Manual Sod Cutter–Worth Buying?
February 4, 2009 – 12:19 am by Lindsay
A sod cutter is a tool that allows you to quickly and easily cut and remove grass.
There are big gas-powered sod cutters, and then there are manual/kick-type versions. As you might guess, a manual sod cutter is more affordable and more practical for a homeowner (the gas-powered sod cutting machines start around $3,500!).
This manual one costs $300 as I write this:
Quail Manual Kick-Type Sod Cutter & Edger
How Sod Cutters Work
These tools make it easy to create a garden bed or plant a tree or shrub. They tear your grass or sod up into small chucks, which you can put into a yard machine and rework into the bed.
A sod cutter doesn’t remove a lot of the soil beneath (something that’s hard to avoid when you’re digging up grass with a shovel). It does, however, destroy the grass roots, so the area should remain bare for some time.
You can use a manual cutter to clear the grass, as mentioned, and also to dig trenches.
Why Might You Need a Manual Sod Cutter?
If you’ve ever dug up some grass in order to landscape, plant a garden bed, or install your own patio, then you already know the answer to this question. Digging up grass is hard and tedious work. Just removing a garden bed-sized patch can take an hour or more. Doing it with a shovel is fine if you want to harden up those calluses and burn a lot of calories, but for most of us time is a consideration.
If you’re planting a number of garden beds, you don’t want to spend the whole weekend just getting the grass out of the way. A sod cutter can dramatically increase your productivity (i.e. make it faster and easier!).
Renting vs. Buying a Sod Cutter
If you know you’ll only need a sod cutter once, it can make sense to simply rent one of the gas-powered beasts and get the work done in a couple hours.
However rental costs can be nearly as much as buying a manual sod cutter new. And if you realize the next month or the next year that you want to put in some more garden beds, then you’ll have to pay to rent again.
On the other hand, if you buy your very own sod cutter, then it’s a tool you can use whenever you need it. Also, because it’s the sort of thing not everybody on the block has, you can become The Person with the Sod Cutter, the one to whom everyone turns…
Before you chuckle and wonder why you’d want to be in that position, consider that the economy is tough and more and more folks may be putting in backyard fruit and vegetable gardens. It never hurts to have resources to barter with (sure I’ll let you use my sod cutter, and when your bees produce their honey, maybe you can give me a couple pounds…).
If you’re of a mind to pick one up, grab the Quail Manual Kick-Type Sod Cutter & Edger online from Northern Tool (it’s hard to find a manual cutter at the store).
One Response to “Manual Sod Cutter–Worth Buying?”
Great, well written post. I like your thoughts on buying vs. renting. I agree that in many cases the price of renting is too high, and doesn’t justify renting. Renting is good because you don’t have to maintain the product, store it, and spend too much money up front. The downside is if the cost of renting is half or more of the cost of buying.
Great post!
By Alex Cook on May 4, 2010