Grass Removal Near Me: How Old Lawn Removal Works (2026 GTA Guide)

Old grass gets removed one of two ways before resodding: mechanically, with a sod cutter that slices the turf out roots and all in under an hour for a typical yard, or chemically, by spraying the lawn dead with glyphosate and letting it sit for 10–14 days before stripping it. Sod cutting is faster and lets you resod the same day; chemical kill is slower but cheaper and better for yards with obstacles a machine can’t reach. Either way, the old lawn has to actually leave the property — rototilling it into the soil or laying new sod straight over it are the two most common DIY mistakes we get called to fix. Here’s exactly how removal works, what it costs, and when you can skip it entirely.

Method 1: Sod cutter removal

A sod cutter is a walk-behind machine that slices a blade under the turf at a set depth, so the old lawn peels up in long strips like rolled-up carpet. Set 4–5 cm deep, it takes the root mat with it and leaves clean, workable soil behind. Most GTA equipment rental counters run $100–$140 a day for one, and a typical 150–200 m² front yard strips out in well under an hour once you get the hang of steering it — though on our heavier clay lots it fights back like a jackhammer with an attitude.

Removing the old grass is only the first of five steps. Once the lawn is stripped, the complete resodding process covers grading, topsoil, laying the new sod and the first two weeks of watering.

The upside is speed: strip in the morning, grade and topsoil in the afternoon, sod goes down the same day or the next. The downside is the machine needs a reasonably open, flat run — tight side yards, lots of garden beds, or a yard full of tree roots slow it down fast, and steep slopes are genuinely dangerous to run one on.

Method 2: Killing the lawn with glyphosate

Spraying the existing lawn with a glyphosate-based herbicide kills the grass down to the root over 10–14 days, after which the dead thatch can be raked out, sod-cut on the surface only, or in some cases left as decomposing mulch under 8–10 cm of fresh topsoil. It costs less than renting a sod cutter and works around obstacles a machine can’t — tight corners, garden edges, tree root flare — without tearing anything up.

The tradeoff is time: you’re looking at two full weeks of dead brown lawn before you can even start grading, and if there’s any wind on spray day, overspray can hit neighbouring beds or a shared fence line. It’s the right call for smaller patch jobs, oddly shaped beds, or yards where a machine simply won’t fit — not for a homeowner in a hurry.

What happens to the removed grass and soil

Stripped sod is heavy — a 200 m² lawn produces roughly 2–3 tonnes of rolled-up old turf, so line up a trailer, a bin rental, or a dump run you weren’t planning on. It does not go in a regular curbside yard-waste bag; most GTA municipalities cap bag weight well under what a single strip of wet sod weighs. We hop-fill and haul it as part of every install. Whatever method you use, never rototill the dead or living grass back into the soil — buried turf and weed roots regrow straight up through brand-new sod within weeks, which is one of the most common DIY resodding failures we get called to rescue.

Do you need grass removal if you’re just overseeding?

No — overseeding is designed to work over an existing lawn, so removal is only needed when you’re resodding. If your grass is patchy but more than half is healthy, overseeding into the thin spots (ideally after a good core aeration) is the cheaper fix and needs zero removal work. Grass removal only makes sense when the lawn is more dead than alive, riddled with weeds or grub damage, or you want a clean, even, all-new lawn rather than a patched-together one. Not sure which camp your yard is in? Our guide to 5 signs your lawn needs to be replaced walks through the call.

How grass removal is priced into a sod installation quote

When we quote a resod, grass removal is folded into one line, not billed separately — it’s priced by the square footage of the yard and how the machine can access it, the same way soil prep and sod are. Tight side-yard access, heavy root systems, or a slope that rules out the sod cutter push the removal portion up slightly since it means more hand labour; a flat, open, easy-access lot keeps it at the low end. You can see how removal folds into a full installed price with our instant sod cost calculator, or get exact numbers for your yard with a free quote.

Why we include removal in one same-day visit

Splitting removal and installation across two separate visits — or two separate contractors — is where most DIY-adjacent jobs go sideways: the lawn sits stripped and exposed to weather, weeds recolonize bare dirt within days, and you’re coordinating two schedules instead of one. Our crews strip, grade, and lay new sod in a single visit for most residential yards, so there’s no exposed-dirt window for rain to wash out your grading or for weed seed to blow back in. We’ve written up the full process from bare dirt to finished lawn in our soil preparation guide if you want the next step in detail.

The bottom line

Old grass comes out one of two ways — sod-cut same day, or sprayed dead and cleared after 10–14 days — and either way it has to actually leave the yard, never get buried or covered over. For most GTA lawns the sod cutter is faster and lets us go straight to grading and laying new sod in one visit; glyphosate kill earns its keep on tight, obstacle-heavy beds a machine can’t reach. If you’d rather skip renting equipment and hauling tonnes of old turf yourself, that’s exactly what our crews handle before every install.

Sodding Company works throughout the Greater Toronto Area, from Thornhill to Newmarket and Richmond Hill. Same fresh-cut sod, same take-root guarantee, wherever your lawn is.