Can sod be placed over sand?

[Bruce999]

After pulling up 105 patio stones in the backyard, I now have a massive sandbox. The previous owners installed the patio back in the 70's, and they seem to have done it to last 1000 years. There is a massive concrete pad about 18 inches down, and then a layer of sand on top of that. Over the years, a fair number of roots have snaked their way through the sand. I had to dig up some posts they had installed (fortunately just ouside the concrete pad), and ended up going down about 3 feet before I could get them up. I now have a relatively smooth 25*20 sq. ft. patch of more-or-less level sand. When I was digging up the posts, I got well below the sand and a lot of brown clay-like soil mixed in with the sand by the time I filled the holes back in.

Will sod take if I roll it directly on top of the sand? I don't really have room to put down topsoil unless I shave off a few inches of sand. Can I roll it directly on top of what I have now? And if it does take, how can I make the sand level before I put down sod? The way it is now, it looks level, but my feet sink in more in some areas than in others, and it is obvious that I will have a pretty bumpy terrain once everything settles. Anything I can do about that now?


Thanks,
Bruce

[mdshunk]

If you lay that sod right over the sand, any rain you get will drain away so quickly, the sod will be dry and brown most of the summer.

[Bruce999]

If I shave off 15 cms of sand, and replace it with a load of topsoil, is that enough? Should I put in a whole 30 cms? I have no idea how much topsoil costs in Ottawa, nor how much I would need. If I only worry about where the patio used to be, then the area to cover is about 4 meters by 7.

I also have an existing stretch of grass between where the driveway used to side onto, and where the patio used to be. I have torn up about 1.5 meters by 7 meters of the driveway, and now have a bunch of gravel sitting there. The grass is in pretty rough shape, little bit of everything in there; weeds, crapgrass, grass I have planted to fil in holes in the past, and the original grass. I imagine it would make sense to remove that and sod the entire area?

Thanks,
Bruce

[Bumblerazz]

Much like the sand, sod won't do well at all on gravel. The drainage is too good. You need a minimum of 15cm of good soil for sod to last any length of time. With sand or gravel underneath you will be watering constantly.

I would remove all the sand and gravel, especially if there is a cement footing buried down a foot. See if a neighbour(s) with a kid(s) wants to make a sand box. :)

For your other area, I wouldn't remove any of the grasses or weeds. They will die and provide nutrients to the sod. Some weeds may spring up through the edges of the sod, but if you lay it tight, you shouldn't have any problems.

Top soil is not very expensive if you have a trailer (or a buddy that has one) that you can take to some of the garden centres south of town (down Bank or elsewhere). If you're in the north end of town, it might be faster to cross the river and check some of the places just outside of Hull or Aylmer. They sell it by the square meter. If I remember correctly it's around $15-$20 for a "load", which I think works out to be around 10m2. Some places will deliver, a half load (small dump truck) can be around $35. That sounds good, but often have a $50 delivery surcharge. Just don't buy the bags of soil, complete waste of money, especially for a project of your size!