As long as the grass is growing well, then yes, now is good. Be sure to take pictures before you start, in the process, and afterward. Even if you don't share them here, you may refer to them again in the future. I suspect you will see more settling over the next year or two.

Yea, you can level now. Some people recommend to level in May/June but I have yet to hear or read of someone having a bad experience leveling anytime during the growing season. I sanded about 3.5 weeks ago and got instantly better results with my reel mower. I will probably do more in a week or so. Just be aware like dc said, your yard may settle more over the next 3 yrs. I'm in that same boat because I rototilled in the Spring. I will be leveling for years to come.

One thing I didn't realize was that the weight of the sand would cause increased settling on it's own. So maybe I will only have issues for 1-2 yrs.

Thank you for the responses. Over the weekend, I planted some tropical hibiscus in one corner of the back yard. The ground was rock hard when trying to dig the holes. Additionally, I transplanted the grass I dug up from this small area to multiple spots that either had crabgrass growing in them, or were having a really tough time (grass not growing well). The majority of the areas I transplanted, were also very hard ground. Keep in mind that my irrigation system runs on Wednesday and Saturday, so the ground should have still been damp. Did I mention the builder's landscaper did a horrible job? Ugh, every time I cut the grass, or walk the yard, it just stresses me out and pisses me off how bad the lawn is because the sod wasn't installed properly, and was not maintained before we moved in. So my new thought is that I will probably aerate just prior to leveling with sand. DC, I know from reading previous posts that you are not keen on aeration, but the ground is so friggin hard, I don't see any way around it. So I guess I would welcome thoughts about leveling with sand after aeration, or potentially using something other than sand after aeration that may also help with the soil structure, and leveling.

If you have a big budget for this project, level with turface or profile & switch to organics going forward. That rocky soil will need serious work.

Ya, I'm sure that would be awesome to level my yard with. Only one problem... I wouldn't be able to enjoy it because my wife would kill me for spending $5,000 on the project. She already thinks I'm nuts for spending $2,000 on a lawn mower, and thinks the lawn is "good enough" right now. 10,000 sq.ft. of lawn, my guess is that I am going to need around 15 cu. yards of sand or other to level the lawn. Plus, I am not exactly a young man, so I am going to need to hire some help putting all the material down. If I can keep the whole project under $1,000, I will be fine.

Also, just to clarify, the soil is hard, but no rocks to speak of. This is NE of Austin, so not as much rock as the west of Austin. Pflugerville used to be primarily farm land, and I have no doubt that crops were once grown where my house is. Either that, or it was used for cattle. The soil is primarily clay in most areas except where the builder topdressed with chocolate loam prior to sod installation.

Aeration works well with sand leveling. The holes allow the sand another place to go, besides the already uneven surface. This can have long term benefits. Would I aerate? No, not yet. I would just sand level this first time and plan on aerating when you level a 2nd or 3rd time.

My ground was rock hard this Spring, I rototilled my back yard (2800 sq ft). Then I found this forum and dc suggested using baby shampoo. I let loose with the shampoo on the front yard and other areas (~2200 sq ft). The shampooed are wonderful now. 1-2 times per week I let my 4 yr old walk around spraying shampoo from a 1 gallon sprayer. He loved washing his big wheel, bikes, and other toys. I just moved the stuff around often enough to get real good coverage and kept his jug topped off. He used far more than the 3 oz per 1000 sq ft that was recommended but there's no harm in doing so. The shampooed areas are now better than the areas I rototilled and I don't have to worry about settling for years to come in those areas. So I would give that a try tbh.

It took 3-4 wks before I noticed any real difference but continued on. Then all of a sudden there was a huge sustained change. I was able to insert a wood dowel 12" into the ground with very little effort, and this occurred on soil that was neglected, no watering/rain for months, lots of bare dirt and weeds, etc. I went from worrying about hard soil to wondering about creating a sinkhole. A few weeks ago I finally got to those areas sand leveled and seed them.

As far as volume of sand in concerned, I went with 0.5 yards/1k as recommended by some forums. That worked out very well. If you start out with 5 yrds you may be surprised at the results you get. You don't want to put down 0.5" of sand over your yard. Some areas will have nothing and other areas will have the depth need to even out the area. You don't want or need a surface that looks like a groomed beach. Even if you end up needing more sand you can do it in the Spring/Summer next year. Trying to apply too much sand in 1 application may not be good.

A good drag mat is also going to be very helpful. Don't skimp here. The mat with get the sand where it is needed and prevent unnecessary accumulation. Scalping down to 0.25" or lower if possible is also beneficial.

Edit: My soil sample showed high Mg levels and low organic matter which contributed to the hard soil. Morpheus had me apply Gypsum to help. And I have been adding 30 lbs / 1k organic matter (grains/milorganite/etc) every 2 wks. If you have not done a soil sample, it could be helpful.

Ya, I have tried the baby shampoo, but ran out before I finished the back yard. Guess I'll go buy some more, and keep doing it. I think I will just go the sand route to start with. As far as the drag is concerned, I just ordered the one pictured here:

I'm 99% sure there's no clay in Pflugerville (I was in Round Rock yesterday, not that I was testing soil all day, but my daughter just moved there). There are pockets of clay in Texas, D'Hanis, west of San Antonio, has some for example.

There are two other reasons for hard soil. One is a chemical imbalance. What you likely have is an imbalance of salts (calcium, sodium, magnesium, and potassium) in the soil. The amounts don't matter so much as the balance among them. If you send a soil sample to Logan Labs (not TAMU) they will email you the results. Then post those results here on the forum and morpheuspa will give you the low-down on how to fix the soil. He'll tell you what to use, what not to use, when to use it, how much, how often, and where to find the materials. The second reason for hard soil is a biological die off. When the soil is allowed to dry out completely for an extended period of several weeks to months, then the beneficial fungi which normally keep the soil soft will die off. An easy way to restore them is to spray the soil with a surfactant like shampoo followed by deep watering. The shampoo rate is 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. Follow that with 1/2 to 1 full inch of water and give it 3 weeks to work the magic. Your soil will be softer, but if you want it softer still, you can redo the shampoo. I sprayed mine in San Antonio in 2012 and it's still very soft when it gets wet. Your soil should be soft only when moist and then become firm again when it dries out before you water it again. Then rewetting it should soften it. You can try sticking a screwdriver into the soil before and after to see how the shampoo is working. Use any clear shampoo. I use generic baby shampoo. morpheuspa uses an apple scented shampoo from the dollar store, because he likes the smell.

Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.

You must have a very bumpy situation. Given that, I would go ahead and level it with sand or you'll hate your lawn from now on. It's only grass, right? Well, the problem is to minimize the amount of sand you apply. If you use too much you can change your drainage and back water up into the house. If you are going to redo the leveling in a year or two, then you need to be doubly careful about the amount you use. Do you need advice as to how to proceed with leveling? Here's the gist in a nutshell.

1. Fertilize with a high N, low P and K fertilizer

2. Scalp down to nothing. Rent a mower if you don't want your digging through the dirt. Clear all the scalped stuff away.

3. Cover with coarse sand, drag the sand to level it, and water to settle it.

4. Look for low spots and repeat step 3 for those spots.

5. Repeat step 4 and 3 as needed to perfect the soil profile.

Having done that it should not need to be watered for the next several days. The bermuda will grow up through the light coating of sand and you'll be happily mowing your brand new flat surface in a month.

When I say, coarse sand, it can be pretty coarse. I successfully leveled a spot using clay kitty litter. You'd never know it was there once the grass came back through. If you can find a materials supplier that deals in sand blasting sand, that's perfect. I would try Whittlesey Landscape Supplies first because they are very close. It looks like they have many grades of sand. The picture of their topdress sand shows rocks in the mix. Avoid anything that has not been screened down pretty well. Coarse is much different than rocks. When you drag rocks or clods of clay, they leave furrows that ruin the dragging.

Sorry, once again, new to the whole forum thing.

DC, I am pretty sure it's clay, but I will definitely order a soil test, as I planned on doing that soon anyway. I am also aware that you are a proponent of watering 1" once a week, all at once, from your previous posts I have read. Unfortunately, I am only allowed to water certain hours of the day, twice a week. The way I have my irrigation system set up right now is to start at Midnight on the days I am allowed to water, and it basically runs until after 9:00am the next morning (10:00am is the cutoff time). This gives me approximately 0.5" of water on the entire lawn area. Did I mention that the landscaper, who also installed the irrigation system, did a horrible job? So doing this twice a week gives me the 1" needed. I have enough curiosity about watering 1" all at once to try it if I could, but there just isn't enough hours for me to put down that kind of water over 10,000 sq.ft. in the time allowed with the water restrictions. I could add additional sprinklers to increase the amount of water put down, but I am not ready to tackle that right now. And that is assuming there would be enough water pressure for the additional heads. I measured the water put out by each stage (10 stages total) of the irrigation system about 3 weeks after we moved in, and reprogrammed the timer.

It's funny you mentioned Whittlesy Landscape Supplies, as that is where I was going to purchase the sand. The whole sand thing is VERY confusing to me because, like you said, they have many choices. I actually went there at lunch one day to personally look at each different sand type. The one I felt would work the best was Brown Masonry Sand. Please let me know if you think this is a bad choice, as it looked like it was the one with the least amount of stones in it. The other one that looked like it might work was Granite Sand, but I think it is too course. I just bought my Tru-Cut, and I don't really feel like mowing stones with it. The grass is as low as I can currently cut it right now without scalping in multiple places, even with the front roller attachment. I am cutting the grass tonight, and I will try to take some pictures after I am done. I will also take some picture of some of the leftover soil I dug up so you can see what it looks like.

I think I would switch back to the rotary mower for the first few weeks after the leveling--Like you said, even the smallest stones do not agree with a reel mower. Tough to find repair shops too...

The brown masonry sand will work fine. I think their granite sand will, too, but if you're worried about stones, get the masonry sand. Decomposed granite is used in landscaping everywhere so might be considerably less expensive. I have used it and don't think it will work that well with a drag.

Good picture of a drag. I used a piece of chain link fencing I had laying around. It needs some weight on it, so I used a 4x4 and bag of soil. It's amazing how well it works.

Those pre-made drags are usually built out of heavy wire woven pretty densely

Well, sorry I haven't been able to post for a couple of days (work stuff). Anyway, I got a notification that my drag was damaged in shipment. It looks like they sent a new one, and I am supposed to receive it today, but we will see. Nevertheless, I wasn't able to get my sand ordered for delivery today. This may turn out to be a good thing since it looks like we are supposed to get some rain for the next few days starting Saturday afternoon. So... I think I may still go rent an aerator early Saturday morning, and aerate the lawn. Can I do this without topdressing? It looks like the next weekend I will be able to get sand and level the lawn will be the weekend of 8/27. Also, one other concern I have that has come up is the weeds I have in my lawn. I have crabgrass in areas, and some other weed that could be a type of crabgrass, but I am not sure. I will try to take pictures today and post. Is it OK for me to put down sand to level a lawn that has crab grass and these other weeds, or will doing it make it harder to get rid of the weeds?

You'll never get rid of the Crabgrass, it's an annual enemy, but clean up as much as you can prior to leveling. You can definitely aerate without dropping sand if you want to split it up, but you might not get quite as much sand deep into the soil as you would have otherwise. Let's all do the Texas rain dance, we need it!

Well, I purchased some Drive XLR8, and I was going to spray the crabgrass/weeds with it, but it recommends 2 days after and before mowing, and when temperatures are below 80 deg. I could spray it 2 days after mowing, and wait 2 days before cutting the grass again, but I can't imagine I am going to see sub 80 deg temps any time soon.

Pulling is always effective

What is your reason for aerating? Did someone tell you that was something you needed?

No one told me I needed to aerate, I am using my own judgement based on what I see in the lawn in it's current form/condition. I believe that aeration along with some of the other things discussed on this site will improve the overall structure of the lawn. I also plan to start using more organics to feed the lawn as well. I would really like to increase the root depth of the lawn, and I think aeration will help with that since I am currently unable to water 1" all at once.

Surfactant would probably be just as effective, but aeration won't hurt the Bermuda at all

Ya, I tried the baby shampoo route, and there was no noticeable improvement. I used around 64 oz on approximately 5,000 sq.ft.. I ran out before I could do all 10,000 sq.ft. I personally can't tell the difference between the portion of the lawn that had baby shampoo applied vs not. I am not saying it doesn't work, it just hasn't worked for me yet. I plan on applying additional treatments in the near future.

And, as you have said, aeration won't do any damage to the lawn, so it doesn't hurt to try. Quite honestly, the difference in price isn't all that great either.

I finished aerating my lawn on Saturday, and I put down (12) bags of Milorganite after aerating. I can't wait to see what this does for the lawn. I made a separate post for the aerating, and I will continue to post here once I continue with the leveling project. I have some pictures of the back yard that I took after I cut the grass on Friday (before aerating), that I am going to try to post here. I also took a couple of pictures of the weeds I need help identifying that I will post separately.

Eric...this thread is several years old, but I thought I'd reach out and see what came of your leveling effort. I used to live in Pflugerville, but recently built on an acre lot in Leander. My builder must have used the same landscaper as yours...because my backyard is a like a motor-cross track it's so bumpy. I'm planning a 10k sqft DIY leveling project in June and am simply doing some preliminary research, which led me to this old thread. Thanks.

Brian