3610 Telephone Rd, Santa Maria, CA. 93454
1-800 548 8873 Toll Free
1-805 934 2072 Direct
1-805 934 5315 Facsimile
www.centralcoastsod.com
Get Gopher Protection for Your New Sod Lawn
How to install Gopher Wire, under Lawns
If you are having a problem with gophers in your lawn and want to keep them out for good, we have an
incredible solution that has worked wonders... yet many people don't know about.
Here’s our secret…
I get a lot of questions about the proper way to install a wire barrier to prevent gophers and moles from
damaging lawns. This can be one of the most costly mistakes one can make when installing a new lawn.
The cost of the installation is high as it is and then the extra cost of the installation of the wire is daunting.
However, in areas of mole and gopher populations this step is worthwhile if done right.
I have seen many installations where the wire used was aviary wire, like chicken wire but with half inch
diagonal mesh instead of one inch. This kind of wire was not meant to be buried and will fail in a short
period of time. My choice of wire is to use either galvanized hardware cloth with one half by one inch
openings or "gopher wire" wire made specifically for burying underground. One brand to consider is
"Gophers Limited" gopher wire which is a full 18 gauge, 3/4 inch square mesh be available in stainless
steel and a special double galvanized process. There is other gopher wire on the market, but this is the
best and longest lasting.
If the sod is installed directly on top of the wire gophers will go under it and pull the grass down through
the wire and moles will push piles of soil up through it defeating the purpose of the extra expense.
Proper placement is to install the wire and then cover it with one to two inches of soil and then lay the
sod on that. If you exceed one to two inches, then gophers and moles will just tunnel in between the sod
and wire.
Contractors sometimes try to talk you out of this extra step but be firm, this is the step that makes the
extra expense work. Below is the first stage of laying the wire. I like to see the wire laid so that the
leading edge of the wire or the part that is shingled under the next is toward the invading gopher or mole.
This usually means that if the lawn is next to the house, the second row of wire goes under the first and
so on. Just think of the animal tunneling under the wire. You want the seams to be layered so that if there
is a small opening it is away from the direction of the tunnel.
A landscaping company recently put down about 2500 square feet of sod in Rancho San Diego. Before
they got there, it was riddled with gophers and gopher holes. See photo 1.
Central Coast Sod Santa Maria, CA. 93454
1
3610 Telephone Rd, Santa Maria, CA. 93454
1-800 548 8873 Toll Free
1-805 934 2072 Direct
1-805 934 5315 Facsimile
www.centralcoastsod.com
Photo 1
Photo 2
They came in, removed the old lawn with a Bobcat, and fine graded the area. See Photo 2.
They tested the irrigation system to make sure the whole area was getting full coverage. It turned out,
they needed to add more sprinkler heads to get the proper water coverage.
Here comes the secret weapon...
They laid "gopher wire" under the top soil to stop the gophers from destroying the new lawn.
Photo 3
Photo 4
2500 square feet of wiring in 600 foot rolls and staked it down, making sure to overlap each roll for a
barrier to stop the gophers. The wire is held in place with sod pins or landscape staples also nylon zip
ties or hog rings can be used to secure wire seams. See Photo 5 -6.
The staple placed about 2 to three feet apart. Again be very careful to have tight overlaps of 4-6 inches
without buckling or openings.
Central Coast Sod Santa Maria, CA. 93454
2
3610 Telephone Rd, Santa Maria, CA. 93454
1-800 548 8873 Toll Free
1-805 934 2072 Direct
1-805 934 5315 Facsimile
www.centralcoastsod.com
After they rolled out the wire, we added 2-3 inches of top soil, graded it, and compacted the area as they
worked our way across the lawn.
Photo 5
Photo 6
Photo 76
Photo
When everything was completed, here's how it turned out. See Photo 7.
Photo 7
References:
http://www.gopherslimited.com
http://www.chulavistalawncare.com
Central Coast Sod Santa Maria, CA. 93454
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