I have removed a raised patio and am in the process of clearing some of the clay soil to have good top soil added and sod later installed.
I have an issue of the footing that was for the raised patio, seemingly over a foot in depth and can't easily remove it or break it.
There would be about 1-2 inches top soil over the top of it, width is around 4 inches. Would the sod likely survive? Any ideas welcome, I have tried tackling it with a rotary hammer but no luck getting a crack.
Edit: Thanks all, managed to get it torn up by the guys laying our sod, 18 inches in some places all for 4 courses of brickwork
Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?
Hello, ideally the footing needs removing to at least a depth of 10cm/4inches below surface level. A decent concrete breaker will do this, you can hire them. You can lay turf over an inch or two of soil but during dry weather the grass will suffer if it isn't watered. Hope this helps,
Kindest regards
David Taylor - Brimstone Landscapes
Unless you could put down subsoil first I wouldn't put topsoil over the concrete. Likely to wash away with such a small layer of topsoil. If planting plants over it then not much of a layer for roots. Maybe hire a decent breaker. Hilti te 1000 breaker maybe would make light work of it. Hopefully it's not reinforced with steel.
It'll probably survive BUT it will be obvious that it is over the concrete as it will discolour and not grow as well as the rest. Use a decent sized concrete breaker to break up and remove the footing. They're expensive to buy but you can rent them for not too much £ from a local plant hire place.
The concrete footing definitely needs to be fully removed as even with 100mm of topsoil over the footing the turf will die off?the footing will not only dry out your soil and turf but the turf will fail to root where the concrete is,it would be futile to leave the footing in place.
