Artificial turf estate — a graded hillside finished by hand

This one is a grading job before it is a turf job. The slope stepped down toward the drive in a series of limestone terraces, and none of it was level enough to lay on.

Before photographs show the site mid-clearing: bare graded soil, cut timber stacked to one side, the crew working around the trunks of established oaks that were never coming out.

What we did

Terraces were cut and dry-stacked in limestone to hold the grade, then the base was built up and compacted across every tier. Only once the levels held did the turf go down, rolled out in sections and trimmed to the curve of each wall.

Detail

The close-up is the part of the job nobody photographs: a crew member on his knees with a hammer, nailing the turf edge into the base an inch at a time along the flagstone. Machine work sets the shape of a site like this. Hand work is what stops it looking installed.