Have you used a turf cutter for turf removal?

[AshJ]

Has anyone use a turf cutter machine before? Are they hard to use? Do they do a good job? 

Looking to remove a large section of turf to do paving and a garden bed (approx 100sqm) while being very budget conscious. I will need to dig down about 100mm… estimates to have someone prep the yard are way over budget so I was looking at hiring a mini excavator to do myself when I came across the turf cutter…

[MitchellMc]

Hi @AshJ,

I haven't personally used a turf cutter before, but let me mention our landscape expert, @Adam_W, to see if he has any experience with them.

It sounds like a great project, and we'd encourage you to share it with us. You should find these step-by-step guides helpful: How to lay paving for a path and How to build a raised garden bed.

Looking forward to hearing what Adam's thoughts are.

Mitchell

[Jesse1]

Hi Ashj

We are also looking at exactly the same job and, although we haven’t yet obtained quotes for the job, we envisage that it will be outside of our budget. That’s if we can contact a tradie who isn’t already fully employed with the current building boom. We also wondered if the turf cutters were easy to use if we tackle the heavy work ourselves. We look forward to Adams reply. 

[AshJ]

After 2 weeks I don’t think Adam is going to reply. 
I have a quote for someone to fully prep that area for $1300 including rubbish disposal so I’m just getting them to do it. With no idea on how hard the machine was to use or if I could manage it with a dodgy shoulder, I decided to spend the money. I ended up getting my pavers for $500 (including trailer hire for transport - lifted them from a driveway/front courtyard area myself with family help). New they were costing $2500 so it freed up my budget a bit. And turns out it wouldn’t have been much cheaper to do it myself as a large enough skip bin that would actually take turf was $700

[MitchellMc]

Hi @Jesse1,

It's great to see @AshJ has provided details on their decision.

It appears no one within the community has experience with turf cutters. Let me tag @Adam_W again to see if he's used one of them. You might be able to gauge if this is something you'd find easy to use by viewing some How-To videos.

Mitchell

[Jesse1]

We have the same situation that we have the pavers lifted Frits neighbour’s driveway but feel the removal of the turf would be  a step too  far for us to tackle ourselves. I don’t suppose you live in Qld Wide Bay Area so that we could avail ourselves of your handy person??

[AshJ]

Sadly not in QLD. But if you ask for recommendations on your local community pages you might be able to find someone as well. 

[Adam_W]

Sorry all, been tied-up on a few projects.
Okay, @AshJ turf cutters are very useful & help to make a turf removal chemical-free. The other option is to spray, wait 2-weeks & then turn the area over with a rotary hoe.
Personally I'd avoid a mini excavator as they tend to do a lot of damage to the soil compressing it which then makes it harder for turf to grow and can also mess up your drainage.
If you need to go down 100mm a turf cutter won't do that so you'd need to use the turf cutter & then follow up with a rotary hoe.
I'm assuming here that you are not removing 100mm but just wanting to turn over?