# Spot leveling TIF (updated with approach / pics)



## sa1126 (Apr 9, 2021)

I reel mow around 3/4" and wanted to do the big sand leveling but it has been so hot/dry in south texas I am concerned it might not be a great idea because of our strict watering restrictions (non-hand watering only allowed 1x week).

I was thinking of leveling some of the worse ruts I have, but the main issue is I have no access to decent bagged sand. I would have to get a scoop at the local mason supply which isn't a good option to do this on an "as I can" occasional evening basis.

What do you all think about attempting to level with a mixture of peat moss and lawn soil to fill some of the ruts? I would screen out the debris with some hardware cloth first to make sure the mixture would be smooth.


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## CLT49er (Jun 19, 2020)

How about mason sand from HD or Lowes? Its been a good quality for me.


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## Vandy (Sep 2, 2020)

For spot leveling I usually pick up black kow and play sand from lowes and mix it 70/30.


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## sa1126 (Apr 9, 2021)

CLT49er said:


> How about mason sand from HD or Lowes? Its been a good quality for me.


Unfortunately no mason sand at HD or Lowes. The play sand mostly tiny pebbles.


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## sa1126 (Apr 9, 2021)

Vandy said:


> For spot leveling I usually pick up black kow and play sand from lowes and mix it 70/30.


Cool. The black kow bag I bought was full of debris last time so I may try this and just see if I can screen the heck out of the sand.


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## WillyT (Jun 26, 2019)

I purchased paver sand at HD this week. It is very fine. 4 bucks a bag.


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## CLT49er (Jun 19, 2020)

WillyT said:


> I purchased paver sand at HD this week. It is very fine. 4 bucks a bag.


Oh dang. Never tried this. Much cheaper than the quikcrete all purpose sand. $3.38 vs $4.97 at my HD. Thanks


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## sa1126 (Apr 9, 2021)

I have paver sand here too. It has a lot of little pebbles in it. I wish I could screen them out.


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## cbagz (May 12, 2020)

sa1126 said:


> I have paver sand here too. It has a lot of little pebbles in it. I wish I could screen them out.


A cheap and easy way to screen it would be to cover the top of a 5 gallon bucket with screen mesh like this:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Phifer-36-in-x-84-in-Charcoal-Fiberglass-Screen-3003947/100390885

As long as you keep the screen tight over the bucket and not put a lot of sand on at one time you could get the majority of the pebbles out.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

For spot leveling I usually get some bags of Play Sand or All Purpose Sand from Lowe's or Home Depot's it's very fine and even the "large" pieces are all that big. But if you want to sift the sand a little more, you can get on of these 1/8" Sifting Pans that fit on top of a 5 gallon bucket and use that. I have found the 1/8" is about as small as you want to go otherwise it becomes difficult to sift anything depending on what it is. The drier it is the easier it will be to sift.


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## DFW245 (Jul 23, 2021)

Mightyquinn said:


> For spot leveling I usually get some bags of Play Sand or All Purpose Sand from Lowe's or Home Depot's it's very fine and even the "large" pieces are all that big. But if you want to sift the sand a little more, you can get on of these 1/8" Sifting Pans that fit on top of a 5 gallon bucket and use that. I have found the 1/8" is about as small as you want to go otherwise it becomes difficult to sift anything depending on what it is. The drier it is the easier it will be to sift.


I'll have to try that. I was under the impression mason sand was of a different quality than HD or Lowes sand


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

DFW245 said:


> Mightyquinn said:
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It is slightly different but in the grand scheme of things it's not going to make a difference either way especially if you are just doing one or two spots here and there.


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## DFW245 (Jul 23, 2021)

Mightyquinn said:


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Ohhh but not something you would recommend for complete leveling?


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## Austinite (Oct 4, 2018)

Playsand for me.


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## girevik (Jan 8, 2021)

I built a 1/4" hardware cloth sifter this year to clean the pebbles and wood chips from my preferred leveling mix. Can't imagine using anything less than 1/4 unless you mechanized the process somehow. By hand 1/8" would take hours to sift through even small batch.

I currently use 3 bags of topsoil to 1 bag of play sand. I can sift through the 4 bag mix in about 20 minutes per batch with some mulch and boulders left over.

Tied 1 to 1 sand to topsoil, then 1 to 2, now it's 1 to 3 which adds a little more organic matter and removes some of the heat absorbing aspect of the higher sand ratios.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

DFW245 said:


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You can, it's just an expensive way of doing it.


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## sa1126 (Apr 9, 2021)

I went out to Lowe's and Home Depot to buy sand and black kow to make a mix. I built a sifter out of some scrap 2x4's I had and used aluminum mesh to screen the sand. Holy pebbles! FWIW I had already bought sand at home depot, but the paver sand at lowes looked WAY better.

I built a screen for the Kow using hardware cloth 1/4" but it turns out that was not fine enough so I screened it with the window screen too.

A cautionary tale -- Black Kow must be junk from people's compost bins or something. There was all kinds of trash / fruit labels, plastic, rocks etc left over after the screening. I even found a chunk of glass (see pic).

All in all this is a slow process to sift everything but I think it will work in the interim to at least fill my bigger ruts. I am doing a 1:1 mixture of kow to paver sand.

FWIW a scoop of mason sand would have set me back about $35 iirc. Each wheelbarrow full is about $10 of this mixture (1:1), and the screen cost about $9 to setup since I had the wood already.

I do think this will be a lot more forgiving though, and I'm sure my kids will enjoy helping me sift everything, although I don't want them touching the black kow. At least this grants me the ability to do this on an as needed basis as opposed to having a few tons of sand delivered and the HOA breathing down my neck.


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## sa1126 (Apr 9, 2021)

Pebbles screened from paver sand


Glass in Black Kow bag


Sifted black Kow


Mixture of sand / kow


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## Cousin_Wash (Mar 25, 2021)

I love your method and hopefully it turns out great. I ended up doing top dressing with COMAND compost which was 1/8" particle size. I wanted to do this step first to add high quality organic matter to the root zone.

The other benefits are 
Supplies stabilized organic matter
Increases moisture infiltration and permeability
Improved water holding in light soils, providing greater drought resistance and more efficient water utilization (great for TX heat wave)
Improves the soils ability to hold nutrients
Aids in thatch reduction

What really sold me on this was it is used around here in golf courses to fix weak areas, high traffic areas.
While it provide a long lasting carbon source. My next step is to get some USGA coarse sand to mix w/COMAND to get my turf more leveled. Planning on doing a 70/30 mix and hopefully it turns out as I imagine.


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## sa1126 (Apr 9, 2021)

Cousin_Wash said:


> I love your method and hopefully it turns out great. I ended up doing top dressing with COMAND compost which was 1/8" particle size. I wanted to do this step first to add high quality organic matter to the root zone.


Unfortunately comand is not available here. I finished screening two loads and can say the Black Kow is junk. Every bag has had glass shards in it. I'll have to see what other options lowes has.

Screening has also been quite cumbersome. The wheelbarrow loads go pretty fast so it maybe it would be better to scale up and just have some materials delivered.


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## Martineztteel (8 mo ago)

Masonry sand is what I use now. I use to use play sand and even tried all purpose sand (too many pebbles) but masonry is the finest sand there is. I pick up mine at HD but other supply stores would have too. Masonry is more expensive but I think worth it without having to deal with pebbles.


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## DFW245 (Jul 23, 2021)

Mightyquinn said:


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Really? Mason Sand must be cheap cheap. Looks like I might be leveling soon


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

DFW245 said:


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Buying sand in bulk is always going to be cheaper than buying it by the bag (most of the time).


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## cbagz (May 12, 2020)

Sand is cheap, the delivery fee not so much. Especially with the price of diesel fuel what it is.


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## sa1126 (Apr 9, 2021)

There is a sand supply place about a mile from the house. I may just go pick up a scoop and leave it in the truck until I can spread it all. Judging by my progress today I think it will go quick.


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## DFW245 (Jul 23, 2021)

cbagz said:


> Sand is cheap, the delivery fee not so much. Especially with the price of diesel fuel what it is.


How much we talking? Like crazy high fees? Or like a general $20-40 fee? North Texas right? I think after the 4th I'll be leveling


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

I think it all depends on where you live and how available sand is in your area. Where I live sand is abundant so it's relatively cheap here. Back in May I got 8 yds of sand delivered for $197. You are better off trying to get it directly from the quarry than going through a middle man like a landscape supply place as they are going to tack on their "fee" for going to pick it up and deliver it. You can also try see how much sand is from a concrete plant as they will have sand also but I would actually go look at the sand first to make sure it doesn't have a bunch of pebbles in it.


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## Bombers (Jul 14, 2020)

DFW245 said:


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Generally, it's at least $100 for delivery within a certain radius where they operate from. You can find guys with tow behind dump trailers on FB if you don't need more than 5-6 tons and compare costs. If you have a truck (or friends with truck) and a small yard, I'd consider going directly to a sand pit/quarry and get a scoop at a time if you have the time to do it. Or rent a smaller 5x8' trailer, put tarp down, and pick up a few scoops.
I would get it delivered and put it down fairly heavy if it's the first level. Then follow up the following seasons with smaller self-pickup loads to touch up/spot level.


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## DFW245 (Jul 23, 2021)

Bombers said:


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Well with my lawn only being about 750SqFt, itd only be about a yard anyway. I dont own a truck though. $100 for delivery is crazy. Id think itd be per mile, guess not. And for one yard? Id have to figure something out


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## Bombers (Jul 14, 2020)

DFW245 said:


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Rent a Home Depot F250 for a day for like $50 and head to a sand pit is probably your best bet.


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## DFW245 (Jul 23, 2021)

Bombers said:


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Brilliant. I'm sure I'd prolly still need that tarp tho right? Or are the trucks at HD built different in the back? They aren't just regular pickups are they?


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## Bombers (Jul 14, 2020)

DFW245 said:


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Yeah, it's a flatbed with added sidewalls. A u-haul truck would probably suffice too. Both should be able to handle 1 scoop of sand. I would put tarp down bottom and top. To make clean up easier and not blow sand on other drivers on the haul home.


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## girevik (Jan 8, 2021)

As I understand it, and correct me if I'm wrong........the difference in something like Black Kow and common potting soil is the potting soil is devoid of microbial activity. Well, I'm fairly certain when you throw it down on existing turf the microbial activity will be back and active in just a matter of days or hours.

So why not use screened potting soil as opposed to something with glass, plastic etc.? Cheaper and better quality would seem to be a win. Is there something I'm not considering?


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## sa1126 (Apr 9, 2021)

girevik said:


> So why not use screened potting soil as opposed to something with glass, plastic etc.? Cheaper and better quality would seem to be a win. Is there something I'm not considering?


That is where I am heading when I run out of this junk. Never using black kow again. Also not using paver sand again as it is too wet.


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