Best way to spread 40 yards of top soil w/TLB

[Old Red]

Thanks for the advice. I have a good 1/2 acre to do, all on a little slope. I will probably need another 40 yards to finish the job. I am looking to get the job done in one year so adding a little each year (while it might work) is not a job I really want to keep doing and my current grass in not really worth saving. I used the techniques you have all described with some success, but I can tell that is really takes the right touch. Sometimes I get it and sometime I don't. I guess that is why I can't quit my day job. Thanks

How did you decide how much topsoil to ad to your yard? I can grow great grass in the spring when it has plant of moisture and food on just about any type of dirt, but poor soil will not keep a yard for long. I would like to see your progress as I will be doing the same thing this fall. It seems we have the same type of situation. Poor soil on a slope!

[Roxburyeric]

Old Red - just using what I think is common sense - Spreading 1 to 4 inches or as needed - each little area is different. I have a watering issue also (can't do it - poor well). So like you in the spring the grass looks ok then as the hot summer comes it dries out. This year is already looks bad since we haven't had a rain. A deeper bed of good top soil will hold the moisture longer and allow for better root grow (I hope). Time will tell.

[MarkV]

Just to add to the good advice I would make a drag to use after spreading as well as you can with the FEL. A drag doesn't have to be fancy. An old metal gate, fence section, some pallets, some old tires chained together. Just about anything flat you can hook a chain to and pull around. It will knock down the high spots and fill the low spots to give you a flatter surface for mowing.

MarkV

[jenkinsph]

Old Red - just using what I think is common sense - Spreading 1 to 4 inches or as needed - each little area is different. I have a watering issue also (can't do it - poor well). So like you in the spring the grass looks ok then as the hot summer comes it dries out. This year is already looks bad since we haven't had a rain. A deeper bed of good top soil will hold the moisture longer and allow for better root grow (I hope). Time will tell.

Spreading top soil can get expensive fast, on a half acre of lawn it will take 70 yards per inch of soil that you build up. You could easily need 150-200 yards of top soil for your project.

What I usually do in cases like this is use my landplanes to smooth the ground up prior to laying down the top soil. You can add a 2x4 laid flat to the bottom of the skids on the landplane to raise it up to screed the dirt evenly too. Need one tractor for the landplane and another with fel to dump the dirt into the landplane.

Since you are planning on adding the topsoil without saving the existing grass it would be a good idea to till the ground and smooth up prior to adding the soil. If you have alot of rocks they will still be covered up but the soil will be loosened up for better root growth.

Here's some pics of a job I did that was loaded with rocks and small boulders. Had a large rock pile in the backyard that I used to make a berm along the lower edge of the property. Used my boxblade to dig out the rocks and loosen the soil then brought in 110 yds of top soil to smooth over the rocky surface. Used a combination of landscape rakes, pine needle rake and boxblade for this project. This was a tough place to work the larger compact equipment and one of the reasons I built the small landplane for my GT.