Well, with some good advice and ideas from people here, I have started my leveling this morning. I started at about 0600 and was making decent progress when it started thundering and lightening outside and I had to stop at about 0700. So I am on a rain delay right now, it has rained about .34 inches so far and it is starting to taper off right now. Anyway, I got 8 yds of masonry sand yesterday and had them put it on the neighbors lot next to mine since that house is foreclosed on and no one is living there. I have about a quarter of the front lawn done so far but may have to go back over it since the rain washed some of it down. I am on a waiting list for a lawn roller at HD so once i get that I will be able to fine tune everything. Right now I am just putting the sand down and then smoothing it out with a 36" landscaping rake. I put down some Lesco 36-0-0 with a little 5-10-31 that I had sitting around just to get rid of it, figuring it might help with the roots and growth. As long as it stays overcast and cloudy outside, I should be done by the end of the day, it is going good so far! I will post some before pics and hopefully some during and after ones also!!


















Sorry I posted this later than I intended but the rain let up and I had to get back to work, I have the front about 90% done and I am taking a lunch break and then I am going to start on the back yard which I think is worse than the front. These pictures were taken on Sunday after I mowed at 7/16" which is what I mowed it at yesterday when I got home from work. I will take more pictures when I am done and post them hopefully this evening!!!

Just finished up for the day! I got about 95% done. I still have a small area on the west side of the house to do. I am going to go rent a roller here shortly and do touch ups in the morning when I am feeling better. The wife and my 6 year old helped me towards the end when I was running out of steam!! I do agree that it would have been a lot easier with a tractor and a way to move the sand around. The wheelbarrow part was MUCH harder than raking the sand level. I just hope this is all worth it. I will post pictures later.

Here are the pictures!!

That looks like it was pissload of work. Nice timing with the rain, BTW.

Did you model your work after this?

Click here for more information

It might be worthwhile to have a gander at the thread, if you haven't seen it already......looks like you're on the right track.
Congrats....

Hotrod, I did base my job off of his, that is what gave me the idea to do it. And yes it was a pissload of work but hopefully he results will be worth it!

Looks like you did a great job with the sand...looks good!

Thank You! I guess I will find out how good a job I did in a couple of weeks!

Well ... I have a sneaky suspicion that MQ is trim, fit, young and in perfect shape to do all that "mule work"!
Most of us here would have been paralyzed and or in traction and NOT have finished the job even this month.

I remove cover and salute you, Mightyquinn - you rock when you set out to accomplish something!

I'm concerned that not all the sand has fallen into the turf. It could be the 2-d effect of the picture and it might look a lot different in person. I think I don't like seeing the rake marks in the sand.

In any case I think we'll learn more about this as you see the grass coming back.

I agree with you David, I am thinking the same thing. I believe possibly where I might have failed at is either I didn't mow the grass down close enough and I don't think I got enough sand either. There isn't nearly as much sand on the grass right now since it rained and washed most of it down to the ground. I may have to end up doing it again or just do some spots that didn't get as much as I thought. I do think what I did will help out for the most part, but may take a couple weeks to see the results. I will post some updated pics this weekend and I think I am going to mow also on Friday. If I do it again I am going to definitely use the whole riding mower and drag contraption!!!

+1 on the drag contraption. You can't imagine how much better/easier it will be with that.

Mightyquinn wrote: I believe possibly where I might have failed at is either I didn't mow the grass down close enough and I don't think I got enough sand either.

Sorry to butt in, butt you do not want to mow down the grass real short before top dressing. You want some height left in it so the blades can stick up above the sand to get sun light and prevent smothering. Looks like you got a little heavy in some spots. Not to worry, water it in.

I hope you don't have clay soil because adding sand to clay soil virtually turns it to concrete.

My soil is mostly sand, I need to start adding OM to it so that it can retain some moisture longer! Right now it starts to dry out after 3 or 4 days.

texashammer wrote:I hope you don't have clay soil because adding sand to clay soil virtually turns it to concrete.

This idea is officially an urban legend I think. It depends on the mineral components of the clay, the sand, and some other factors as to how hard the resulting mix becomes. My home is located 4 streets away from an abandoned "cement" mine where the limestone was (and still is) so pure they could make cement from it. I've mixed clay and sand with my soil and it is just soil. True concrete requires cement made by heating the limestone in a kiln. However, in your area and parts west through New Mexico, AZ, NV, and CA, they have caliche soil which can become as hard as a rock. It is called 'caprock,' a term that most Texans living north of IH 20 should be familiar with. The reason caprock is so hard is because of millions of years of rain falling on bare soil...and the nature of the minerals. Somewhere around here I have pix of caprock that is 6 feet thick (south of Lubbock on the road to Sweetwater).

Here are some updated pics I took this last weekend, I think I failed at leveling the lawn I was mowing this evening and it is still VERY lumpy!! I am trying to figure out where I went wrong and I might try it again later this summer.
















The front yard is alot smoother than the back so I am thinking of concentrating on the back for right now. I started off watering twice a day for 30 min per zone for about a week and then i moved it to 45 min per zone once a day in the morning for a couple of days. Now I am watering for 45 min. per zone every other day. I am slowly weening the grass off the water and it appears to be filling in nice, I figure in another week or two it should be filled in pretty much everywhere. Any additional advice/ideas would be appreciated!!!

Mightyquinn wrote:My soil is mostly sand.

Having spent a couple of years there at Ft. Bragg, I actually laughed out loud reading that. Yeah. Ft. Bragg definitely has a little bit of sand.

Your lawn looks great!

In between steps 4 through 9, which ones did you shortcut?

1. Make a drag with chain link, 1 long board, rope, and a bag of sand. Tie the ends of the rope to the board through the fencing and use the bag of sand to weigh the board down. If you have a lawn tractor or riding mower to pull this, you'll really save a lot of time.
2. Fertilize a few days prior to Memorial Day.
3. Buy more pallets of sand than you think you'll need. Return the unopened bags later.
4. Rent a reel mower to take the grass to the ground. Blow the clippings off.
5. Rent a riding lawn mower tractor to pull your drag around.
6. Spread the sand out and start riding around (and around (and around)).
7. When you think you have it the way you want it, water and roll it down to settle it.
8. Look for low spots and spread more sand.
9. Repeat the dragging, watering, and rolling steps when the low spots don't reappear.
10. Celebrate! The traditional fare is beer and pizza but since it will be Memorial Day, you might throw a barbecue for your helpers.
11. Water like it was new sod (lightly 3x per day). When all the grass is up above the sand level, you can back off to the weekly deep watering.

Well David, I cut it down to 7/16 but I think I should have gone in both directions(N&S and E&W) because the lawn is uneven and it doesn't seem to get everything in one direction. I didn't use a drag contraption or a riding mower just a landscaping rake, by the time I laid it all out, I didn't have much sand left. The roller didn't really seem to do anything but that could be because I didn't have enough sand either!! When I bought the sand, I estimated a 1/4 inch X 10K sq/ft which is roughly how large my lawn is. That came out to be 7.7 cu/yds and I got 8 cu/yds. From this experience I would say to get double that and watering it in is a VERY important step because you may think you have things covered and then all the sand disappears when you water it in. I am somewhat disappointed about it but then again I have learned a lot from it also. I think the drag contraption and riding mower is VERY important part of the whole equation also!!!! I don't think it can be done right doing it by hand unless you have a very small lawn!!!

Thanks for the feedback.