My experiences with a rotary mower and trying to level a lawn, it doesn't work.

the rotary action of the mower is to lift everything in the blade's path.

Maybe Jim didn't use the methods we talk about here. And my rotary mower doesn't come close to lifting everything into the blade's path. I have to go over my weed patch forwards and backwards to get it to mow everything.

As for leveling: First of all I would wait at least until mid June to do this. Fertilize and water deeply a few days before you scalp it down.

Second, take a look at this website with pictures of various grades of sand. Golf courses are not trying to level their surface. They top dress for a different reason. I would use something like the medium grit sand blasting sand or larger. See what your supplier can provide along that line. Sandblasting sand is purposely coarse and sharp faceted. That's what you want. If you're worried about the size, I've leveled small holes with kitty litter sized particles and it worked perfectly. Beach sand or river sand is too rounded to work well for this. You want a sand that will lock together and form a surface. What you do not want is any clods in the mix. That's why sand and not sifted topsoil. Even sifted topsoil is going to have small clods in it. A 1/4-inch clod will dig a furrow in your otherwise perfectly leveled surface.

When we bought our house in San Antonio it had been abandoned for years. The soil had washed out up to 8 inches below the level of the sidewalks. I think we ended up bringing in 20 yards of material. We started in the front with topsoil. That was a pain to move due to the cloddy nature of topsoil. For the back yard we used sand. That was much easier to use. As it turned out the best grass I had was where the sand was the deepest.

The original poster on the leveling topic was David Proud. He bought bags of sand on pallets so that he could buy more or could return any left over. One thing that will save you sand is to scalp it down to the ground. You can't exactly do that, but that would be the ideal. If you have 2-inch grass and dump a lot of sand on it, you're going to have a hard time pulling the sand out from in between all the grass to get it to fill the low spots. So the lower you can get it mowed the better. I wish his pictures were still here. I was working with him to get copies and write up his story, but he dropped out of sight. Before that happened I want to tell you he was ecstatic about the leveling he did.

Thanks for the information! Here are the types of sand I can order from this supplier. I can always expand my search beyond this supplier though.

http://www.bradsherfarms.com/products/sand

I will be able to scalp it down to 0.75" (lowest setting on my mower). I hope that will be low enough.

Can you purchase bagged sand at home improvement stores? I like that idea so I can purchase what I need and return the rest.

Thanks again:)

Those sands look like different colors of the same sand. Ask them where to get something coarser with sharp edges - like for sand blasting. And ask if it comes in bags. I believe the sand blasting sand comes in bags for the convenience of the typical user.

But for convenience, you might end up with the bagged mortar type sand from Home Depot, Lowe's, or whatever local brand box stores you have.

I'm looking to do leveling as well and have similar questions as you, Ryan. I live in Wake Forest...close by!

I've been reading on what to use for leveling (100% sand, some mixture of sand and peat...). My main concern about this is my soil type: NC red clay. See picture.

I had may yard graded to remove a large slope, and then Bermuda sod was placed over top. They did bring in a little bit of top soil to put over they clay, but I'm thinking that it wasn't quite enough.

Fast forward 2 years, and although I have my grass growing very thick, every step has uneven spots. When mowing with my rotary mower on the lowest level I get scalp rings everywhere.

So I would like to level and would like to know the following things:

- is there a need to aerate before leveling since I have dense red clay?

- would I benefit from top-dressing and leveling?

- what materials (sand or mixture) would I use to level?

Not trying to hijack your thread Ryan, I just though maybe we could both benefit from the same advice.

I actually live in Rolesville so we are neighbors! It is apparent that as more Bermuda is used here in the Raleigh area some of our local lawn companies should start offering these services. I cannot locate a local service that owns a reel mower and I can't even think of buying a reel mower before I find a local place that can service them and sharpen them. Plus I do not have a truck so good luck loading it into my car and driving it a long way to get it serviced.

From what I have read core aeration is recommended before leveling. Anyone with Bermuda that started off with sod will likely benefit from leveling.

How large is your lawn? Do you have any pictures? How low do you currently mow it?

bjk, you are hijacking in a sense because you have not done the research that the OP has done. He's ahead of you and you're asking questions he's asked and answered. I'm going to reply because I think you're being led down the wrong path.

I don't see any benefit to core aerating before leveling unless you are the one being paid by the hour to do the job. You have to get every one of those plugs of dirt off the surface before you can start.

If you need a mower that goes lower than your mower, rent one...if you can find one.

Send a sample of your dense red clay to Logan Labs and get the $25 test. Post the results here and morpheus will tell you why it is not clay. Most clay problems are caused by an imbalance among calcium, sodium, magnesium, and potassium. That can be fixed. Even if you do have dense clay, that can be fixed so it will absorb and release moisture. Get the test first. Based on reading here for the past 14 years, only a small number of people have real clay. You can't blame clay for your problems. It can be fixed without replacing the soil. You can get started by using organic fertilizer about now and as often as you like. Use soybean meal, alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow), corn meal, corn gluten meal, or Milorganite. Apply at 15 pounds per 1,000 square feet.

If y'all are neighbors, it would be a good idea for each of you to visit the other to see what you're dealing with. Then each could invite their friends to help the other at the disorganized chaos that would be the leveling projects! Bring pizza and reserve the beer for later (after the help arrives). There are other sand dealers in the Raleigh area - I just looked them up. I'm surprised they don't carry the variety of sands my local guy has. I'm assuming y'all are going to make a drag to level the sand. If you're sharing, you only need one of those. I made one out of chain link fence, boards, rope, and some bags of sand for additional weight.

This is mine that was leveled with topsoil & compost, before I knew about compost breaking down... It's no longer as level as I'd like. The swirlies are from a dull blade, please excuse.

Regarding mowers. I will venture into enemy territory & say that my yard at 1" cut with a sharp rotary is indistinguishable from my neighbors unleveled yard which is cut at 1/2 with a reel. I'm not saying a rotary is just as good, but it'll get you 90% of the way to perfect. I had a reel for years, it was fun until I needed it sharpened professionally, which was an expensive hassle. Other things started to fail after that & I sold it. The way Bermuda grows, you can have a perfectly flat level green top at 1/2 inch 1 inch or 4 inches, it's all about how low you scalp each year & how high you groom it up to from there over the season. Get your soil tested, level things out & add organics as often as possible, that's the best start you can give it. It will always be a work in progress, so keep us updated & let others know what works in your area on your grass type.

Hi All -

My grass is growing nicely. I mow it every 4 days with a rotary Husqvarna HU725AWD on the lowest setting. I cant find a measurement specification for that height setting so I took a picture with a ruler pushed to the ground...

Yard · More Info

I am guessing this is around 0.75 inch. I have a organic treatment schedule that seems to be working well. Overall it seems pretty dense and healthy and weed-free, but pretty bumpy. The scalp marks are due to the bumps.

Yard · More Info

I need to level it, but just don't know what product to use.

Also, just found this...seems like the right type of sand?

http://www.capitolcitylumber.com/exterior-products/sandblasting-sand

Simple paver sand will work nicely & form a nice firm surface, but they did discuss more specialized sand types above. I'm surprised at how low that husqvarna can mow!

Dchall, it sounds like you probably gave an answer to the following question earlier in this thread but I'm still having a tough time believing it. My front yard is similar to the experience you mentioned earlier where there was lots of washout. I would guess I need to raise my front lawn in certain large areas by as much as 4" to get back to "normal".

Is it really ok to level with pure sand (no topsoil at all) in an area that needs to be raised so much? The grass won't suffer?

Of course, I'd be attempting to do this gradually at about 1" per year or so.

Yup, go for it. About an inch at a time is right, don't bury the blades completely. Apply organics like kelp or fish fertilizer right away if possible.

I've got some small areas in the middle of the lawn that are basically bare so obviously there's no grass. How would I treat these areas? Do I still sand them with the rest of the yard or level around those and add sand once there's actual grass growing?

Level it all at once, the Bermuda will fill in.

I'm in the process of topdressing/leveling my tif419 bermuda lawn...this is only the 2nd growing season for the yard, but I feel like it's ready now. I've read through this thread a couple of times and come away with some mixed thoughts that leads me to believe there is not one way to go about doing this based on where you live and the type of soil you have.

Here in No. GA (NE metro ATL)...red clay is what you're working with for the most part. I've done this process once before in our 1st home about 18 yrs ago. I used strictly coarse sand...scalped first and applied, after about 4 weeks the lawn grew in and was one of the nicer yards in the neighborhood...I had a rotary mower and cut about 1 to 1.5".

About 3 yrs ago I helped my brother in law do his yard. Fortunately I still have a pic of this yard. At this time landscape supply companies were now selling sod dressing...essentially a mix of sand (often river sand) ) and compost/topsoil...scalped, aerated and applied. He has a gas powered reel mower.

I have to admit, even though the way we went about it runs contrary to some of the info I've read here, (we aerated and we used river sand in making our own sod dressing) his yard turned out far better than mine.

Still not entirely sure how I'm going to go about it, but I have since made the investment in a gas powered reel mower...that alone has made a difference, but it needs leveling in several spots to achieve the results in this pic.

Well done

Thanks...I can't take full credit for the results in the pic, but the process to get it level I will take some credit for that....I have a small yard now...(less than 2k sf) and after a few conversations with pros in this trade, I think I will do this myself and more or less follow the same process we did on a few years back.

The 1st step is to bring it down maybe one more notch with my reel mower so I can more easily see the high and low spots. Then aerate, rake and remove the core plug, fertilize, then top dress.

The top dress material will be my own mix of river sand, top soil and a bagged compost...I normally use milorganite exclusively to fertilize, but to get the grass to power thru the top dressing quicker, I'm using a contractors blend of lesco fertlizer...will post a few pics.

Reel vs rotary...if you want that fairway look with bermuda, the powered reel I've found is the way to go...but I have seen some really nice bermuda lawns here cut with a rotary mower. Even then we're not talking about the run of the mill home depot mower...a high quality mower or commercial grade mower can cut it to about 1" - 1.5" pretty well too. We have a few places here that sale and or service reel mowers and the cost to maintain is more expensive than a regular mower...but I've found with regular homeowner use (cutting every 4th day) once a year is all that's needed and I spend $80 to $125.