Do i have a case?
Discussion
We had the garden relaid a few years ago which was a pretty big job as it was dug out to include drainage.
Roll forward 3 months and the grass hasn't bedded in so we bring in a national garden maintenance company to assist to whom we've been paying monthly ever since for their treatments.
To cut a longish story shorter, the grass has never been great but to look at it doesn't look particularly bad and still grows.
To help it breathe i bought a sharp garden fork to try and give it some air and found out i couldn't actually get the fork more than an inch or so into the grass as there is a big 'crunch' of metal against rock - it appears that there is a layer of stones right beneath the turf which had been laid to aid with drainage which pretty much covers the whole area.
Although this had been done with the best intentions, it has meant that the grass is hard underfoot, stones appear at the surface every now and then and the grass will never grow properly because it can't lay long enough roots. I tried to pin my son's football goals at one end and i couldn't get the pin into the ground at all - it's all quite frustrating. To make matters worse they'd also put in a patio area and didn't do the grouting properly - they've been back since to rectify but only did half a job.
I can't get the owner of the firm round to the house, presumably because it's been 3 or 4 years since they completed the work
Do i have grounds (pardon the pun) to sue? I have his guarantee which covers them for 12 months which is presumably why he's washed his hands of it
Any advice appreciated
Roll forward 3 months and the grass hasn't bedded in so we bring in a national garden maintenance company to assist to whom we've been paying monthly ever since for their treatments.
To cut a longish story shorter, the grass has never been great but to look at it doesn't look particularly bad and still grows.
To help it breathe i bought a sharp garden fork to try and give it some air and found out i couldn't actually get the fork more than an inch or so into the grass as there is a big 'crunch' of metal against rock - it appears that there is a layer of stones right beneath the turf which had been laid to aid with drainage which pretty much covers the whole area.
Although this had been done with the best intentions, it has meant that the grass is hard underfoot, stones appear at the surface every now and then and the grass will never grow properly because it can't lay long enough roots. I tried to pin my son's football goals at one end and i couldn't get the pin into the ground at all - it's all quite frustrating. To make matters worse they'd also put in a patio area and didn't do the grouting properly - they've been back since to rectify but only did half a job.
I can't get the owner of the firm round to the house, presumably because it's been 3 or 4 years since they completed the work
Do i have grounds (pardon the pun) to sue? I have his guarantee which covers them for 12 months which is presumably why he's washed his hands of it
Any advice appreciated
Sounds like you will have a problem getting any recompense/rectification done after the length of time.
I would find a reputable garden builder/turf installer and get them to examine the condition of the lawn, get a written report, and cost and then send a copy recoded delivery to the original installer, asking them to rectify or recompense you for the cost of relaying the turf and topsoil.
If they do not contact you then you will need to get proper qualified advice.
I would imagine you will have to persevere to get a result on this!!
Quote from a decent website on laying turf, "You need a minimum of 100mm, ideally 150mm of good soil (the deeper the better). The soil should be loosely turned over and free from surface stone, clods, other debris and perennial weeds".
I would find a reputable garden builder/turf installer and get them to examine the condition of the lawn, get a written report, and cost and then send a copy recoded delivery to the original installer, asking them to rectify or recompense you for the cost of relaying the turf and topsoil.
If they do not contact you then you will need to get proper qualified advice.
I would imagine you will have to persevere to get a result on this!!
Quote from a decent website on laying turf, "You need a minimum of 100mm, ideally 150mm of good soil (the deeper the better). The soil should be loosely turned over and free from surface stone, clods, other debris and perennial weeds".
4 to 5 inches down.Top soil.I don't know what you have paid but you don't put grass on a inch of soil and rubble underneath.
We have all been there trusted people do a decent job and the result is far from it.
One area of our garden net to the fence was always waterlogged in winter.I dug the area up got writ of soil mixture heavy clay and put slate on top.
It won't be easy to get it sorted the job needs redoing unless you don't want grass.
We have all been there trusted people do a decent job and the result is far from it.
One area of our garden net to the fence was always waterlogged in winter.I dug the area up got writ of soil mixture heavy clay and put slate on top.
It won't be easy to get it sorted the job needs redoing unless you don't want grass.
Ok thank you, it sounds like too long a drawn out process which I don't really have the appetite for, especially if it's marginal (which in my mind it isn't but I can see be why it could be contended)
We've been discussing putting artificial grass down which would fix the problem although it is costly
We've been discussing putting artificial grass down which would fix the problem although it is costly
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