Every homeowner wants a thriving, attractive lawn when summer comes. You may be hosting the barbecues, putting on an outdoor wine and cheese night or you want the satisfaction of a green and weed free lawn. In any case, these outdoor activities can be sabotaged by a weed invasion, chinch bugs, or an overzealous application of weed control. With any of these factors in play, your lawn will go from flourishing towards a major decline. You’ll start to see swaths of dead grass. Any homeowner is bound to consider re sodding. However, the cost analysis between re sodding your lawn and hiring a company to revive your grass should be able to ultimately decide for you.

      We’ll go step-by-step through this process; how to complete this project from beginning to end and the cost of each step. To end, we’ll compare the cost of DIY sod installation to that of hiring a lawn care company.

Out With The Old In With The New

      Before laying down new sod, it’s self evident that you need to remove the old grass first. The first step in this process, is killing the grass entirely. You’ll need to be patient during this part of the project because for the grass killer to be effective, you’ll need to wait between 1-2 weeks before the grass will be dead entirely. Now let’s assume we are dealing with an average lawn size in Calgary – 1500 square feet. A 1-gallon container of Bonide KleenUp Weed Killer Concentrate ($58.77) will do the job well. To mix the concentrate and water, and to properly apply, you’ll need a garden sprayer as well. A Chapin 2-Gallon Lawn Sprayer can be purchased for $24.79.

      Following the use of Bonide Weed Killer, you’ll need to remove the grass from your property. Renting a sod cutter from Home Depot is a fairly straight forward process. The cost of a rental is $105.00 per day. Assuming you’ll need the machine for 3 days, it’ll bring the cost to $398.56 (with the addition of the weed concentrate and sprayer).

      So now your property is completely void of grass, what’s next?

Balancing The pH Of Your Soil

      Turf likes a nutrient rich, aerated soil that’s slightly acidic (a pH of between 6 and 7.5). The soil in southern Alberta is a clay soil, very alkaline in nature (with a pH of between 8 and 10). It’s challenging to grow new grass in soil that’s very alkaline. So, to ensure your new turf begins its growth in your yard, you’ll need to alter the soil’s pH. Soil testing will indicate to you what elements are missing from your soil, it’ll determine the pH as well. Assuming your soil test will come back with indications your lawn has too high of a pH, what are your next steps? Elemental sulfur is a treatment that will embed in your soil to lower the pH. This metric is too often overlooked in providing your soil with the tools it needs to grow the new sod.

      Home Depot Fast Acting Sulfur: $24.52

• A 50lb bag of Elemental Sulfur should cover your lawn
  
  

Topsoil Cost

      Now that we’ve determined how to prepare the soil, let’s talk about preparation. You’ll need to spread topsoil to a level of 3 to 3.5 inches when it’s compacted. When you calculate 1500 square feet (average lawn size), attributing for the compacted depth of 3 inches, the cost of topsoil for your lawn will be $1500. Of course, the price will fluctuate based on your lawn size, and what topsoil you purchase. The blend we are using to calculate is a mix of peat moss, class A compost and sandy screened loam called Nature’s Blend Soil. It’s the perfect base for sod. Your grass's root system, once the grass has been placed, will have a root depth of 6 inches to 2 feet. Root depth is influenced by the soil health, meaning both the pH balance of the ground soil, and of the topsoil nutrient level are important for your lawn to have the best chance at growth.

Rolling Out The Topsoil

      It’s time to distribute the soil across your lawn and using a weight roller, level the surface. If you rent a roller from Home Depot, the cost comes to $25 per day. The importance of rolling out your lawn before placing down the sod is astronomical. So, to ensure you’re carrying out this task to its completion we’ll estimate your rental will be 3 days. The rental price comes to $75.

      At this point, the cost of re-sodding your lawn is at $1,998.08.

Sod Installation

      So, now the time has come to lay down your sod. A great grass for Alberta lawns, or northern lawns in general, is Kentucky Bluegrass Sod.

Kentucky Bluegrass Sod:

• Cool-Season Grass

• Withstands Canadian Winters

• Performs Well In High Traffic Areas

• Used On Golf Courses – Golf Course Quality

“Kentucky Blue Grass is adaptable to a low cutting height, has high wearability, a quick spring green-up, is extremely prairie hardy, and disease resistant. Fescue blend is added to increase shade and drought tolerance.”

      This description was taken from a blue grass nursery website. This nursery has garden centers in Calgary, Red Deer, and Edmonton. The cost of sod per square foot is $0.48. So, calculating based on an average lawn size, the cost is $720.00. 

      Our total cost at this point is $2718.08. 

In Summary

      When it comes to resurrecting a dead lawn, your choices are laying down new sod at a cost of nearly $3000 or entrusting the restoration of your lawn by a lawn care company. Yard Dawgs has recovered many lawns from the grave, without the necessity to re sod. We recommend booking the Great Dane package to repair a lawn with any major damage. Our Great Dane comes to a cost of $775.75. If you’re lawn is struggling in any major way, we recommend this package for a couple seasons. So, over the course of two years, to transform your lawn into the “envy of the neighborhood”, you are looking at a cost of $1551.50. Truthfully, with a lawn that is stressed or dying your lawn will most likely require the Great Dane for two seasons.

      Yard Dawgs is no stranger to remediating the issue of re sodding by implementing our Great Dane program. A homeowner contacted us in 2021 to save him from pulling the trigger and replacing his grass. His lawn was transformed. As was the lawn of our Chaparral homeowner who saw himself re sodding for a cost of $3000 to $4000. Due to neglect, the lawn had completely died and there was almost no new growth. With our Great Dane package and proper maintenance by our client, the lawn was restored to peak performance by the end of the second lawn care season.

      Time and patience will repair your lawn to a healthy plot of green. With proper care you can achieve your goal and resurrect your lawn in the most cost-effective way!