Lawn leveling- pay lawn company to do it?

Bermuda, St. Augustine, Zoysia, Centipede, Bahia, Paspalum, etc
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ryanlaschober
Posts: 16
Joined: February 17th, 2018, 12:37 am
Location: Central Texas
Grass Type: Bermuda
Lawn Size: Not Specified
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Lawn leveling- pay lawn company to do it?

Post by ryanlaschober » February 7th, 2019, 11:26 pm

I'm new to lawn leveling and have been reading on it all day. Thanks to Ware, Dchall, mightyquinn, andy, and all the others for putting in so much time to help educate us. I'm convinced and plan to level in a few months (April? I live in Waco, TX).

- Anyone ever have any luck having a local lawn company do this for them?
- 1 yard per 1,000 sqft of masonry sand
- am I foolish for undertaking this without a lawn tractor?

Thanks
Ryan

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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Joined: December 17th, 2008, 1:53 am
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Grass Type: St Augustine
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Re: Lawn leveling- pay lawn company to do it?

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » March 12th, 2019, 12:41 pm

Can you estimate your lawn size...and then revisit your ATY profile and stick it into the Lawn Size slot? If you have 30,000 square feet to level, then a lawn tractor would be advised. If you have 1,000 square feet, then no tractor, you can knock that out by hand.

1 cubic yard per 1,000 might be a good guess. I would get it bagged on pallets so you can return any unused sand.

The up-front work on this topic came from DProud on another forum. He's no longer active and all the images have disappeared from his original posts, so I hesitate to send you on that goose chase. He was in Dallas, so not that far from you. He started in August when the grass was growing full speed. He posted pix taken in October and all the grass had returned. April might be a little early to take this on because the bermuda will not be a full speed yet. I'd wait until mid June at least for Waco. Even bermuda can be smothered.

Spacklerstyle
Posts: 92
Joined: January 20th, 2019, 9:50 pm
Location: Dripping Springs, TX
Grass Type: Bermuda Tiff 419
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Re: Lawn leveling- pay lawn company to do it?

Post by Spacklerstyle » March 23rd, 2019, 8:52 am

Hi Ryan, I just took a similar project on this week. I am near Dripping Springs, TX.

Here’s a link to some info I posted about my experience if it helps. There aren’t many companies around here who would do this for a reasonable price, since we are a bit rural. You might have better luck in Waco. Good luck!

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=24728

Jakemauldin
Posts: 10
Joined: March 3rd, 2019, 10:56 pm
Location: Fort Worth Texas
Grass Type: Bermuda princess 77
Lawn Size: 2 acre-5 acre
Level: Some Experience

Re: Lawn leveling- pay lawn company to do it?

Post by Jakemauldin » March 23rd, 2019, 8:35 pm

ryanlaschober wrote:
February 7th, 2019, 11:26 pm
I'm new to lawn leveling and have been reading on it all day. Thanks to Ware, Dchall, mightyquinn, andy, and all the others for putting in so much time to help educate us. I'm convinced and plan to level in a few months (April? I live in Waco, TX).

- Anyone ever have any luck having a local lawn company do this for them?
- 1 yard per 1,000 sqft of masonry sand
- am I foolish for undertaking this without a lawn tractor?

Thanks
Ryan
Ryan I have done this with my lawn before and I had utilized masonry sand that was left from the masons that installed the stone on my house. It was super fine and screened it was easy to spread in the yard but it didn't have enough dirt left in it to allow clumping. It is fine as long as the yard is mostly level but most of the spots I needed to fill and level (tehnically not level but smooth out) were where the yard had a slight grade and had washed when it rained. That sand didn't really pack down or clump so when it rained again it just washed away. I then got cushion sand which has a little more clumping characteristic to it and used it in those wash-out spots. Depending on what kind of leveling you are doing would determine whether cushion sand or masonry sand will work best. Also in my area (Fort Worth) cushion sand is much cheaper than masonry sand. Hopefully this might help.
As for paying someone to come do this I can't imagine what someone would charge to come level your yard by hand. Because if it is done correctly very little of it would be done by a simple yard tractor. Golf courses use a particular spreader to do this but I couldn't find one to rent in my area and I even looked towards Waco with no luck. If you are capable of running a shovel, a rake, and pushing a wheelbarrow I would suggest doing it on your own. You can start by splitting your yard into quadrants and do what you can little by little. I took the "Rhome wasn't built in a day" approach and got it all done in a matter of a couple weekends. Small tasks are much easier to tackle than daunting large tasks that get you frustrated just thinking about starting.

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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Re: Lawn leveling- pay lawn company to do it?

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » March 27th, 2019, 9:52 am

I have followed a couple people who did these "leveling" projects. I'm going to say it takes about 10 manhours per 1,000 square feet to do it by hand, but any help moving things around is nice. If you have friends and a pizza/beer budget, it will seem to go faster. But the beer comes AFTER the job is finished.

I have used generic clay kitty litter to fill deeper holes in the yard. It does not wash out. At first it is shifty, but it locks in to become very firm after a few months. Don't use kitty litter with baking soda or other additives.

And I agree that leveling is not the precise term for what's going on. I like to call it profiling. Golf courses are certainly not level, but they follow a smooth profile.


tigertailbell
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Re: Lawn leveling- pay lawn company to do it?

Post by tigertailbell » June 16th, 2019, 10:58 am

Dchall_San_Antonio wrote:
March 27th, 2019, 9:52 am
I have followed a couple people who did these "leveling" projects. I'm going to say it takes about 10 manhours per 1,000 square feet to do it by hand, but any help moving things around is nice. If you have friends and a pizza/beer budget, it will seem to go faster. But the beer comes AFTER the job is finished.

I have used generic clay kitty litter to fill deeper holes in the yard. It does not wash out. At first it is shifty, but it locks in to become very firm after a few months. Don't use kitty litter with baking soda or other additives.

And I agree that leveling is not the precise term for what's going on. I like to call it profiling. Golf courses are certainly not level, but they follow a smooth profile.
I agree that the size of your lawn would be the deciding factor for hiring the job out or tackling yourself...
I have done several of these over the last 2-3 years, ranging from 2,000' all the way to 10,000'...
I would estimate the time required to be more like 2-3 man hours / 1,000'. The labor really isnt as bad as it might seem .
As for pricing , I think most companies are going to be in the $100-$120/ 1,000 price range .

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Dchall_San_Antonio
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Re: Lawn leveling- pay lawn company to do it?

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » June 17th, 2019, 2:34 pm

Good to know, tigertailbell. The difference between 10 hours per and 2-3 hours per is probably your experience. Then again, there is not much to learn in this, so once you figure it out, it probably goes much faster than I'm thinking.

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