“I accepted their quote to remove/replace 55sqm of turf by rotavating, levelling, fertilising and replacing with new turf. After the rotavating process I queried the lead installer why they weren't levelling the base prior to laying turf (at this stage there were clumps of the old turf randomly raked-into the rotavated, uneven soil). He said we lay the rolls then pound the boards to level the lawn. This didn't reconcile with what I had seen in their detailed quote nor other lawn-laying guides but he was adamant that this technique is the way to do it.
The next day I noticed the uneven state of the lawn (not due to unequal turf thickness but substrate preparation) so took a straight-edge to the lawn, took numerous photos as evidence and sent these to Emma who had been excellent in our contact thus far. She reviewed these and made arrangements for the lawn to be inspected by another team.
The first date offered did not suit us as no one would be home, but I offered a whole range of other options which she said they would consider and get back to me. They made several, separate requests for photographs which I satisfied. At this stage it all looked promising that they took customer service seriously, however it took a turn for the worse following an email from Jon and I quote - ''Regarding any undulations, these are usually caused by walking on the new lawn during it's establishment period. This does include keeping pets off too as your dog can be seen on it in a photo. The best way to correct again is to board it when soaked or to top dress with a soil/seed mix''.
That was the last I've heard despite several further emails to them. For the record I walked on the lawn the day after completing the job to take the photographs and the dogs in question are a Jack Russell cross and a Lakeland terrier (small breeds).
6 weeks following re-turfing the grass is green and lush but the base is more lumpy than before - this is particularly galling as I showed the lead installer this fact and said it was a key item to remedy. The quote very clearly also listed a systematic process for preparation, levelling and re-turfing. This was not followed.
Avoid this company if you expect accountability.”
“DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY. I had the lawn laid six months ago. On the day of the installation I complained that the laying process was all wrong and they assured me everything would be fine. I followed their care instructions and 6 months down the line I have no grass left all bare, all dead even though I followed their instructions. They blame me for walking on it or not watering it. They think they can get away with this but I'm taking them to court. The bad reviews I can really relate to. They are not responding to any of my emails. Alarm bells should have rung when they are cheap compared to other companies and the loudest alarm bell that they don't take any phone calls. I'm trying to work out a way of contacting the rest of the dissatisfied customers so that we can together stop them from doing this to other people.”
“DO NOT ENTERTAIN THIS COMPANY AND CAREFULLY READ THROUGH THE REVIEWS AND GOOGLE HOW A LAWN SHOULD BE PREPARED AND LAYED CORRECTLY AS THIS COMPANY CLEARLY HAVE NO IDEA AND WILL DRAW YOU IN WITH THEIR RELATIVELY GOOD PRICE.
WHEN THEY FINALLY ARRIVE
THE ALARM BELLS WILL START TO RING, BUT THEN ITS TO LATE!!!
THEY MENTION ON THEIR WEBSITE AND YOUR EMAIL CONFIRMATION ABOUT THE TOP QUALITY TOP SOIL THAT IS USED, BUT IN FACT IT IS PURELY WOOD CHIPPINGS THST IS USED.
THEY START BY ROTAVATING YOUR LAWN BUT DO NOT REMOVE THE EXISTING LEAVING IT LIKE A FARMERS FIELD AFTER IT HAS JUST BEEN PLOUGHED, THEN COVER IT WITH WOOD CHIPPINGS AS THERE RECOMMENDED SOIL BASE FOLLOWED BY TURF ON TOP AND PUSH IT DOWN WITH AN OLD SCAFFOLDING BOARD.
IT WILL LOOK OK TO MOST AT FIRST, BUT IT WILL NOT LAST AND YOU WILL HAVE AN UNEVEN LAWN IN JUST A FEW WEEKS IF IT SURVIVES.
Be aware!!
You will not get any kind of refund or reply by email, nor will you be able to speak with anyone as you will just get an answer machine. I am now taking legal action through my lawyers to recover my money and expenses.”
“I agree completely with the poor reviews, bare patches appeared, very uneven lawn, all I was seeking was advice only to have three e.mails from the company saying it was because of pets, leaf drop walking on it too early, even though I had complied with their pamphlet advice. The fact we have no pets, trees etc. I asked if they could attend to see lawn and give advice, this was declined apart from sending me a link to the RHS. By the way levelling of the soil and turf is done by stamping on a 6 foot dirt board. Very disappointed, no follow up at all.”
“How I wish I had read these reviews here properly before I used this company! Yes there are some good reviews, but dig a bit deeper and you will find plenty of bad ones from people that have had exactly the same bad experience that I have had. I've had to delay my response to this company due to all the stress and trouble they have caused me.
August last year (2020) I had a new lawn laid. This was a gift for my 90th birthday from all my family, right down to my Great Gran children.
The lawn was duly laid by rotavating the old lawn and laying the new lawn on top. Alarm bells did start to ring when they were 25 turfs short (and blamed me!) even though I had given them correct measurements (don't expect them to come and measure up themselves). It took almost 3 weeks for them to lay the missing turfs.
I have to say that when it was finished it looked so lovely and nice and, I was extremely happy and proud of it.
A few months after being laid my lawn has turned into a complete DISASTER. The lawn is lumpy and bumpy all over with the grass dying out in patches.
All of my emails to them requesting help had negative delaying responses, ie; they want photos, then more photos etc.
They will not come and have a look for themselves, or have one of the lads on his way to other sites to check on the problem. You can't get to speak to them at all, its all by answerphone, then you get a reply by email. Their last email contained the following , I quote "a lawn is a natural changeable product which does require an amount of aftercare on your behalf or it will suffer, which unfortunately in this case it has."
They could never be so WRONG in this respect. I have followed all of their instructions to the letter.
In all my 90 years I've never come across a worse company. It appears they take your money then say it's your fault.
Other lawn laying companies have told me that you don't lay new turf on top of the old lawn even if it is rotavated, because that poor preparation leads to all of the problems that I now have.
I have paid a large sum of money to get a nice lawn to be proud of, but I now have a lawn that is actually WORSE than the old one and resembles an underground rockery! I now have to pay someone else to put right what I trusted this company to do right in the first place.
If you are thinking of getting a new lawn laid, my experience should tell you to LOOK ELSEWHERE.”
“I understand that some customers are satisfied with the result of their lawn installation, and may have worked well for them, but can I suggest you read as many reviews as possible and consider carefully before investing in turf from this company.
The lawn was laid by the turf company in September 2020 and although appeared to be of good quality, we were concerned that manner in which it was laid was not conducive for it to flourish.
The Ground workers arrived and immediately started to wheel barrow compost and lay it on top of the old turf. I questioned the process, and was told that this was the correct method. I said I wanted the old grass removed and the ground rotavated in preparation for the new turf.
I was told that they never remove old turf and rotavated it into the ground. They continued to rotavated about half of the old turf we were having re-laid. On the remainder they just spread the topsoil compost and laid the new turf on top.
I later contacted the company and explained what had happened and how dissatisfied I was with the process. They emailed a reply saying ‘it is normal practice and that the lawn would be fine’. I sent photographs to them of the remaining grass under the new turf and highlighted the fact that only part of the ground had been rotavated.
Their reply was, ‘we have noted your concern, but the lawn will be fine’. Since that time the area has deteriorated further and where the ground was not correctly prepared, the turf has died off completely.
Emailing them and sending the photos of the degrading turf, they replied that my lack of grass maintenance must be to blame. Apart from watering the new grass in and a few light cuts in Autumn, there has been no footfall on the grass throughout the Winter.
A frustrating and disappointing experience all round with a company who will not accept any responsibility.”
“awn looked great when first laid. 3 months later and hardly any grass left. Have left them messages and emailed but only reply to emails to blame me. They have declined to visit and have a look themselves and have even said it will need reseeding ( after 3 months) the lawn was cared for as per their instructions. Would NOT recommend and so wish I had never heard of them.”
“What looked like a good turf laying contract has turned out to be a disaster.I was was assured that I was getting the finest turf and to the eye it looked alright when laid,however it soon became clear that at least 40% of the turfs were of poor quality. I was looking fo loam based turfs, but what I have are many areas and turfs that are slabs of clay with a few weak sprouts of grass. What a disappointment! The One thousand pound lawn looks a complete shambles. I wrote an email to explain the. Poor condition of the lawn and have been ignored. Referring to a previous complaint,if the only response is to throw some grass seed on the lawn this company should not be in business .”
“When my lawn was laid, there were a number of muddy patches (see pictures). I asked the 2 lads who laid the grass with regards to this and they told me that over the next 3 weeks the grass would grow back. However, after 6 weeks, it was exactly the same. I contacted "the lawn turf laying company" quite a number of times where I asked if this was normal to have muddy patches and if the lads reported my concerns; however, they always dodged these questions. I was also asked why I did not email with my concern and share pictures but I responded to the effect of "why would I as I spoke to the lads who laid the grass and they told me it would be ok". In addition, it was assumed that I had not looked after the grass properly which is not the case as I have new grass in the rear garden and it is totally fine. The final response from "the lawn turf laying company" was for me to put down grass seed in March and that they had nothing more to say to me. So - I am in the process of contacting Citizens Advice, Trading Standards and I will also look into the Small Claims Court. This may sound overkill, but I expect the grass to be of good quality and if there is an issue, not for "the lawn turf laying company" to assume that I am lying, them dodging questions and not engaging even discussing a solution bar myself sorting it out. GIVE THEM A MISS”
“You may be lucky and get a reasonable job if not you've no way of contacting them other than email to which they will not respond. Also they change addresses frequently so you cannot find them. Incomplete addresses that no one in the vicinity has ever heard of.”
“Avoid... I don't usually do reviews, but given our experience with TLTLC, I felt the need to at least warn others. I have included a couple of pictures which should make you think twice about using them.
One is the day their work was completed (related pictures) the other is how the lawn looked 3 months later (opposite). For the avoidance of doubt, we followed all maintenance advice and aside from mowing and leaf blowing the garden has not been used by anyone since the work was done in early September 2020.
Sub standard turf - even though we were up-sold turf for shaded areas. Poor Advice from the company on when to lay the turf - based on the locality and surrounding area and last but not least a lack of rotavation (which we paid for) on clay soil untouched for 30 years are all issues highlighted by a trusted gardener as contributing to our now threadbare garden.
We have given TLTLC numerous opportunities to make good their work, Instead they choose to continually blame us for the state of the lawn as it slowly deteriorated. "Improper maintenance" being one of the phrases continually levelled at us.
They recently relented slightly, when we made them aware the pictures would be used for a not to complimentary online review. Their offer to correct the affected areas was a further cost to us of £815. The original work cost us in excess of £4000. I will leave you to make up your mind if you think the additional cost is acceptable or if the original money was well spent.
We have decided not to throw good money after bad and needless to say we wont be using them again (or recommending them to anyone). I would also strongly advise people to think twice about using them.”
“As the other 1 * reviews say may reason for review are problems with grass once laid and total lack of contact after seeking help and advice 5 weeks after laying to address the problem. I ask for advice and help, but my emails and calls were ignored.
As such I would not recommend them for a lasting job, which is a shame as it started so promisingly and initially looked good. I nearly wanted help to address the emergence of dead grass and how to deal with it.”
“This company re-turfed my lawn early last year. My mistake as I now realise was the usual adage - you get what you pay for, if it looks cheap etc. and I accepted the advice that winter was a good time to re-turf (clearly wrong). What was laid was thin turf on a base of fine plastic mesh netting, no root growth, very uneven, poor quality soil as growing medium, full of very nasty weeds and no after sales advice despite chasing. Now I am having to hand dig up the plastic mesh (mostly visible on the surface in the hardened soil populated by a few tufts of grass plant) in preparation for a delivery of good topsoil in which I will liberally distribute loads of grass seed i.e. a complete re-seed. I would advise to save your money and go elsewhere. Very unhappy.”
“Buy cheap buy twice ! - 6 months down the road lawn looks terrible ( after careful nurturing, watering feeding ) - looks like I will have to replace again next year ! Waste of money - will not be a returning customer !”
“Not my best experience ! Would never recommend. Firstly they let us down on the booked date for installation. Then their men did a very poor job, leaving the place in a mess. We are left with a dangerously bumpy surface, gaps between turfs that have not filled naturally. The level of the lawn is now two inches higher than it was and above the original edging stones ,and was left overlapping parts of the garden in some areas and not reaching the flowerbeds in others. The old grass having not been rotavated enough had to be removed from all the lawn edges as it grew outwards into the flowerbeds which took hours of work to remedy. Have not had response from them when sent details of our problems. We understand they have prevented reviews on Trustpilot.”
“I would not recommend using this company. Initially, our experience was good - the company was responsive and helpful in arranging a date for the installation of new turf in our garden. Unfortunately, a couple of months after the turf was laid we are very disappointed with the outcome. The lawn is patchy and has only a thin covering. There are parts where it has clearly died. We followed the after care instructions carefully so I think it must either be the quality of the turf or the installation itself causing this. The customer service has been very unsatisfactory, despite multiple emails the company has refused to send someone round to assess the lawn and simply repeated that it is a maintenance issue and not their fault. As a minimum, I would expect them to send someone round to look at the lawn and offer some constructive advice. We are really disappointed with the finished product and would definitely not recommend buying turf from this Company.”
“All we required was back up help and advice. The lawn eventually died. I had to get a second opinion from a landscaper who said it was badly laid with little or no topsoil underneath.”
“My lawn was laid on 11th Feb. Initially looking from my back door. I felt pleased with the work. Later I discovered patches of turf that looked quite unlike the rest. They were patchy, with splits in places, areas of rotten grass and they were not consistent with the quality of the remaining turves. I contacted the company to inform them that substandard probably old turves had been laid and remedial work was necessary. Their reply was,
‘All our turf is cut fresh to order, let me be clear we do not use old turf. It may be the way the roll sat on the truck during transportation and will recover.Please can we review in 2 weeks, we need to let everything settle.’ The correspondence, including a number of photographs of grass clearly not ‘recovering’ continued for some time until I finally received an email stating that a team would be sent out on 5th Feb, only to receive another shortly after to say that there had been a ‘mistake’ and the team would not now arrive. The final email from the company stated that,
‘I cannot help you any further than continually explaining that all your turf rolls are the same quality, the same soil type and the same grass seed mix. Colour variations sometimes occur temporarily. But the lawn will soon match all over.’ Now five weeks on the difference between the substandard turves and the rest of the lawn remains clear. The company has simply refused to resolve this matter. I know the difference between heathy turf and yellowing turves with splits and dead patches. Had I seen this on the day I would not have paid for the job until it was put right. I would not have accepted the turves.
I would not recommend this company.”
“I would not recommend The Lawn Turf Laying Company.
On 14th September 2018 I had my front lawn turfed with their Shade-Pro turf and I was not happy on completion as it looked like two different types of turf had been laid. When I queried it with the delivery guy he said ‘It was the way it was laying on the lorry.’ I had no idea what he meant by that!
I followed their aftercare advice and watered the lawn for an hour each morning and evening and did not walk on it for 5 weeks.
I have tried ringing the company several times since my order has been completed, and paid for, but my calls always go immediately to their answering machine. I have left two messages but received no response.
I have emailed, including photographs, and this has also been ignored.
In November I sent a letter of complaint to the address which was on one of their websites, but this was returned by the Post Office unopened.
Last week I sent another email hoping someone would respond, but I received no reply again, so I decided to send this Review.”
