out old soil and replacing with junk, it's not. You can't expect anything different of the new lawn. Make sure it has some sort of a soil amendment compost and is very nutrient dense. You can see here we got roots, we got gravel and all the rest of it. You can expect that if you're excavating existing turf and you're going below the surface of the soil, there's going to be other stuff that comes into play like roots and gravel and rocks and who else knows what. And that's what actually is about to happen right now.

You just got too many layers of sod.

I think that's a big thing to it.

Yeah.

So we showed up expecting to cut the existing sod out and then just put down some dirt and put the new sod in and then realized that there's actually been three or four different installs of Sod before.

How can you tell there's sod underneath that? It's just roots.

The biggest thing is I don't have any black, but there's at least three different colors of net.

Oh, yeah.

So that's the biggest thing. And it's a complete disaster. So having to dig down a little bit farther than expected and gonna put a little bit more dirt down than we had planned. But it'll be the best outcome with all the roots and just starting fresh instead of trying to plant on top of other people's mistakes.

All I want is enough soil there to make some nice grass growing.

Yep, yep. And that's the plan. We're taking out a little bit more than expected, but we'll take and put more topsoil down. Sure.

Whatever you think is good, but just, you know, make it work. Keep it simple. You know, we're improvising on top of everybody else's mess, and we're gonna fix it.

Right.

Well, it's what you do when you remodel a house.

Oh, y.

You know, you open up a wall.

And you're going, oh, my God.

At any rate, you know, I'm sorry that you're going to have a few challenges, but it's all good.

This is very common for projects of this size, especially when you're going below the surface of the soil, and that's work change orders. So if you're a contractor, this should definitely be in your estimate notes if there's things you can't foresee before the job site that the estimate might change. Also, you can expect this as a homeowner if the job begins to change because they go below the soil, below the surface of the soil, and there's rocks, roots, and other things that make the job take longer. And this is the importance as a homeowner to make sure that the estimate notes that are given to you are very detailed to know exactly what is included and what is not included in the original bid. And by the way, you want to make sure that you can communicate with your contractor in a very, very positive way throughout this whole process, because there will be changes. If you're working on a big project, this is the importance of having online reviews and recommendations as to which contractor you should use. If there's been a whole bunch of people in your neighborhood, use this person, and they've done great work and they communicate well. And when work change, not if work change orders happen, but when work change orders happen and routes come up and changes in the job take place, do they communicate effectively and talk to you about those. Or do they just make up random numbers and charge a bunch of whole extra costs without explaining why the work change orders are needed? Like, there's a ton of roots here, there's way more excavation needed, there's way more soil needed. That's gonna cause a difference in price. And you wanna make sure that you can actually trust the landscape contractor. Cause it's very, very common to have changes in the scope of work through.

So when it comes to installing sod, you can see what they're trying to do here is stagger the seam lines. The reason for that is because along the seams is where the grass has the hardest time of growing. It's the best chance of it dying. You can see them pressing down into the soil, making sure that those roots get established in that new topsoil that they just installed. So staggering the seams is helpful. And making sure too, as the homeowner, that you're getting fresh sod is important. You can notice this was cut that morning. It's extremely fresh. It still has moisture, the chance of survival and the chance is much reduced in terms of death of the seams when that sod is freshly cut and is going to have plenty of moisture. If it's been sitting out for days on end and is already dry and crusty and looks half dead when it's installed, it very good chance you're going to be spending a lot of time watering it and you're going to basically wash down the toilet all of the investment you just put into installing all this brand new soil. Now, when it comes to sod, there is that netting inside of this sod and it depends on the type of sod you buy, but typically it's going to be. It should actually decompose over time and erode with the moisture. But that netting prevents any erosion and really keeps the sod together so that it can be cut and moved on site. There's really, you know, the greatest benefit of having sod like this is you have an instant lawn. It looks great from literally day one. Within a few days it's growing and within a week or two, you can usually cut the grass for the first time after it's grown to about six inches. And this and the roots are actually established in the new soil. The alternative is just to put seed down, or you could even do hydro seed. Seed and hydro seed are going to take more water, more care, and it's going to take several weeks before to get a good thick lawn. That being said, if you're gonna install seed, you better make sure that you have your contractor do a really good installation of seed and it's very well dispersed. Otherwise, make sure they come back in three weeks and it's in the estimate that they should come back after they've installed the project to actually just make sure that any bare spots where the seed didn't germinate is actually redone and reseeded just to make sure your lawn does come in full after they've installed the project to actually just make sure that any bare spots where the seed didn't germinate is actually redone and reseeded just to make sure your lawn does come in full, healthy and very lush.

Thank you for watching the very first episode of what your landscaper is not telling you.

If you are a homeowner and you're.

Looking for a job like this to be done for you, you can check out augusta lawn care services.com we have over 50 locations around North America that can serve you and get this type.

Of job done right.

Or if you are a business owner and you want to install jobs like this and make money for in your local community, definitely check out landscapebusinesscourse.com and watch the other videos on the channel. I'm Mike Andes. Landscapebusinesscourse.com we'll see you soon. Thank you so much for watching the video. I really appreciate it. Make sure you check us out on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram for daily posts about lawn care, landscaping and making money doing those things.