Ideas to protect turf during construction project

[anon81364900]

We’re building a new tractor barn which will require contractors crossing about 250ft of the backyard to get to the field. Looking for ideas on what we could put down to keep the turf from being destroyed. Traffic would be mostly pickup trucks and skid-loaders. One semi for the materials delivery, but we expect they’ll stay on the rock driveway and a skidloader will run the matls to the building site.
If we put something down as two 24" tracks with bare grass between, that would help on cost. But by the time you account for the different track widths of trucks vs skidloader, might not be worth it?

I’m waiting on a quote for rented construction mats.

I’ve heard of used conveyor belts being used for this purpose, but based on inventory I’m finding online, I’d easily spend $2500-3k between buying and shipping it here. And while I could find some uses for it, post-project, I’d still have a lot of it to dispose of.

Any other ideas? Used artificial turf? Used carpet? (ugh, I can’t imagine the disposal headache after a month of muddy vehicles over carpet!!)

Or, should we just accept it’s going to get wrecked and till/renovate it after the job’s done?

[Redlei44]

You might ask the contractors doing the work what their preference/experience is. Access protection both prevents major damage to turf (aesthetic and environmental/runoff/sediment concerns) and it prevents equipment from getting bogged down in mud. If you don’t mind reseeding after it’s all done, your municipality is not requiring you to provide protection for environmental reasons, and the contractor isn’t worried about their equipment getting stuck in the mud, it’s cheapest to just flatten and reseed.

[lenapesadie]

Here, we are going with the flatten and re seed process.

I really considered ordering some gravel or crushed concrete to make a temporary drive and then scraping said gravel to a location that needed it but figured I’d still end up with messed up turf.

[TMares]

Just fix it when you’re done. You will burn a ton of time and energy making an effort that will just piss you off and fail in the end.

[SLW]

I’m not familiar with construction mats but if you put any cover over the turf won’t it kill it??

You mention it’s a tractor barn which to me means a 3 sided open building, or it could have slider doors across the opening(s). Anyway my point hear those types of buildings in my area take one week, week and half, tops, to construct unless it’s a 200’ long building. Will your tractor barn be more finished, requiring more time on site by finishing crews??

[anon81364900]

It’s a full building with a lean-to, windows, doors. But not huge, probably a 2-week job. I’d fully expect the grass would get yellow, but I don’t think it’d die. And if nothing else, mats would keep the tires from rutting the ground and turning it into a muddy mess that would require complete renovation, re-seeding (so that patch would look different from the rest of the lawn. I say “lawn” but it’s probably 30% creeping charlie .

But I think we’ve arrived at the same conclusion as you guys here-- just live with the wrecked area until the job’s done, and till/fill/re-seed when it’s over. The thought of unloading, placing, and then removing 60 stall mats over grass was not pleasant. If we get a really muddy area where traction’s a problem, I’ve got scrap plywood and such we could put down as a patch.

Construction mats are the right tool for the job. But a 30-day rental was going to be $80 each mat, so almost $2000.

[SLW]

Very cool, I learned something new today, construction mats! They look like a huge grass killer to me but I understand your concerns about ruts.

Here’s hoping you have dry weather during the work so ruts are minimal. It sounds like you will have a wonderful building when the project is completed.

[Bluey]

Construction mats or used belting and other such is fine for short distances and not too heavy use.

Seems that your distance is too far and traffic will be heavy, so any you put down won’t really protect that much, you will need to remedy any damage anyway, not sure construction mats alone will protect as much as you think?

For skid loader work, to get to where they were working in our yard, they just laid plywood sheets down, but it was a short distance.
It worked well for that here, not sure worth for that long a stretch and many vehicles traveling over it?

[trubandloki]

If you really want to put something down you could use sheets of plywood or even dimensional lumber put side by side.

I doubt it would be cheaper than any of your other options though.

I think the plan you have is the best plan.

[Bluey]

I wanted to add, the work they were doing in our yard was replacing several trees after an ice storm left us with this and four trees didn’t make it.
They were using plywood sheets to go over to where the skid loader with a tree spade took the broken one out and then brought a new one in:

[endlessclimb]

For a month, I’d accept that it’s going to get destroyed and just reseed late summer/early fall. All the grass will be dead in a month under a cover anyways.

[anon81364900]

Beautiful pictures, but I bet that was hard to lose so many trees. I always feel so sorry for trees in ice storms. We had a really bad one years ago, like over an inch of ice, and I will never forget the terrible sound coming from our timber of one tree after another cracking and falling.