We lay sod across the Niagara Region — St. Catharines, Thorold, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Niagara Falls, Welland, Fonthill and Jordan. We are a team of homeowners who are OBSESSED with our lawns, and the goal on every job is the same one: make yours the nicest lawn on your street.
Sod is the fastest thing we do. You leave for work with a bare yard and come home to a finished lawn. But the roll of grass is the easy part and it is not what separates a lawn that still looks like that in three years from one that thins out by the second August. What matters is what goes underneath it.
Free quote, no obligation. Call 905-401-7600 or send us the details.
What a proper sod installation actually involves
Five steps, and only one of them is laying grass.
1. We look at what is already there
Soil testing before anything else. Most of Niagara sits on heavy clay that holds water into April and bakes hard by July; newer subdivisions are usually builder's topsoil laid thin over subsoil; up on the bench the ground drains so fast it dries out first. Those are three different problems and they need three different preparations. Guessing here is how a sod job goes wrong.
2. The old lawn comes out
Sod laid on top of a dead lawn is a lawn with a layer of dead grass in the middle of it. We strip what is there so the new roots meet soil, not thatch.
3. Grading and soil preparation
This is where the money goes and it is where it should go. Levelling out the dips and the settle, breaking up compaction so roots can get down, and blending in the soil the test said your yard was short of. A yard that holds water gets drainage attention now, not a complaint next spring.
4. The sod goes down
Fresh-cut sod from a local farm, laid tight, staggered at the seams and rolled in so the roots make contact with the soil instead of bridging an air gap. Cut in around beds and walkways rather than folded over them.
5. The first three weeks are yours
We hand you a watering schedule and you follow it. This is the part homeowners underestimate and it is the part that decides the result — see below.
What drives the price of a sod job
Sod installation starts at $2 a square foot. Where your yard lands above that depends on how much work has to happen before the grass goes down, so we come and look first and the quote is free. What moves the number:
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Taking out the old lawn. If there is grass or weeds there now, it gets stripped and hauled away before anything new goes down, and getting rid of it is part of the job.
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Grading and levelling. A yard that is already flat and drains away from the house is quick. Dips, settled spots or water pooling where it shouldn't mean moving ground first.
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How big it is. The square footage sets the base of the quote. Curves, beds and tight cut-ins take longer per square foot than an open rectangle.
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How much new soil it needs. Thin builder's topsoil or heavy clay can mean bringing in a lot of fresh soil; a yard with good soil already needs far less. Want a head start? Our topsoil calculator gives you the volume in cubic yards.
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Getting to the yard. Sod and soil are heavy. A wide-open front yard is easy; a backyard behind a narrow gate, a small fence or a set of steps means more of it moves by hand.
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And whatever the visit turns up. Every yard has its own surprises, which is exactly why we see it before we give you a price.
We will also tell you when sod is not the answer. Sometimes a lawn needs levelling, aeration and overseeding rather than replacing, and that is a much smaller bill. We would rather say so and be the people you call next time.
Sod or seed?
Both work. They are answers to different questions.
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Sod |
Seed |
| Cost |
More up front. |
Considerably less. |
| Time to a usable lawn |
A finished lawn the day we leave. Keep off it for the first two weeks, then light traffic only for a couple of weeks after that. |
It takes a season to look like anything. |
| Best season |
Spring and early autumn are ideal, but sod goes down through the whole growing season. |
The right window in spring or late summer. |
| Watering |
The first three weeks matter most. Over the season it needs less water than establishing seed does. |
Consistent watering all the way through germination. |
Sod gives you a finished lawn the day we leave, in any season we can get it in the ground. It holds a slope while it roots, it crowds weeds out from day one because there is no bare soil for them to land on, and it needs less water over the season than establishing seed does. It costs more up front.
Seed costs considerably less and lets us match an elite blend precisely to your yard's light and soil, which matters on a big property or a heavily shaded one. It also takes a season to look like anything, it needs consistent watering through germination, and it wants the right window in spring or late summer.
On a large lot, seed is often the sensible call. On a small front yard you look at every day, sod usually is. Tell us which one you are dealing with and we will tell you what we would do on our own.
Watering new sod — the first three weeks
New sod has no root system yet. It is a mat of grass sitting on soil, and until the roots knit into that soil it can only drink what you give it.
Water it heavily every day for the first week or so, enough that the soil under the sod is wet and not just the grass on top. Ease off in the second week as the roots take hold, and by the third you should be moving toward a deeper, less frequent soak that pulls the roots downward. Stay off it as much as you can while it knits. Lift a corner after a week — if it resists, it is rooting.
We go through this with you at handover, and you can always call and ask. It is a five-minute conversation that protects the whole job.
Where we install sod
We work out of Thorold and we only work the Niagara Region. Same soils, same weather, same lawns as yours.
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St. Catharines — Port Dalhousie, the North End, Glenridge, Merritton, Western Hill, Vansickle, Grantham and Lakeport.
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Niagara-on-the-Lake — Old Town, Virgil, St. Davids, Queenston and Glendale.
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Niagara Falls — Calaguiro Estates, Stamford Centre, Mount Carmel and Chippawa.
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Jordan — the village, Jordan Station, Jordan Harbour and the Twenty Valley bench.
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Thorold, Welland and Fonthill — where we are based and the rest of where we travel.
After the sod goes down
A new lawn is at its most impressive on day one and at its most vulnerable in year one. A custom fertilizer program built on your soil test is what carries it from a good installation to a lawn that still looks like this in five years — the right nutrients at the right time, rather than a spray schedule off a clipboard.
A new lawn also does not want a blanket of wet leaves on it come November. Our fall and spring cleanups take the leaves off and haul them away, so the lawn you just paid for gets to breathe.
And if the reason you are redoing the yard is that you want something more than grass out there, we build custom backyard golf and putting greens. Almost nobody in Niagara does.
Common questions
How much does sod installation cost?
From $2 a square foot. Taking out the old lawn, grading, new soil, the size of the yard and how easy it is to get to all move it up from there, which is why we see the yard before we quote. What moves the price is above, and the quote is free.
How long until we can walk on it?
Keep off it as much as possible for the first two weeks, and light traffic only for a couple of weeks after that. Roots need contact with soil, and footprints in fresh sod break it.
When is the best time to lay sod?
Spring and early autumn are ideal, but sod goes down successfully through the whole growing season as long as the watering keeps up. Midsummer installs need more water, not less nerve. If you are leaning toward autumn, our guide to keeping a Niagara lawn healthy through the fall covers what the ground is doing in September and October.
Can you sod just part of the yard?
Yes, and patch and repair work is a normal part of what we do. If half the lawn is fine, we are not going to tell you to replace all of it.
Do I need to remove my old lawn first?
No — that is our job, and it is included in the quote. Please do not rototill it in beforehand; it makes the grading harder, not easier.
How soon can you start?
It depends on the season and how booked we are, and we will tell you honestly when we quote. Late spring is the busiest stretch of the year.
Get a quote for your lawn
Tell us your street and roughly what you are working with, and we will give you a straight answer about what your lawn actually needs — including the times when the answer is that it needs less than you think.
Call 905-401-7600, email info@lawnjunkie.ca, or send us the details. Free quote, no obligation, and you hear back from a person within one business day.
Keep reading below for the short version — what sod gives you from day one, and why homeowners pick it over seed.
