You can apply very dry, loose soil or builder's sand in 1/4" or so incriments every couple of weeks. You should wait until the new grass has matured so the rooting will allow light raking with a leaf rake to spread the topdressing--probably not before late Fall.

i moved into a house with poor drainage. when i did, in my head i envisioned doing something like this, but didnt know if it was possible.

Thank you for your suggestion. I'll try this in the Fall. It will probably go into the following Spring at 1/4" every couple of weeks. I'll assume this would only work when the grass is actively growing.

I don't know if I can find any dry, loose soil, but perhaps if I mix some with sand it would work ok.

I'm not recommending this, but I've added up to an inch of sand in one day in 1/4" incriments in low spots. I add sand 1/4" at a time then use the leaf rake to pull the grass leaf blades up. The turf has recovered fine for me, but that is no guarantee for others. The proceedure in the prior post above is the safer route. You can mix topsoil and sand. For straight topsoil, I've bought bags from the big box store and emptied them into a cart where I ho and rake it daily until dry and loose. Note: I have never added more than 1/4" of straight topsoil at one time, so I can't say if it will work at 1" at a time depths without hurting the grass.

I think I'll go with the dry soil and sand mixture. That sounds better than using straight sand to me. I'll just be patient and try to do a little at a time and see how it works. I'm going to wait until the blades are strong enough to handle it as suggested. Thanks again for your input!

Depends on grass type.