I had the same thing. The grass recovered after a good watering and a few days. If they left ruts in the you may be able to roll them out

Make him pay for the same seed you used for your current lawn (if you seeded it) or give him your seed if you have any left, smooth out the ruts, fill in the low spots and seed. Presto!!

That sucks. If he would have let you know, you could have made a plywood path and probably saved the lawn.

If you know what seed was used, repair is pretty simple. Fill in the ruts, seed, roll lightly and water.

If you don't know/can't find the original seed, it gets trickier. If the grass is just pushed down and not torn up, you can "lift" the existing grass and put some topsoil underneath to level. You can basically cut up the grass like it was sod, but you have to treat it like sod afterward. If the grass is torn up, you'll have to reseed even if you don't know what seed was used. The best way to do that would be to cut all the grass low, aerate everything, fill the ruts with topsoil, over seed the whole lawn with extra on the bare spots, fertilize, roll everything in and water. By overseeding everything, you get a little of the new grass everywhere and the patches will blend much better.

If you have a garden fork you may be able to ease some of the compaction and bring the grass up by working the fork along the tracks from both sides. This worked surprisingly well for me once.

What can I do to keep my husband from driving on the lawn.He have torn the grass up where you can see the soil.I warn him so many times.

Papers68, block the area with large stones - too big to drive over.

I find this a disturbing thread, and a crime to the insinuation that the contractor is guilty of neglect.

Did the OP consult with the contractor on the best way to enter the area where the patio was to be constructed? Was the OP willing to pay the cost of the additional time required to move all of that material by hand, or did he use the contractor who gave him the lowest price?

We recently had a patio installed in our backyard next to our house. The patio took several yards of sand, some gravel, and six pallets of stone for the patio deck and the wall surrounding the 16'X20" patio. The contractor had to dig, the area down at one end to level the patio. There was the area where the dirt was placed prior to be removing from the property, there was the back fill area behind the wall.

There would be multiple wheelbarrow loads to the back yard, for each trip with the that was made with the truck or skid steer. There would be multiple wheelbarrow loads move the pallets of stone from the front yard to the back. There would have been multiple wheelbarrow loads of sand and gravel. Then there is the removal of the dirt from the excavation. Does the OP think all of the trips with the wheelbarrow, and the slipping and sliding of the worker as he pushes the wheelbarrow through the wet area will leave no marks.

I think the OP is being quite unrealistic to think this could be done without a mark or depression in his yard.

I understand the OP frustration with restoring the yard. The day after they finished my patio, we got about 2' of rain. It was several weeks before they could get back to install the sod. During that time we had over 200 sqft of soup around the patio. The soup was so thick that some of the pavers I used to replace the path, slid across the soup. (Had to have some way of getting off the patio into the back yard). I had to rework the grades in some areas to reestablish the water flow. I still am working on the grass in the area, and the patio was installed a year ago.

This thread was from 8 years ago