New landscape going in and the installer has quoted $2500 to add a "nutrient rich" top soil under the newly laid sod. I know the north texas dirt/clay probably isn't the best foundation for new sod, but is this necessary?

I'd go with no. As long as it's cleared and scraped up a bit (not deeply tilled, too many air pockets), you are good.

Is it a new house? What was there before? I bought a 35 year old house and the lawn had been dirt for at least 5 years prior. That's 5 years of rain washing away the nutrients. I laid down the top soil myself and the grass took off like a champ. $2500 sounds a little excessive. How many sf are you covering. I was able to get a cubic yard of lawn blend compost for ~ $50. One cubic yard covers about 100 sf at 3" deep. You can get 2 day laborers for about $100/day (8 hours * $12/hr) if you wanted to do the compost yourself.

Although we are in the San Antonio area, I can't imagine that putting down more topsoil would be a negative. Less water needed, better root development, It will pay off in the long run. We added more at installation and don't regret it.

Builders put down a loam mixture half the time which is as cheap as it gets. I bought some higher quality blend from a local landscape supplier for $40-50 a yard.

Loam is $15 a yard.

$2500 seems high.

If your soil is not nutrient rich, then it is a good thing. See if they are going to rip the existing soil and till the enriched in or if they are removing your soil and replacing it. Either way is good if done right. It seems pricey but the beautiful lawns you see in all of those nice areas are done this way. It saves a tremendous amount of water in the long run and loosens and aerates the soil so the roots can penetrate deeper.

BoDog said:

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New landscape going in and the installer has quoted $2500 to add a "nutrient rich" top soil under the newly laid sod. I know the north texas dirt/clay probably isn't the best foundation for new sod, but is this necessary?

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How big is your yard? $2500 may or may not be expensive for the amount of material and work required.

I believe it is around 11,000 ft.....

Holy smoke. That's 25 pallets of sod. Serious project.

If they are going to sod 11,000 sq ft, $2500 is a heck of a deal. There's about 500 sq ft on a pallet, so that's 22 pallets at most. A pallet of St. Augustine is around $350. Therefore, the cost for the sod alone will be $7700 (22 x $350). Are you sure you didn't mean 1,100 sq ft? 11,000 sq ft is a 1/4 acre which is a lot of yard for grass. I've got almost a 1 acre lot and only about a 1/4 acre is grass once you take away house, driveway/sidewalk, patio, etc.).

$2500 for just the top soil.

Quote:

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A pallet of St. Augustine is around $350.

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A pallet is $120.

1. A pallet of sod is 450 sq ft

2. If the native soil is heavy clay and the sod is in heavy clay, I would not advise adding topsoil. This will create a sandwich of good soil between the clay layers and will be a nightmare when trying to manage water.

3. If you can get sand based sod, the additional topsoil would be beneficial.

I've rarely seen sod that is NOT in a heavy clay base... in Central Texas anyway...

PlanoAg98 said:

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If they are going to sod 11,000 sq ft, $2500 is a heck of a deal. There's about 500 sq ft on a pallet, so that's 22 pallets at most. A pallet of St. Augustine is around $350. Therefore, the cost for the sod alone will be $7700 (22 x $350). Are you sure you didn't mean 1,100 sq ft? 11,000 sq ft is a 1/4 acre which is a lot of yard for grass. I've got almost a 1 acre lot and only about a 1/4 acre is grass once you take away house, driveway/sidewalk, patio, etc.).

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I've got about 2 acres of grass around my main house on my ranch.

evan_aggie said:

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I've rarely seen sod that is NOT in a heavy clay base... in Central Texas anyway...

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That's the main reason I caution against the topsoil. Most likely that the sod is heavy clay based. For sandier based sod, there is some good stuff that comes out of Poteet and I will only use stuff from Brookshire in Houston area.

BoDog said:

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I believe it is around 11,000 ft.....

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I leveled my bermuda yard with masonry sand last year. I imagine the process would be similar for you spreading topsoil.

I have 3400SF of turf, and I used 4.5 yards of sand total. Dump truck dropped it in my driveway. I used a large gorilla cart to spread piles around the scalped yard. Knocked the piles down with a dirt rake. Then used a baseball drag mat to level the yard and work the sand down into the grass. It was a long day and very tiring work. You could do 11k SF easily if you have a riding lawnmower or similar to do the work for you. But doing that by hand alone like I did will be a lot of work on 11k SF. So $2500 to have the crew spread that top soil may be worth it to you.

reddog90 said:

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BoDog said:

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I believe it is around 11,000 ft.....

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I leveled my bermuda yard with masonry sand last year. I imagine the process would be similar for you spreading topsoil.

I have 3400SF of turf, and I used 4.5 yards of sand total. Dump truck dropped it in my driveway. I used a large gorilla cart to spread piles around the scalped yard. Knocked the piles down with a dirt rake. Then used a baseball drag mat to level the yard and work the sand down into the grass. It was a long day and very tiring work. You could do 11k SF easily if you have a riding lawnmower or similar to do the work for you. But doing that by hand alone like I did will be a lot of work on 11k SF. So $2500 to have the crew spread that top soil may be worth it to you.

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Lol. That's less than 1 green. I never really considered what it would take for 1 guy to do a job we do every week on 20 greens.

cevans_40 said:

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reddog90 said:

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BoDog said:

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I believe it is around 11,000 ft.....

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I leveled my bermuda yard with masonry sand last year. I imagine the process would be similar for you spreading topsoil.

I have 3400SF of turf, and I used 4.5 yards of sand total. Dump truck dropped it in my driveway. I used a large gorilla cart to spread piles around the scalped yard. Knocked the piles down with a dirt rake. Then used a baseball drag mat to level the yard and work the sand down into the grass. It was a long day and very tiring work. You could do 11k SF easily if you have a riding lawnmower or similar to do the work for you. But doing that by hand alone like I did will be a lot of work on 11k SF. So $2500 to have the crew spread that top soil may be worth it to you.

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Lol. That's less than 1 green. I never really considered what it would take for 1 guy to do a job we do every week on 20 greens.

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Yeah it would be have been easy work with a golf cart or mower to pull the cart of sand and the drag mat.

A little more than a golf cart but yeah. Your lawn would have taken about 20 minutes.

nm

Billy badass over here!

Not trying to come off that way at all. Like I said it just makes me pause a little when you think about no having the equipment use.

Haha. I added a couple of yards of top soil via my Tacoma, and made a few trips to the landscape supply yard.

I was timing myself in how many wheelbarrow loads it would take to load, dump, etc. then I'd see off in the distance an earth mover drop 20x what I did over the course of 3 days in a matter of minutes.

Who would have thought...machines...

evan_aggie said:

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Haha. I added a couple of yards of top soil via my Tacoma, and made a few trips to the landscape supply yard.

I was timing myself in how many wheelbarrow loads it would take to load, dump, etc. then I'd see off in the distance an earth mover drop 20x what I did over the course of 3 days in a matter of minutes.

Who would have thought...machines...

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I would have been offering the guy on the earth mover some beers in exchange for dropping that soil in my lawn