# Lawn Leveling Project North Texas (Finished)



## texasdadbod (Apr 17, 2020)

So I undertook trying to level my lawn this weekend and learned many things. I'll explain my steps and then things I would do differently if I did it again. All in all, it was worth it and I think it will turn out well. I had a double French drain project last weekend that you'll see in the pictures as well.

I have an 8,500 square foot yard, but only leveled roughly 6,500-7,000 of it. Our soil is horrible, pH of 8.1 and very clay. Mark off your sprinklers and boxes if you aerate.

1. Rented an aerator day of from Home Depot, the TA18 I believe, and aerated the heck out of it. Watered the night before (mistake, I would not do this if I had clay) and it clogged the aerator. Didn't bring up a ton of clogs but did just fine. Will do this again in September.

2. Ordered "cushion sand" from AAA Sand and Stone in Dallas. 6 cubic yards. $260 delivered to the driveway. Went by 1 cubic yard/1K if yard, but sadly their truck capacity was 6 yards. Didn't want to order more. This was my mistake, it was not the proper sand. I would make sure it is screened or is true "builders sand". You want your sand golf course like and I actually would do 5 cubic yards of sand and 2 cubic yards of topsoil if I did it again.

3. Fertilized with typical 25-0-0 all over the yard. Didn't go urea.

4. Shoveled with a neighbor into my gorilla cart and took to various spots in the yard, this took roughly 2.5 hours to beat the mound down.

5. Took the popular 5x3 drag may behind a golf cart and tried to level. The sand was horrible. I would drive over the mound, and it would just compact the sand and mound it up. I even added 100 lbs to the drag mat thinking this would help. No dice.

6. Had to manually rake ALL of the mounds down to spread and break them down so I could drive back over them. This turned out to be the day killer. It took probably another 2.5 hours to manually break down all of the mounds and spread them. Sore.

7. Went back over with the drag mat, did okay, but the raking is what got it done. 7 hours later.

8. Watered it in that night. Sore.

The sand didn't wind up covering the whole yard, but will be okay once it settles. All in all, I would absolutely make sure I had the right sand next time, wouldn't water the night before and I think it would be a better experience. My yard was extremely bumpy so I'll let everyone know how it turns out.


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## anthonybilotta (Aug 11, 2018)

Looks good ! You are not the only one who has had sand issues this year. Several members including myself ordered masonry sand and ended up with small pebbles and what not mixed in. With our current weather, hopefully things will be recovered in a few weeks


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## Buster (Apr 3, 2020)

Looks great, thanks for the details!


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## Gilley11 (Nov 3, 2019)

If you're going to keep doing this, you need a drag, not a drag mat. It makes spreading sand and dirt SOOOOOOO much easier. A lot of guys have had success using a weighted down pallet.

https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=248651#p248651


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## texasdadbod (Apr 17, 2020)

Gilley11 said:


> If you're going to keep doing this, you need a drag, not a drag mat. It makes spreading sand and dirt SOOOOOOO much easier. A lot of guys have had success using a weighted down pallet.
> 
> https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=248651#p248651


yeah looking back that would have been ideal. Drag mat was horrible because it was so so thick


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## texasdadbod (Apr 17, 2020)

anthonybilotta said:


> Looks good ! You are not the only one who has had sand issues this year. Several members including myself ordered masonry sand and ended up with small pebbles and what not mixed in. With our current weather, hopefully things will be recovered in a few weeks


I think it will all work out fine, it just was tough the day of. The clumps are starting to decompose a little bit today, I go out and break them up every once in a while. Should be okay


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## gkaneko (Dec 11, 2018)

Dude, how did you feel the next day?


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## j2dna (Apr 1, 2020)

Nice work! I'm located in N Dallas as well and hoping to get to a point where I can level later this summer. I may have to mix a little topsoil also.


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## Ren (Aug 29, 2019)

What a beautiful property!


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## texasdadbod (Apr 17, 2020)

gkaneko said:


> Dude, how did you feel the next day?


Horrible, also, I wore an Apple Watch that day. 4,000 calories.


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