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jv982

My Experiences Leveling My Lawn with Sand

jv982
12 years ago

I guess I should introduce myself. I have been a lurker here for several years, but have always used the site to learn and research. I never felt experienced enough to have anything useful to contribute until recently so I never joined the site.

About a year ago I purchased my first home, a foreclosure in North Georgia. It is a 4 year old house that has always had renters in it. The renters severely neglected the lawn and landscaping. Over the past year I have spent a ton of time (and a bit of money) planting shrubs and fixing the lawn.

I spent a bunch of time researching how to level my lawn and everyone has a different opinion as to the best way to do it. I am not claiming to be any type of expert, but I would like to document my experiences in leveling my lawn. Hopefully someone will find this useful as I have learned so much from the site, I am hoping to be able to give back a little to the forum.

About the Lawn:

I have somewhere around 4,000 sq/ft of Bermuda. I am unsure of the type. It is probably some cheap builder grade stuff but I am unsure. The front yard gets a ton of sun and grows great. The back yard does not get any afternoon sun and grows much more slowly. I do not have an irrigation system. I use a old honda self propelled mower.

Spring 2010:

The lawn was probably 40% weeds and 60% Bermuda. The lawn was so bumpy and rutted that I was unable to mow at 2" without bottoming out and scalping the lawn all over the place.

I spent the entire year treating the lawn for weeds and babying it to get the bermuda to thicken up. By the end of the growing season I had gotten rid of most of the weeds. The bermuda grew in nicely and looked pretty good by the middle of July, but because I had to mow it so high, it didn't grow very thick.

I decided to level the lawn. After tons of research, I was unable to find much consistent info. Some people said to use builders sand. Other people said you should never use builders sand and you should only use river sand. And other sources said that you should not use sand at all and only use top soil or a combination of top soil and sand.

I was torn as to which direction I should go. In spring of 2010 2 of my neighbors paid a company to level their lawn. Both of the neighbors yards had MASSIVE improvements. The leveling company used river sand. They explained to me all of the steps that the Leveling company took, and they told me what they liked and didn't like about the service. Their huge complaint was that after a year all of the sand had settled to the bottom leaving TONS of small pebbles everywhere. Tons! The pebbles were probably around 1/4 in diameter. The lawn was not comfortable to walk on barefooted, and it seemed like the pebbles were not allowing the grass to grow as dense as it could. They also had problems with the sand on the hills on the sides of their houses. Rain moved the sand a little and left these little ridges on the hills that looked like mini terraces. I decided that I would only spread a small amount of sand on the hills at a time to help prevent this.

From their experiences I completely marked river sand off my list. I read about 1 other person on this site that used builders sand and seemed to have great results. The links to all of his pictures were dead, and I never was able to see them, but it appeared as though everyone was impressed. After reading that post, I decided to use builders sand, and I decided that I would try and replicate everything that the Leveling company did to my neighbors lawns.

My goal is to level the lawn enough to use the lowest setting on the mower (~3/4") and have the lawn grow super dense.

April 2, 2011:

I mowed the lawn as short as I could with my Honda Mower (about 3/4"). This was the first cut for the season. The grass was just starting to show a little green. It was super time consuming between emptying the clippings every 20' and bottoming out every 2' it took me a couple hours to mow. One huge benefit to mowing the lawn short was that it helped us to more easily see the highs and lows in the lawn.

We had gotten a ton of rain in the couple days before so the ground was nice and soft. I rented a walk-behind aerator from HD, and plugged the yard pretty heavily. I broke up the plugs with a rake.

April 3, 2011

I had 5 yards of builder's sand delivered. I used my ATV to pull a large wagon, and between my neighbor and I we spread the majority of the sand in about 4-5 hours. We used a large push broom to do the majority of the smoothing. I built something to drag by had using a baseball diamond drag. I used 3'x10' chicken wire and attached a couple 4x4 posts to it and pulled it around with a rope. This helped to level it even more.

On the high spots we had the sand fairly shallow, but in some of the holes the grass was completely buried. When the neighbors had this done their lawns looked very similar. In the deep spots the sand had to fill in from the sides.

After all of the sand was spread and leveled, I set out the sprinklers for several hours. It was amazing how much the sand moved around. The water moved the sand from the high spots to the low spots. It worked great.

Once I was done watering I applied some Vigoro SuperGreen. It is a 36-0-4 if I remember correctly.

Here are some pictures of the front yard immediately after watering the lawn for the first time. My wife said she loved her new beach!!

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Comments (137)

  • dchall_san_antonio
    8 years ago

    Hey John, why don't you start a new thread as a follow up to this one. You can link to this one if you like, but it's a little tedious rereading this one only to realize it happened a long time ago.


    cbrentspears, you can water like normal - deeply about once per week.

    Gigi, I think the people who have done this job would suggest getting it all done in one weekend. The lower you can mow the easier this is going to be. If you have bare earth it will be dead simple. If you have 6 inches of grass, it will be impossible. Somewhere in between is where you can mow. The more grass you have the more sand it will take to get it level, because the grass interferes with the process. If you had tallish grass and repeated this process several times you might end up with an extra inch or so of soil that you don't need. Extra soil or sand can cause drainage issues, so you should keep the additive to a bare minimum.

  • su79
    8 years ago

    jv982 would love to see an update on your lawn, I have an extremely uneven lawn on a slight slope that I'd like to tackle before fall rains start...

  • tupelo_honey2339
    8 years ago

    I am finding all of this input helpful. I have been trying to get my lawn right for a couple years. It is a huge task when it's just you. We have mostly zoysia , I don't know what kind but realized there were two kind when I went and bought pallet , the soil part was thick and the blades of grass are much thicker. We have trees in the front near the curb that are getting big, casting more shade and this is what they suggested. I started noticing this type greens up later and soon began thinning. I have been over seeding with a shade grass which is coming in. I am noticing that the dips and holes have a lot to do with my gutters. My thought was to find someone that would bury the gutters all the way to the curb and in the back to the drainage ditch be hide my yard. I had started this summer filling in spots with top soil, then was told I should use peat moss and now my neighbor said I should be using sand, the people at Lowes told me o needed to mix the sand and peat. Do I need to rake the thatch and put the sand mix down now? We still have some green grass( some of it my seed) but it's still warm here. I have noticed everyone talking about what kind of mower you have . Mine is a a craftsman from Sears, pull or key start push mower. I have also been told by several different people what height I should be mowing. Listened to o e neighbor who said I need to leave it high... When I did that some of the grass started to lay down and then caused a lot of thatch which killed the grass in straight lines even with me cutting the grass in different patterns. HELP ! Lawn confusion in Tennessee !

  • dchall_san_antonio
    8 years ago

    Tupelo? Are you from that area? My high school Spanish teacher was from there and knew Elvis as well as many of the country singers (who are retired now).

    Anyway, can you take a picture, preferably on a cloudy day, and post it here? Oh wait, not here. Please create a new topic and post it there. Please mention where you live (as you did but do it again in the new topic), what kind of grass you have, and about the leveling. Basically copy this one and paste it to the new topic along with a picture.

  • Thomas Teeter
    8 years ago

    Dave,

    Any thoughts on soil compaction in regards to leveling. I'm here in SA and have read this thread maybe 10 times since buying a house here 2 summers ago. I'm finally going to get to leveling this year; I have lots of peaks and valleys, and many small rocks do to shotty work from the builder. In areas that are very thinned out with compact dirt would you recommended loosening it up first or just let the grass grow through the sand on top? I have tif 419 btw and live right by Milbergers nursury.

  • fta123
    7 years ago

    Thomas Teeter

    Whos leveling your bermuda grass? and what sand are they using?

  • Thomas Teeter
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    I'm going to do it myself using course mason sand. I'm going to follow the OP's procedure. The only differences: I have no tractor, my lawn is not very level at all to begin with, and I unfortunately don't own a reel mower ( not that it would be much help, I'm so in level right now I can't even cut at 1.25 without leaving rings)

  • fta123
    7 years ago

    Thomas...I am down the road from you in NB :-)... so course mason its safe to use? where you getting it from?

  • jwv982
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Hi, This is jv982 from the original post.

    It has been quite some time since I thought about this thread and I wanted to provide an update.

    In short, the time/money/energy spent leveling the yard was 100% worth it. The biggest improvement was that I am able to mow the lawn on the lowest height for my honda rotary mower without ever bottoming out. By keeping the mower this low, and mowing every 3 days, my bermuda grows extremely dense and chokes out most weeds.

    Now, as someone mentioned above, the next progression would be to switch to a reel mower, but this is not something that I ever did. As it sits right now, I think that the lawn is as good as it can get with a rotary mower.

    Unfortunately I have never taken beauty shots of the lawn. All I have are some screenshots below from google street view:



  • Marcus Kennedy
    7 years ago

    Wow your lawn looks amazing!! I soon too will have to give my yard some TLC but I havent moved in the house yet. Should be interesting...

  • thetindles
    7 years ago

    We purchased our home in TN a year ago now and we are getting ready to try and level out the front lawn. I had no idea what was the best way to go about this and this thread popped up in google. Very informative and I am going to give this a go. Thanks for the info.

  • Thomas Teeter
    7 years ago

    @fta123

    Yeah coarse mason sand is what you need. Keller materials off of 35 will deliver, but I'm getting mine from GardenVille 30/us and 70 for delivery, but I live down the street. You probably can find a good material place in NB to save on delivery. I'll prob start with 3 yards and then revisit. In the meantime I've been filling I some low areas with just small bags from Home Depot.

    @jwv982

    Your the man, thanks for documenting everything, and the follow up years later. I have a Honda that goes to .75 too. Reel is the dream but I'm just not there yet. Maybe in a few years.

  • owlnsr
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Would there be any special considerations to make if leveling like the OP but for a cool season lawn?

  • Thomas Teeter
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    I'm not too familiar with cool season grasses, maybe someone else can chime in. I would assume they may be very different. You region, the type of soil you have and grass will all be factored into determining what to use for leveling your lawn. Burmuda is fast growing, and spreads underneath the group as well as on the surface. This is Why the OP was able to almost bury his lawn. Reach out to your local agricultural extension for advice, those guys exist to help people like yourself, and are a wealth of knowledge.

  • John Irby
    7 years ago

    To level a cool season lawn, you would simply level it up with topsoil in the fall right before overseeding. Most cool season grasses do not crawl by way of stolons and rhizomes and the few that do crawl dont crawl to the extent needed to crawl up on top of a layer of topdressing like the warm season grasses described in this thread do. So while that sounds like a disadvantage, you can level a cool season lawn all in one stroke by leveling up and reseeding the area all at once in the fall when you over seed the entire lawn. Hope that helps.

  • jwv982
    7 years ago

    @thetindles @Thomas Teeter

    I am extremely happy that you find this thread useful. Good luck on your projects!


  • dchall_san_antonio
    7 years ago

    thomas teeter: I would go visit Keller Materials out by the race track in Selma. They have many grades of coarse sand to choose from ranging from mason sand up to fish tank sand. I once used HEB generic kitty litter (100% zeolite mineral clay) to cover an exposed root in my front lawn. It worked perfectly - you'd never know it was there. Particle size of the zeolite was as large or larger than fish tank sand. I used the whole bag to fill around the root and then feather it out into the other grass. I guess the point is that trying to find a fine mesh sand is a waste of time. Just get some coarse sand and use that.

  • coreman73
    7 years ago

    David, I may finally attempt to level my lawn this summer. It seems like the consensus is to use pure sand. Won't this sand eventually sink in to the soil enough to negatively affect nutrient retention by the grass roots? Would it be better in the long run to do a sand and soil mix instead or is it really ok to just go straight sand?

    I guess if it works for golf courses then it should be fine for our lawns?

  • Thomas Teeter
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    Looks like the rain is finally going to let up for a few days here in San Antonio, I'm have a day off this week so I'm going to finally knock this out. I'll take lots of pics, and maybe start a new thread or type up a how to.

  • dchall_san_antonio
    7 years ago

    You use sand because sand does not get cloddy. Even a 1/4-inch clod will dig a 1/4-inch furrow in your otherwise level surface. If you can get truly pulverized topsoil, that would work. I've never seen such a product.

    My house in San Antonio was a washout when we bought in 1992. In the front there was a 4-5 inch drop off down from the concrete walkway from street to the front door. In back it was an 8-inch drop down from the concrete next to the garage. In front I used topsoil to fill (and nearly died). In back I used all sand. The sand went a lot better, because you can stick a shovel into sand and never hit a clod. The topsoil was very cloddy and backbreaking just to get it from the pile to the wheelbarrow. My best grass is/was growing in the 8 inches of pure sand. And sand does not sink.

  • j4c11
    7 years ago

    My best grass is/was growing in the 8 inches of pure sand.

    Then why the push for OM? Sand is devoid of organic matter.

  • Thomas Teeter
    7 years ago

    DC, is there a more prevent forum to use these days when I post my write-up?

  • dchall_san_antonio
    7 years ago

    j4c11, My best grass grows in pure sand. I've seen St Augustine growing in untended sand dunes at Port Aransas and it looks fine. Organic matter just comes as the roots periodically die off.

    My sandy lawn has had plenty of organic fertilizer since 2002. When you look at my soil/sand, it looks black. I wondered about that and put some into a jar of water. The white sand fell instantly to the bottom while the large, black, organic particles floated on top. Those large black particles hold the nutrients and moisture. They also give the soil the black look. The sand just holds the organic particles in place. It's sort of an unstructured soil structure.

    Thomas, this is the best Houzz forum for lawn discussions.

  • Thomas Teeter
    7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    As much as I love daydreaming on hous I miss the old GardenWeb Scalped Sunday as low as I could .75 in the front. 1.25 in the back as I keep bottoming out, not to mention the clippings. I'll try to hit the back a little lower tomorrow before getting to work. Had 4 yards of coarse sand delivered from GardenVille on Evans rd today, I previously bought some individual bags to test. It's a good composition not to fine, but no big pebbles.

  • dchall_san_antonio
    7 years ago

    Are you still alive Thomas?

  • Thomas Teeter
    7 years ago

    Barely, but I'm here. I went head and started a new thread with my experience.

  • Jan Holcombe
    6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    Thank you all for all the tips on Bermuda grass, and leveling. We purchased a pallet of Celebration Bermuda (due to some shady areas) and we installed it the same day. That was 11 days ago. I read somewhere that golf courses use sand to make the Bermuda grass withstand heavier traffic. We have a German Shephard Dog who loves to run in our small fenced area, which killed our Saint Augustine. FYI, We live NW of Houston. My question is do I need to allow some time before I level with Builders sand? Will it help make it more indestructible? Also, the certified Bermuda dealer recommended we apply 15-15-15 fertilizer 4 weeks after install. Does that sound correct?

    Taken day 1

    Taken day 12

  • Jan Holcombe
    6 years ago

    I have watered a lot! However, I noticed the shady areas didn't need as much water as the full sun areas due to how green the shady areas were in comparison. So rather than use our irrigation system, I've been using a regular sprinkler in the full sun areas. I run the irrigation less often. I also aerated the soil prior to laying the sod (with a hand held tool). I've been checking the soil with a large screwdriver, and I can easily push into the soil 4-5 inches. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

  • reeljake
    6 years ago

    Congrats on the new lawn! You should really start a fresh thread for us, but it sounds like you're on the right track. You can do some minor levelling now, but don't bury the blades yet. Next year you can really top it off. The starter fertilizer is a good idea, any balanced one will work & keep up the good watering practices.

  • dchall_san_antonio
    6 years ago

    I would wait until July to level it.

    Golf courses use a base of sand several feet thick. Is that what you were talking about? Golf courses also water their grass very lightly every day. When they do that the grass develops a fungus on the grass which repels water. When that happens they will sometimes spread sand on top of the grass to try and break that surface tension and allow water to penetrate again. Could that be what you are talking about?

    Trying to grow grass in the shade with an active pet is a serious challenge. If/when it does not work for you in your situation, you might want to consider several inches of tree mulch. You can often get it for free from one of the local tree trimmers who has a shredder. Dogs seem to like mulch, weeds can be controlled with a rake or a hoe, and the mulch keeps the mud off you and the dog.

  • Jan Holcombe
    6 years ago

    Thanks for your reply. That's not what I read about golf courses, just that it makes it perform better due to heavier traffic than a normal lawn. It's possible the person was not correct, which is why I asked if it helps to make in more indestructible. If this doesn't work out I may take your advice....mulch or artificial turf. However, after my husband killed a baby copperhead snake yesterday a few feet from our back yard....I really don't want mulch. I've read they sometimes hide in it.

  • reeljake
    6 years ago

    You won't be disappointed with the celebration. It handles the shade really well & being Bermuda it stimulates growth when the dog beats it up. The sand lightens up the heavy Houston soil & keeps it from compacting so badly. Drains better too

  • Thomas Teeter
    6 years ago

    What's up guys! +1 for celebration

  • Jan Holcombe
    6 years ago

    I started a new thread like suggested above. I'm sure I will need much more advice in the days to come. Thank you all for your help and encouragement. New post is New Celebration Bermuda Sod questions.

  • pkapeckopickldpepprz
    6 years ago

    I have never had much success with Celebration Bermuda. I have been trying in vain to find 419 Bermuda and it seems it has been discontinued or some such.

  • PRO
    ProGro Lawns LLC
    6 years ago

    I recommend Riviera over celebration but of course its a seeded variety and it depends on your location. Here its ranked well above tifway and celebration in the Ntep trials. It greens up faster and stays green longer into cooler weather. If I had better access I would like try out latitude 36 which ranked #1 for our area here in Northwest Arkansas. But for all you out there on the fence about a grass type or specific cultivar go to ntep.org and choose your location to see a listing of how those grass types rank.

  • rick_asken17
    6 years ago

    @JV982 - I realize this is an old post - but am curious if you had any pictures of the drag item you built ( I used 3'x10' chicken wire and attached a couple 4x4 posts to it and pulled it around with a rope) - I would be interested in seeing a picture of this, or if some other contributor has a photo or suggestion on something to drag to help in the leveling process. Would love any suggestions - we have a 1/3 of an acre newly sodded lawn with Tifway 419 Bermuda grass

  • turflife419
    6 years ago

    Check out BSN Sports drag mats. There are several sizes available on Amazon. Not too costly and very effective from everyone I've heard from that uses these. I currently do not have one but it's on my wishlist.

  • Thomas Teeter
    6 years ago

    Yeah I bought a Bsn drag for mine. About $100, and I rarely need it but very easy to use and doesn't take up much space rollled up.

  • Ted (Zone 4) IA
    6 years ago

    So is the total depth of the sand an issue? I have one settled area that could use leveling. Maybe 8 to 10 square feet, I don't know. Maybe a couple 50 pound bags would take care of it. But in the lowest spot might be 3" - 4" of sand, tapering off to 1" to 1/2" at the edges. From what I'm reading though this would be no problem?

    The way to see how bad a lawn is at night, when pulling in the driveway the headlights reveal all.

  • dchall_san_antonio
    6 years ago

    Headlights. That's a really good tip.

    No limit to the amt of sand. My house in San Antonio had been washing out for decades before we moved in. In the back it was 8 inches low at the high side. I filled it all with sand.

  • CPTK
    5 years ago

    You obviously don't want to smother your entire lawn, but if you're dealing with a small section, you can fill in to any depth if you have Bermuda. I've had depressions that were probably 6 inches or more. I just filled the whole thing with sand in one go, and the Bermuda filled the gap in a month.

  • Randy Man
    5 years ago

    I agree CPTK..Those bermuda roots go super deep.

    My ditch in my front yard near the road had alot of soil erosion from houses next to me.I live on a pretty steep hill.The soil rose a good 4-5 inches over the year in that ditch in about a 10 - 15 ft long area.I have alot of bumps in my bermuda lawn ..So when I was scalping I had a bunch of green spikes I would put in my pocket.When I hit a bump I marked the area with those spikes.When I finished I used all the soil from the erosion ditch and filled those areas in to level them off..I made the ditch really neat again.The dirt was so soft so wasnt too tough of a job..I considered it my workout for the weekend lol..But the lawn is really level now.The erosion dirt was really rich,almost like 20 % organic matter and 80 % real fine red clay.Saved me $$ from buying sand.

    What surprised me was I was digging a good 12-16 inches down to form a ditch and kept seeing bermuda roots that deep..Its a real bare area now but will be totally filled in in next 30-40 days with bermuda.Now I see why its so hard to get rid of bermuda.


  • CPTK
    5 years ago

    Well, the stolons will colonize it from an adjacent area even if the grass underneath doesn't come through.

  • Chris Shafer
    5 years ago

    Please allow me to explain some facts about the different types of sand. As a contractor and someone who has worked in a concrete plant you better know what type of snd you need for the job you are doing. With that said lets began. Sand is either dug up in a quarry or dredged from a pond, lake or a sand quarry that they hit a spring in and filled with water. All commercial sand is washed so it can be graded for size and type. You have to go out and dig up your own if you want to get unwashed sand ( which is not recommended for landscaping ) to be used as fill sand or what we call sandbox sand. First thing to fall out of the washer is mason sand. Next is concrete sand followed by fill sand which contains some clay. Next is gravel base and is made-up of lots of clay and small gravel.This is what you typically find on ball diamonds and clay tennis courts or as a base for a gravel driveway or path through your garden. It can be packed down so hard you would think it was concrete with a colored dye in it untill it rains. Dogs, cats, kids and husbands get in quite a bit of trouble when it rains because of this stuff. Next is pea gravel. This can be used to cover the gravel base or partly fill holes like lateral lines where you need good drainage or placed under downspouts to keep the water from making a canyon of you lawn and it gives it a decorative look. Just remember to use something to keep the gravel in place or your mower becomes a machine gun when you mow around It. A lot of people use it in flower beds and around the base of trees too for decorative look. Rock gardens look neat and pea gravel mixed with river rock works well for this. Next comes river rock. Used as I just mentioned in place of the pea gravel ecept not on lateral lines or sewer pipes or any other underground lines and pipes. Although it does work well for drip irrigation or soaker hose. Then the last is river stone. Good for decorative landscaping and filling in wash outs or anywhere you need the water not to erode the ground beneath them.

  • Ted (Zone 4) IA
    5 years ago

    Where does one get sand at a decent price? I'm not poor, but buying it by the bag is ridiculous. Have one area that needs leveling and would take a lot more than I might think. It always seems to work that way. Maybe 50 bags.

  • Thomas Teeter
    5 years ago

    Try your local building supplies store, or ask someone at a nursery. Here I can get 1cu yard for $25-30. When I leveled a couple years ago I used 4 or 5 yards (it was a lot of sand). I had it delivered which cost extra, but if you have a pickup you just pull up and they’ll fill up the bed of your truck, which holds about 3/4-1 yard depending on the truck.

  • dchall_san_antonio
    5 years ago

    Here's what I used as a base for a walkway and large stepping stones.

    It was not as coarse as I would have liked, but it was available locally (country living).

  • headmotty
    3 years ago

    "Where does one get sand at a decent price?"


    I know this is old, but might help somebody who's reading it now (like me)...if you have a quarry near you, try there. I've got several Vulcan Materials quarry locations fairly close to me, and I've gone there a number of times. Stop at the entrance building/shed and explain what you want - they've got all sorts of aggregates. They've always been super nice. They give you a hardhat and safety glasses and you sign a waiver. Then you drive onto the scale just like all the giant dump trucks that will be moving around (be cautious and yield to them), weigh your vehicle empty, drive to whatever giant pile of material you want (the attendant will give you directions to the pile you want, and they also usually call ahead to a guy who is sitting out there on a loader who can direct you to the correct pile), load your vehicle however you want (bring your shovel and empty bags/buckets, or just load your truck bed), and weigh again on the way out. And then on to the pay window. I just went a couple weeks ago and filled up 10 sandbags with 21a crushed stone ("crusher run"). Total weight was 580 pounds, total cost was $8.27.

  • Randy Man
    3 years ago

    You are not really getting a good deal IMO. I can get 2,000 lbs of mason sand(very popular for leveling bermuda grass) for $46 and they load it in the back of my truck for me.