# Lawn roller



## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

I have a bunch of high spots in my yards and I was wondering if anyone used a lawn roller to even them out? Any suggestions...


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## Austinite (Oct 4, 2018)

I have. Completely worthless in my opinion. That's if we're talking about that rental that you fill with water and push/pull around your lawn. Did nothing. I ended up getting a double drum power roller, like an asphalt roller. Yes, it compacted the heck out of my lawn, but over time I managed to loosen it with various products.


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## CenlaLowell (Apr 21, 2017)

Fadi said:


> I have. Completely worthless in my opinion. That's if we're talking about that rental that you fill with water and push/pull around your lawn. Did nothing. I ended up getting a double drum power roller, like an asphalt roller. Yes, it compacted the heck out of my lawn, but over time I managed to loosen it with various products.


That's the one I'm talking about. Sucks that it doesn't work Lord knows my yard is bumpy. I will get more sand in the spring to level the low spot don't know what I'm going to do about the spots that are way to high


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## h22lude (Jul 24, 2018)

I recently had trucks in my yard that made a mess of my soil. Landscapers fixed it but it was very bumpy. I rented a lawn roller. I'd say it worked no more than 50% of what I thought it would. They are a good idea on paper but don't really work. If the ground is hard, they won't work at all. The one I rented had a leak. Parts of the soil got really wet. It seemed to work much better when the soil was soaking but then I ran into another problem. A thick layer of soil was getting stuck to the roller which made it very hard to move.

I think the biggest problem is they don't have enough weight to them. No hand roller will be heavy enough. There is a very fine line between it being just heavy enough to level the lawn and too heavy which will compact the soil too much.

I wonder if using some kind of compactor like they use to compact the gravel patio base. It will probably level the lawn well but compact it a little too much. Then just aerate to let the soil loosen up.


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## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Fadi said:


> I have. Completely worthless in my opinion. That's if we're talking about that rental that you fill with water and push/pull around your lawn. Did nothing. I ended up getting a double drum power roller, like an asphalt roller. Yes, it compacted the heck out of my lawn, but over time I managed to loosen it with various products.


How well did the asphalt roller work at smoothing out the lawn?


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## Austinite (Oct 4, 2018)

Mightyquinn said:


> How well did the asphalt roller work at smoothing out the lawn?


Worked great. My lawn was extremely bumpy. In some areas I had about 5 to 7 inch dips. Very dangerous to walk/run on.

I got 6 sq. yards of Screened Chocolate Loam dirt and dropped it everywhere. Spread it around and then hit the yard with the asphalt roller. It flattened it completely. My grass turned yellow for a good 2 weeks. Dropped a ton of humic acid on it. Aerated it heavily and about 6 weeks after and one app of Ringer Lawn Restore, it came back to life stronger/greener than ever.

Pictures below show dirt, then the yellowing as a result of the roller, then 6 weeks later when it greened up.

DIRT


YELLOWING AFTER ROLLING


6 WEEKS AFTER LEVELING


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## cam05210 (Oct 4, 2020)

Austinite said:


> I have. Completely worthless in my opinion. That's if we're talking about that rental that you fill with water and push/pull around your lawn. Did nothing. I ended up getting a double drum power roller, like an asphalt roller. Yes, it compacted the heck out of my lawn, but over time I managed to loosen it with various products.


How "wet" was your lawn when you rolled it? Did the roller have any issues gaining traction or getting stuck? Considering renting one and curious how difficult they are to operate??


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## Cdub5_ (Jun 12, 2019)

Depending on how big your high spots are I used a water hose with a sprayer that had a concentrated beam of water setting. I would spray the "mound" and kinda step on it. Not to scientific haha. It worked though. This technique is also great for gopher mounds. The water just melts the dirt back under the grass.


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## CyberGolfer (Mar 10, 2020)

Wondering what the disconnect is...on the Ace Hardware site the unit gets about 4.5 stars. Why is there such a difference between this site and Ace?


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## WyGuy (May 5, 2019)

CyberGolfer said:


> Wondering what the disconnect is...on the Ace Hardware site the unit gets about 4.5 stars. Why is there such a difference between this site and Ace?


It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Want to increase seed to soil contact, a water filled drum would work great for that. Want to smooth out some minor damage, on a soaked lawn it should provide some benefit. Want a perfectly flat lawn, be prepared to be let down.


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## Phids (Sep 24, 2020)

I rented a water-filled lawn roller from Home Depot an afternoon after it had rained earlier in the day, so the ground was soft. It's difficult to say how well it worked, but it didn't work as well as I thought it would.

If you do get a water-filled roller, make sure to tip it on its side and fill. This lets you get some extra water weight in the roller compared to if you fill it while flat on the ground.


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## rjw0283 (May 11, 2020)

CyberGolfer said:


> Wondering what the disconnect is...on the Ace Hardware site the unit gets about 4.5 stars. Why is there such a difference between this site and Ace?


expectations are probably higher here. Your typical ace customer isn't mowing his lawn with a greensmower at under half an inch either. It just depends on what your trying to do with it.


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