Mountlake Terrace is mid-century houses on city lots, with newer buildings near the transit line. The slopes are gentle, the soils are compacted, and the yards were not designed for the amount of roof water a remodels-worth of downspouts can dump. The old lawn is often a skin over fill and roots. Rolling new sod on top of that skin is why the new one fails in the same places.
Snohomish County · ZIP 98043 · 2020 population 21,272
Replacing a worn-out city lawn
We cut out the old turf, deal with the high roots we can deal with, and loosen the fill. Grade is reset so the yard does not pitch at the foundation. In a fenced yard the pallets come through the gate or over the fence. We plan the path so we are not dragging rolls across a new patio.
Small lawns are a one-day lay after the prep. The prep is the work. If we skip it to hit a price, the sod is a rug.
The ground in Mountlake Terrace
Lots are modest. A patio, a small lawn, a side yard that has become a moss strip, and a fence that is older than the owners. That is the usual visit. The soil has been walked on for sixty years. Aeration and dethatching change the lawn more than a bag of seed thrown on top.
Where the lot tips, it tips a little, and a low wall or a re-graded swale is enough. We are not cutting roads into a mountain. Pavers get people off the mud by the back door, and a pressure wash takes the black film off a walk that has not seen sun all winter. Plantings should stay in scale with the house. A hedgerow that needs a lift every year is the wrong tree for a forty-foot lot.
How we do the work
Sod is instant cover and a slow root. It dies when it is laid on compacted clay, on a moss mat, or in a low spot that stays wet. We strip or till, we fix the grade so water leaves, and we lay tight seams on soil that has been loosened a few inches down.
The first two weeks are water and no traffic. After that we want roots chasing soil, which means less frequent watering. A sod lawn that is sprinkled every day forever is a sod lawn that peels up in August.
We lay what arrives that day. Sod that sits on the pallet through a warm afternoon cooks in the roll, and we will not install it.
What we look at first
- What is under the old lawn
- Grade and where the roof water goes
- Access for the pallets
- Sun, because sod in deep shade is an expensive way to grow moss
When seed is the better buy
Large areas, deep shade, and tight budgets that would force us to skip prep. Seed costs less and roots deeper if you can wait a month. Sod is for the yard you need to use, on soil we were allowed to prepare.
What is under the roll
A few inches of loosened soil and compost, graded to leave the house. Not the old lawn. Not landscape fabric. Not a sand bed that turns into a pan. If we cannot prep, we should not lay sod.
Seams and edges
Tight, staggered, no overlap. Edges tucked against beds so the mower does not scalpel a flap. We cut curves with a knife, not by stretching a roll around a corner until it tears.
More from this crew
- Sod installation across Snohomish County
- Lawn seeding in Mountlake Terrace
- Lawn aeration in Mountlake Terrace
- Landscaping in Mountlake Terrace
- Lawn fertilization in Mountlake Terrace
- Sod installation in Lynnwood
- Sod installation in Edmonds
- Sod installation in Brier
Sources for the climate and the water
- USDA plant hardiness map for choosing plants that can take a Snohomish County winter.
- EPA WaterSense on watering less once a lawn or a new planting is established.
- EPA Soak Up the Rain on keeping roof and yard water from becoming someone else’s problem.
