How to remove existing lawn and lay new turf?

[ArunM]

Hello,

New Starter here so excuse my ignorance.  I am planning to lay a new Turf over my existing lawn which as you can see is in terrible shape. I would like to lay the new lawn with Buffallo Grass instant Turf. The existing one is not Buffalo though. 

Based on some existing answers  here this is my plan of action. 

• Apply a Weed Killer.
• Aerating the lawn manually. Using the sandals here.
• FIll the holes with Bastion 20kg River Sand.
• Apply Organic Lawn Soil
• Get Instant Turf and lay them as per video here. 

I have 2 questions. 

• Do I need to level the site by getting a load of soil from a landscaping supplier after I kill all the weeds? 
• Once I have applied the weed killer do I need to use a Rake and then remove all the weeds manually.  

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @ArunM. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about laying a new lawn.

Your plan of action looks quite good. However, you'll struggle to aerate this whole lawn with the sandals. Given the size, I'd recommend you consider hiring a cultivator and going over the whole lot. This will turn over the lawn and provide a good starting point. You can then add additional soil to level the area and apply some lawn soil and turf. Your soil already looks quite sandy, so I wouldn't recommend adding additional sand to the area.

Given that the lawn appears not to be level in some areas, it would be best to sort this out before turfing, so additional soil fill will be needed.

Once you apply your weed killer and wait for it to take effect, the cultivator will do a good job of turning the dead weeds over into the soil. You don't need to remove the dead weeds from the soil as they'll break down over time.

Please let me know if you have further questions.

Mitchell

[robchin]

Good luck @ArunM - such a rewarding thing doing a new lawn. 

Some great advice from @MitchellMc  here. 

 Be patient here if you can. It is cold still in most parts of Australia. Any spraying you do now will take some time to work and if you use a contact, non-selective herbicide then it will take some time to work. It won't kill anything that hasn't germinated yet. The other point to note is that whenever you disturb the soil, you may be promoting the germination of any weed seed that is in the soil base. So you may need more than one application of herbicide. 

One other point that I would note here - for you or those of us that don't need a lawn that looks like a bowling rink or a putting green - small imperfections are OK. Don't get too caught up with having a perfectly flat or level lawn. Instant Buffalo will hide minor imperfections like that. Love your lawn but don't let it rule your life. There's a lot of good info on the Bunnings website to help out with your lawn. Here's a good one to get you started: How To Lay Turf - Bunnings Australia