Sod installation includes grading the sand so water runs away from the foundation instead of pooling on the slab. Landscaping uses that same look at drainage when a bed is being shaped. Standing water kills lawns here in more than one way, and only one of those ways is our job. This page draws the line so you do not hire a sod crew to fix a pipe.
Surface grade is ours. A low spot we created, or a yard that slopes back toward the house, gets fixed as part of pulling the old lawn and laying the new one. A French drain, a popped drain line, a dry well, or an irrigation system that needs to be re-piped is not ours. We do not install those, and we will not take the job if that is the real repair.
What the water is doing to the grass
Sod and established turf both rot when they sit wet, and they both die when the sand never holds a drink. Those are opposite problems that can show up on the same lot in the same month. After a summer rain, a flat or back-graded yard holds a puddle against the house. Two days later the high ground is dry because the soil is sand. Port Charlotte's fine sand and hardpan can perch water near the surface even when the top looks like it should drain. That is a site fact on those lots. It does not turn us into a drainage contractor. It means the grade of a new lawn has to respect where the water already wants to sit.
Mowing a yard that is still a pond cuts ruts and compacts the root zone. We reschedule those visits. If your lawn fails in the same corner every wet season, send a photo while the water is there, not only after it has dried and the grass is brown. The photo tells us whether we are looking at grade or at something under the ground.
Grade, clock, or pipe
Watch one rain and one irrigation cycle. If the puddle appears against the house after rain and the rest of the yard drains, the surface is bringing water to the slab. That is the grade we can cut when we install sod. If the puddle appears only when a zone runs, and it sits on a head or a soggy valve box, the clock or the hardware is wrong. Change the minutes or call an irrigation company. We will not re-pipe it, and new sod will not absorb a zone that runs for an hour into a low spot. If water rises from a grate or a popped pipe in the middle of the yard, that is a drain or a break. A French drain is the tool some yards need. It is not a tool we install.
Port Charlotte lots with hardpan can hold water near the surface even when the top inch looks like sand. We still only sell the regrade that belongs to a lawn, not a claim that we lowered the water table. Mowing waits until we can walk the yard without trenching it. A photo of the puddle, taken while it is there, plus a photo the next dry day, is the pair that helps. Tell us whether it happens in rain, during sprinklers, or both. The quote will be sod and grade, or it will be a no, with the trade you actually need named in plain words. A no is cheaper than a lawn that dies in the same corner next July.
After we regrade, the test is the next heavy rain, not the install afternoon. Water should move away from the house and the new sod should not be sitting in a collar around the slab. If it still does, call us while the puddle is visible. If the puddle is at a grate or only appears when the sprinklers run, call the trade that owns pipes. We will come back for a grade we got wrong. We will not come back to install a drain we told you we do not install. Mowing resumes when the new lawn has rooted and the ground can hold a machine, which may be later than a dry neighbor's yard.
What we will do on the install
We pull the failed grass and the root mat. We regrade so the surface falls away from the house. We add topsoil where the sand is too thin to hold any moisture at all. Then we lay sod tight, with staggered seams, so the new lawn is not a set of dams. Rock at the foundation keeps a wet mulch bed off the slab. Mulch stays out around the plants that need it. None of that is a buried pipe.
If the puddle is coming from a gutter that dumps at the corner, a downspout extension may be the whole fix, and that is a handyman or a roofer. If the irrigation clock is running a zone into a lake every morning, change the clock. We will point at a head that is missing the lawn. We will not rebuild the system. If a drain grate in the yard is clogged or the pipe under it is collapsed, call a drainage company. New sod on top of that grate will fail on the next hard rain, and we would rather say that on the walk.
Where the grass is simply dead and the grade is something we can cut with the tools we bring, the job is a normal sod quote, $0.85–$1.75 per square foot installed as a range. Start with sod installation.
Frequently asked
Can you fix a yard that holds water?
We can regrade a lawn so surface water runs away from the house, as part of a sod install. We cannot fix a collapsed drain or a high water table with a layer of grass.
Do you install French drains?
No. French drains, dry wells, and re-plumbing irrigation are not Green Haven services.
Will you mow if the yard is flooded?
Not if we would leave ruts. We reschedule for a dry window.
Who do I call if the sprinkler line is broken?
An irrigation contractor. We need the water to work for new sod, and we do not repair the pipes.