Last summer my wife and I built our first house and the sod wasn’t laid very well. There were a bunch of bumps and it was very uneven. I almost felt like adding shocks and a suspension to my mower!
Well, I made a thread last summer and a few of y’all chimed in and I began doing my research. It was already July and the temps were high and we were already very dry, so I decided to postpone this project until next spring.
Fast-forward to this past March.
My B-I-L and I both had this same issue and we helped each other out spreading the top soil. We ended getting some Premium Top Soil (75% compost and 25% sand) from Silver Creek Material in Fort Worth. I had 6 total yards delivered for my 3,800 sq/ft of grass.
Here is the first picture before I spread out any of the Top Soil. My lawn was about 2.5” tall throughout the winter, so I needed to scalp it. You can see the shorter cut grass at the bottom of this picture. I ended up scalping it to about 1” tall or so
After I scalped the entire yard, I applied a heavy shot of fertilizer before the top soil was spread out. I wanted the fertilizer below the new dirt and close to the growing grass itself. After that, we spent about 8 hours spreading this stuff out. It took awhile, but we were able to get 90% of it done on one Saturday. After it was spread out, I hand watered it all in. I read online that it was better to hand water with a high pressure nozzle so the sand/compost could fall down below the grass blades. We used a big push broom and the back side of a garden rake to work it all in. Here’s what it looked like after the first water:
You can see in the last picture of my backyard where I applied the top soil too think. I had to go back to a few spots around my yard and rake up the thicker areas. The grass wasn’t able to grow through these spots.
Here is how it looked after 8 days. I watered it 2 times a day for the 2-3 week or so:
Here is the final product. I have mowed it twice already at a height of 0.5”. You can still see where a few of the really low spots were (places that I applied the soil too thick), but I will just add a little sand every week and work it into the grass. With time, it will raise up with the rest of the yard.
[This message has been edited by AGGIE WH08P (edited 4/17/2013 12:57p).]
Well, I made a thread last summer and a few of y’all chimed in and I began doing my research. It was already July and the temps were high and we were already very dry, so I decided to postpone this project until next spring.
Fast-forward to this past March.
My B-I-L and I both had this same issue and we helped each other out spreading the top soil. We ended getting some Premium Top Soil (75% compost and 25% sand) from Silver Creek Material in Fort Worth. I had 6 total yards delivered for my 3,800 sq/ft of grass.
Here is the first picture before I spread out any of the Top Soil. My lawn was about 2.5” tall throughout the winter, so I needed to scalp it. You can see the shorter cut grass at the bottom of this picture. I ended up scalping it to about 1” tall or so
After I scalped the entire yard, I applied a heavy shot of fertilizer before the top soil was spread out. I wanted the fertilizer below the new dirt and close to the growing grass itself. After that, we spent about 8 hours spreading this stuff out. It took awhile, but we were able to get 90% of it done on one Saturday. After it was spread out, I hand watered it all in. I read online that it was better to hand water with a high pressure nozzle so the sand/compost could fall down below the grass blades. We used a big push broom and the back side of a garden rake to work it all in. Here’s what it looked like after the first water:
You can see in the last picture of my backyard where I applied the top soil too think. I had to go back to a few spots around my yard and rake up the thicker areas. The grass wasn’t able to grow through these spots.
Here is how it looked after 8 days. I watered it 2 times a day for the 2-3 week or so:
Here is the final product. I have mowed it twice already at a height of 0.5”. You can still see where a few of the really low spots were (places that I applied the soil too thick), but I will just add a little sand every week and work it into the grass. With time, it will raise up with the rest of the yard.
[This message has been edited by AGGIE WH08P (edited 4/17/2013 12:57p).]