How to Remove a Lawn and Sprinklers

Removing the Lawn

• 1

  Clear everything off your lawn.

• 2

  Rent a sod cutter from a local home improvement store.

• 3

  Place the sod cutter at one corner of your lawn, then set the cutting depth to the appropriate level. In general, you'll want to cut about 1- to 1 1/2-inches under the grass roots.

• 4

  Put on eye protection and work gloves. Start the sod cutter and walk slowly behind it, going from one end of the lawn to the other end. Once at the opposite end, stop the sod cutter and walk over to where you started. Roll up the row you just cut, then return to the sod cutter.

• 5

  Cut in the opposite direction of the last row. Once the second row is cut, roll it up like the first. Continue this process of cutting and rolling up rows until the entire lawn is removed from the yard.

Removing the Sprinklers

• 6

  Turn off your sprinkler system control panel and unplug it.

• 7

  Go to the sprinkler system pump on the side of the house and dig into the ground with a shovel, following the sprinkler line to each sprinkler head. Dig from sprinkler head to sprinkler head, successively, until the entire line and each head has been dug up.

• 8

  Pull each line out of the trenches you have dug and set on the ground.

• 9

  Go back to the sprinkler pump once all the lines have been unearthed and set on the yard. Cut the main lines going out to the sprinklers in the yard with a hack saw. You can now install new lines and sprinkler heads.