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Leveling a Bermuda Lawn

405K views 2K replies 401 participants last post by  Jeffersonzoysia 
#1 ·
I thought I would start this thread here for people who might have questions and for those of us who have done it in the past can give some pointers. I'll go first as I am sure I will miss some things since it has been quite a few years since I did it.

1. You will need some kind of sand, personally I don't think it makes a huge difference on the type of sand as long as it does NOT have any large rocks or pebbles in it that would damage a reel, anything smaller than 1/8"-1/16" should be fine. Whatever you can find around you for the cheapest price will do the job. I just started working in the concrete industry and found out we sell our sand for $40 a ton which is about 2-3 pick up truck loads of sand, you will have to find a way to transport it yourself but it's a viable option. I haven't had the chance to inspect it but it looks like it would do the job and it sits outside all day every day so it may be wet if you just had some rain.

2. You will want to mow as low as you can as this will help you find all the low spots and you will use less sand in the process and get better results.

3. Find a good drag mat (it's worth the money!) they sell some on Amazon, just make sure you get one that fits your lawn and that you have the equipment (tractor, riding lawn mower, ATV....) to pull it. If you have a small lawn you may be able to get away with pulling it yourself. This is something I wish I had invested in when I did mine as I went cheap and tried to make my own. After actually purchasing a real one and using it this year, it was night and day between the performance.

4. You will need about 1 yard of sand per 1K of lawn depending on how bad your lawn is. You can adjust your amount up or down depending on the severity of the job at hand.

5. You will want to lay down fertilizer after you are done dragging the lawn so as not to "collect" it all in one spot when you do turns.

6. Water, Water, Water. Irrigation or a good rainfall will help settle the sand down into the canopy and it will also wash it down into the low spots too. It's not a bad idea to get everything good and level and the apply water to the lawn and see if there are any spots you need to touch up or not. You will also need to water often for the first week or so to help the grass grow up through the sand and start filling in.

7. Aerate, I think this is a good step to do right before you level as it will create channels for water and nutrients to get down into the root zone and it should help "lock" everything together too. This is another step I wish I had done when I did my lawn.

Well that's it for now but if I think of anything else I will be sure to come back and add it to the thread. Please feel free to chime in with ANY and ALL questions and things you might have learned during your project.
 
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#1,577 ·
CLT49er said:
Duckman501 said:
Clt49er - hows that level rebound comin along? Im curious to see progress.
7 days later. Only 4 days of water due to irrigation issues. Not too bad. Need to do this again as this park is so bad. I am just glad it grew back so fast so 300 neighbors on the HOA facebook werent bashing me. Quite the opposite reaction. They all want help with their yards. 😝 I applied 1lb on N from a starter fertilizer. Grass exploded with that. You can see the dark green in the middle versus the outside area I didnt touch. This confirms to me the lawn service is weak on their applications. This is a cool area for kids playing sports and stuff. Turf needs this help.



Did you use mason sand? Almost looks more like a cushion sand from the pics. Anywho, great job!
 
#1,579 ·
CLT49er said:
Yes. Mason sand. At least thats what they called it. Was pretty clean. It did get clumpy in heavy spots. Not sure what thats about.
I'm in Raleigh NC and my mason sand had that exact same look. I noticed others in the thread had a lighter looking sand, not sure if different regions have different colors or what. It seems to have worked pretty well so far. After 2 weeks it's about 90% filled in, there are some lower areas I imagine will take maybe a month or so.
 
#1,582 ·
Ccualumni said:
burnhagw said:
In Waxhaw that is what my sand looked like too and they called it Mason sand, it might have been morter sand though lol. I liked it and thought it was good quality for leveling.
Where did you get the sand?
I went to the place first to look at all their sand and the Red Mortor sand was very good and clean.

McCollum Trucking & Grading Inc
 
#1,584 ·
jpos34 said:
First sand level this weekend. Ordered 10 yards. Feel like I got shorted but I'm not expert. What are your thoughts.
This is 3 yards. Yours it at least twice of that, and could be wider... That may be 10 Yds. Keep in mind that their unit of measurement is a bucket. It's all a guestimate. They don't usually weigh anything.

 
#1,593 ·
vallecrucis said:
Mightyquinn said:
How much of the grass is showing through? If it's more than 75% I would go ahead with the PGR. You don't want to get behind the power curve:)
Similar question for me - what is your experience with sand leveling and PGR? If I'm about 80% filled in (some lower spots taking longer) does the PGR hinder that any at all? Fill it in faster?
I sprayed PGR when I still had a fair amount of grow in needed and had a ton of sandy spots. I didn't see any issues and if anything, I think the PGR forced horizontal growth and the fill in may have benefitted from it.
 
#1,594 ·
ReelMowLow74 said:
vallecrucis said:
Mightyquinn said:
How much of the grass is showing through? If it's more than 75% I would go ahead with the PGR. You don't want to get behind the power curve:)
Similar question for me - what is your experience with sand leveling and PGR? If I'm about 80% filled in (some lower spots taking longer) does the PGR hinder that any at all? Fill it in faster?
I sprayed PGR when I still had a fair amount of grow in needed and had a ton of sandy spots. I didn't see any issues and if anything, I think the PGR forced horizontal growth and the fill in may have benefitted from it.
This is what I have seen too!
 
#1,599 ·
burnhagw said:
Ccualumni said:
burnhagw said:
In Waxhaw that is what my sand looked like too and they called it Mason sand, it might have been morter sand though lol. I liked it and thought it was good quality for leveling.
Where did you get the sand?
I went to the place first to look at all their sand and the Red Mortor sand was very good and clean.

McCollum Trucking & Grading Inc
I usually go to Visions, but can try there
 
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