yes. do it slowly. drop a shovel full of topsoil into the hole, and rake it around. Wait two months. You will notice that the grass, which was not smothered, grew right up through the topsoil recently added.

You can do about a quarter of an inch at a time, using this method. Please note that you will be adding about a half an inch, but after you spread it around, and after it dries, and settles, it adds up to about a quarter of an inch. This will work perfectly, once a year. maybe twice, if you do it both early and late in the season.

It will look like a lawn, the entire time. Which is good.

Here come the practial people: "Are you nuts? I have an area, in my lawn, that is just about a full foot deep. If I used your method, it would take me something like thirty two years to make it right."

They are correct.

You have to make a choice. Either you want it to look like a lawn, while you renovate, or you want instant results, and you want that grade corrected, like right NOW.

If you add a bunch of dirt, and then roll it, and bring that grade up to snuff, you will have a patch of fresh dirt. Which you will have to seed, and it may take you a year to catch up, and make it look like a lawn again.

Or, if you can live with about a half an inch added (hey, it wasn't there last year, and it's catching up, slowly, each time I add dirt) and recognize that the half inch added will settle, and you'll get a little less than a half inch, that's great.

It will look like a lawn the whole time.

Pick one, and live with the results. You could go either way.

What kind of grass, and how big of an area?

Let me add this to make sure. My soil is very hard. The landscaping company that did our sod ( new construction) sodded over gravel/ cement. you name it. This are is about 5 ft wide by 20ft. Its the location where they ran my sewer and water lines. Will adding the soil slowly help with thickening the sub soil so the grass will have something to grow in without digging up the whole area?

If you carefully slit your sod with a sharp, flat ended shovel, you can peel back the sod, fill the low spot, then return the sod to its original position.

I usually slit an X over the hole and peel back the 4 triangles. This technique works well for low spots up to 2' in diameter. I haven't tried it with larger areas.

-Deerslayer