# Subsoil Compaction - Recs on How to Fix



## Wakedog (Sep 3, 2021)

Hello All - first time poster here, and new homeowner. Apologies if this is in the wrong place but perhaps the mods will clean it up if so.

I just bought a new construction in March, with bluegrass / fescue mix sod laid on all lawns. After the Hurricane Ida rains on Thursday, I've been using a manual core aerator (the kind you step into for leverage) to prep for overseeding, and I've noticed that for certain parts of my lawn I cannot penetrate more than 1-2" before meeting heavy resistance. I'm guessing the construction process didn't do the area any favors, and the soil is heavily skewed towards clay in the first place (in Massachusetts).

Are there any recommendations on how to aerate heavily-compacted clay soil that is below a layer of sod? Should I consider liquid aeration (will it penetrate below the sod level)? Would core aeration + liquid aeration allow the liquid aerator to go deeper towards the subsoil layer?

Any guidance here would be appreciated, and for what it's worth I've done a home test on my soil and it seems to be deficient in Nitrogen and Phosphorus.

Thanks in advance!


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## Bombers (Jul 14, 2020)

I'd opt for a power core aerator rental or have a service do it for you. 12k is a lot for a manual one, especially even after the rain you got to soften the soil.


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## Amoo316 (Jul 8, 2021)

It may be worth your time to actually take a shovel and dig in one of those 1-2" places and see if there is any construction debris sub-surface. You certainly wouldn't be the first person on this forum to pull Lord knows what out of the ground left over from construction.


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## robjak (Mar 31, 2020)

+1 for Amoo316's suggestion. if you can only go down 1-2 inches right after Ida then you definitely have something wrong there.


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## Wakedog (Sep 3, 2021)

Bombers said:


> 12k is a lot for a manual one


Yup, i learned that today. Should've come to this forum awhile ago. Thanks for the response!


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## Wakedog (Sep 3, 2021)

robjak said:


> +1 for Amoo316's suggestion. if you can only go down 1-2 inches right after Ida then you definitely have something wrong there.


Agreed, going to dig in a few of those places to see what's up. Thanks to you both!


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## Thejarrod (Aug 5, 2018)

plug for my all-time favorite TLF topic: Screwdriver Test
https://thelawnforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15&hilit=screwdriver+test


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