Levelling a Garden

[Spinny]

I have about 200 sqm of our garden to level out for a new lawn. 

I will need to get some top soil in but am a bit annoyed as we had a landscaper do a bit of work last year and they insisted the old lawn should be scraped off, when I could have just killed it with weedkiller. The result seems to be that they effectively skipped a couple of inches of the existing topsoil with the lawn - effectively costing me £1000's just to replace what they skipped. Doesn't seem right to me.

Anyway I am wondering how level is a level garden lawn - we want to achieve something that looks flat and contemporary. Should I be aiming for completely flat, or should it have a slight drainage slope, and will it be noticeable if I put a small slope on it to save on topsoil. It is about 23m long and 8.5m wide. So even a 5mm per metre or 1 in 200 slope would save me 4 inches of topsoil at the far end and about 20 bulk bags of topsoil it seems.

[Redoctober]

We have a fair expanse of lawn too - It was never "accurately levelled" at the onset of the turf going down, just raked and pulled by the landscapers to a level, which seemed about right !  Given our location, we were happy for this to be the case, as it didn't need any accuracy as such . Yes, since mowing it, I do notice a very slight gradient but nothing that causes us an issue or is obvious to the naked eye. 

We didn't have to worry about drainage as such. Since the lawns have been down, we have never experienced any standing water, due to the decent soil it sits on I suppose. As for any slope, I suppose it depends upon your situation, how level you want it to be and how obvious a slope would be / sit, in the overall scheme of the garden?

Another photo to hopefully help and put things into context.

[Thorfun]

6 hours ago, Spinny said:

about 20 bulk bags of topsoil it seems.

Buy loose loads instead of bulk bags! You’ll save a small fortune 

[Spinny]

Intention is to seed the new lawn rather than turf it. I did this once before about 30 years ago with good results using some good seed. We have a clay soil type, which does show some cracking in very dry conditions but seems quite fertile.

 

There is a big variation in top soil pricing (£50 to £150 per 500L), but I also suspect there is a big variation in 'quality' too. We have the additional difficulty that access to the back garden which needs to be levelled is via a side passage only 800mm wide, and the side passage wall is just now being newly k-rendered and cedral cladded, so we need to avoid damaging this. (The thought of some landscaper's teen labour crashing into stuff with wheelbarrows doesn't bear thinking about).

 

We are also in a suburban road and a lorry load would have to be tipped on the public road and/or else block any use of our driveway.

 

I have bought a few 25L sealed bags of topsoil on offer from Wickes and these are easy to hand carry down the side passage. 20 off 500l bulk bags equivalent would need 400 bags though. Any views on whether this is good stuff or crap ?

 

Honestly not sure how to assess the quality of new topsoil, and if you don't like it after it is delivered you are going to be screwed ?

 

 

Edited May 4 by Spinny