A new lawn is the biggest visual change you can make to a garden in two days. It is also the job where corner-cutting shows fastest: turf thrown over badly prepared ground looks fine for a fortnight, then the lumps, dips and dead patches introduce themselves.
We install new turf across Derby all year round, on its own and as the finishing stage of bigger garden makeovers. This is how the job should be done, and what to check on any quote you get, including ours.
The Prep Is the Job
Turf is grass with an inch of soil attached. Everything it becomes depends on what it is laid onto.
Our preparation on a Derby garden runs: strip the old lawn and weeds completely, rotavate the ground to relieve compaction, and improve it where needed, because plenty of soil around Derby is heavy clay that benefits from soil conditioner worked through. Then we bring in topsoil to correct levels, firm the ground by heel in two directions, and rake it to a fine, even finish. A pre-turf fertiliser raked into the surface is the last step before a single roll goes down.
None of that is visible in the finished photos, which is why cheap quotes skip it. It is also the entire difference between a lawn that stays flat and green and one that does not.
Laying Day
Fresh turf is cut to order and needs laying the day it arrives, so we book delivery for the morning we start. The rolls go down staggered like brickwork with the joints butted tight, edges are cut in cleanly against paths and beds, and we work off boards so no one treads the prepared ground or the new grass.
Everything gets a deep soak before we leave, enough that the water has gone through the turf and into the bed below.
The First Month
Your part is watering: a good evening soak every day for the first two to three weeks, keeping everyone off the grass while it roots. Lift a corner every few days to check the moisture is getting through. When the turf resists a gentle tug, it has knitted in, and it can have its first cut with the mower on its highest setting.
From there it is an ordinary lawn: regular cuts, never too short, and a feed a couple of times a year.
What New Turf Costs in Derby
Turf itself is priced per roll and lawns per square metre, but the number that moves a quote is the preparation: how much old lawn and spoil has to come out, how much topsoil the levels need, and how easy the access is. A small, square front garden is a quick job; a large back lawn where everything travels through the house is not.
Our instant quote tool will give you a realistic figure for your own garden in a couple of minutes, and every written quote itemises the prep so you can see exactly what you are paying for.
Turf or Artificial? The Honest Version
We lay both, so we have no horse in the race. Real turf wins on cost, feel and the smell of a cut lawn; it asks for mowing, feeding and forgiveness in a wet Derby winter. Artificial wins on zero maintenance, shade, small gardens and dogs, and costs more up front. If the lawn is being wrecked by a spaniel rather than by the weather, read our artificial grass for dogs guide before deciding.
Whichever way you lean, send us a photo of the garden and we will tell you what we would honestly do with it. New lawns are part of our artificial grass and turf service, and quotes are free, itemised and without obligation.