Let me tell you a story:
The wife and I wanted to re turf our lawn as it was really shabby and had missing patches. Not being a very good gardener we decided to get the professionals in.
Stupid mistake no.1, I accepted the first quote of £300 for 20 m2. When he arrived he said he had difficulty getting the turf and upped the price to £360.
Stupid mistake no.2, I accepted.
He then said that as there used to be a tree, he would have to use some thicker turf to cover the roots, that's why it's a different colour!
Stupid mistake no.3, I accepted all of his BS because I put my trust in a professional.
The job was done while I was busy painting the conservatory wall. When he was finished he told me the unevenness would go down when people started walking on the lawn in about 3 weeks. I paid him (in cash, doh!) and off he went. It was then I discovered he'd not taken away the old grass but filled my wheelybin with it. That took two trips to the tip to get rid of.
Now at this point, you're all shaking your head at how someone could be so gullable. And you're right, I am gullable, and naive, and stupid. I know nothing of re turfing or gardening in general, that's why I paid and trusted a professional to do it for me. The professional I chose to trust turned me over big time as you'll see.
As I was watering my not so beautiful new turf:
I started to wonder why it was so un levelled so I peeked underneath and this is what I found:
It was so uneven only about 50% of the turf was actually touching the (hard compacted) soil.
I spent the next 3 days (I'm not in good shape) digging raking and removing about 2 tonne of hardcore, roots but mainly my old grass that had been dug into the soil. I levelled it off, heeled it, added 100L of top soil and relaid (quite badly) the now probably dead turf:
I am going to contact him and ask for a full refund.
What I would like from you guys is your objective professional opinion of his work that I can use (anonymously of course) to justify the refund.
Also a specific set of steps he should have taken so I can ask him why he didn't do it properly.
Also the name of any organization I can contact to take this matter further if he refuses to refund.
Thanks all in advance.
The wife and I wanted to re turf our lawn as it was really shabby and had missing patches. Not being a very good gardener we decided to get the professionals in.
Stupid mistake no.1, I accepted the first quote of £300 for 20 m2. When he arrived he said he had difficulty getting the turf and upped the price to £360.
Stupid mistake no.2, I accepted.
He then said that as there used to be a tree, he would have to use some thicker turf to cover the roots, that's why it's a different colour!
Stupid mistake no.3, I accepted all of his BS because I put my trust in a professional.
The job was done while I was busy painting the conservatory wall. When he was finished he told me the unevenness would go down when people started walking on the lawn in about 3 weeks. I paid him (in cash, doh!) and off he went. It was then I discovered he'd not taken away the old grass but filled my wheelybin with it. That took two trips to the tip to get rid of.
Now at this point, you're all shaking your head at how someone could be so gullable. And you're right, I am gullable, and naive, and stupid. I know nothing of re turfing or gardening in general, that's why I paid and trusted a professional to do it for me. The professional I chose to trust turned me over big time as you'll see.
As I was watering my not so beautiful new turf:
I spent the next 3 days (I'm not in good shape) digging raking and removing about 2 tonne of hardcore, roots but mainly my old grass that had been dug into the soil. I levelled it off, heeled it, added 100L of top soil and relaid (quite badly) the now probably dead turf:
I am going to contact him and ask for a full refund.
What I would like from you guys is your objective professional opinion of his work that I can use (anonymously of course) to justify the refund.
Also a specific set of steps he should have taken so I can ask him why he didn't do it properly.
Also the name of any organization I can contact to take this matter further if he refuses to refund.
Thanks all in advance.
