New Lawn on Old..?

[Scone]

Can I lay a turfed lawn on top of an existing one to enable the level to be raised..?

[andyjevs]

yes. The old grass will rot and provide food for the new lawn.

It really is a case of just putting it down although you might want to sort out any uneven areas.

Good luck

[gardenknowin]

Agree with andyjevs - have done it many times. It helps the new turf to "bite" if you scarify or rake (viciously!) the old one first. To save boredom do it as you go, say 4 or 5 rolls at a time. One good thing about a second layer is that you can walk on the existing lawn, and work backwards, to lay the new one ! Much less hassle than lots of scaffold planks. Good luck and a Grassy New Year.

[Clanad]

Although I wouldn't normally think of arguing with andy, if the sod is furnished in the same condition as sod here in the U.S., your idea has a good chance of failure. Here, at least, the sod is cut by the sod farmer quite close in the root area. There's very little dirt attached to the exposed roots. The idea is that the installed sod has to have good contact with the earth underneath. This is one of the reasons that new sod must be watered well and often so the new root system will develop an penetrate the earth on which it lies. If you place the new sod over old grass the root system will not make contact sufficiently with the dirt. You could try, at least, running a rototiller (I think ya'll call it a rotovator?) over the old sod to bring up enough dirt to make the neccessary contact. In my humble opinion...

[logman]

Providing the existing lawn has good drainage, you should'nt have any problems. I would scalp the grass down as short as possible, good scarify and top dressing of silver lawn sand mixed with some fine leaf mould should help the roots get away to a good start and improve drainage. I've often leveled the odd dip by using odd scraps of turf upsid down under the new turf. BEST OF LUCK

[tin tin]

just lay it on top I work at Arsenal f.c and replaced my fathers lawn with turf from their new stadium and it has taken great