Anyone level their lawn with sand?

bdog · Jul 23, 2020

We laid sod back in April. The ground was leveled well before we laid it and we rolled the sod twice. It wasn稚 really bad but mowing at 3/4 with a reel mower you could sure see the high and low spots.

Decided to level it with sand. Entire project took about six hours and 5 yards of sand with me doing the work by myself. Without the BX to shuttle the sand around it would have been a lot harder.

This side I just spread the sand on today. This picture is just it raked in and not smoothed with the leveling tool.

I did the exact same thing to the other half of the yard two days ago and it has already grown in this much.

I can稚 wait until I get to mow again and see what a difference it made.

/pine · Jul 23, 2020

bdog said:
We laid sod back in April. The ground was leveled well before we laid it and we rolled the sod twice. It wasn稚 really bad but mowing at 3/4 with a reel mower you could sure see the high and low spots.

Decided to level it with sand. Entire project took about six hours and 5 yards of sand with me doing the work by myself. Without the BX to shuttle the sand around it would have been a lot harder.

This side I just spread the sand on today. This picture is just it raked in and not smoothed with the leveling tool.

View attachment 664188

I did the exact same thing to the other half of the yard two days ago and it has already grown in this much.

View attachment 664189

I can稚 wait until I get to mow again and see what a difference it made.

It's always worked for greens keepers :thumbsup:

goeduck · Jul 23, 2020

/pine said:
It's always worked for greens keepers :thumbsup:

Yep, that is what we did when I worked at a golf course.

John Skull · Jul 24, 2020

yes. you don't say what type turf you're running, but my Zoysia likes masonry sand for fill-ins. Doesn't introduce weeds like dirt could/would.

bdog · Jul 24, 2020

It is celebration bermuda.

TractorGuy · Jul 24, 2020

Looks good!

How did you spread and rake it?

bdog · Jul 24, 2020

I dumped small piles across the yard with the BX and then used these.

I actually spread it around with the rake. The picture above is just with it being raked. After it is spread it needs to sit for a couple hours until it dries then I worked it in with the leveling tool. The leveling tool is useless when the sand is damp. It just clumps together.

jaxs · Jul 24, 2020

John Skull said:
yes. you don't say what type turf you're running, but my Zoysia likes masonry sand for fill-ins. Doesn't introduce weeds like dirt could/would.

You can never be too carful about what's brought in. Sand in Texas often has sandburs or goat heads growing in it. I once bought concrete truck "washout" for road base and wound up with sandburs.

bdog · Jul 24, 2020

I had that concern but nothing some preemergent won’t take care of. That being said mowing at 1/2-3/4” every three days there are not many other plants that can survive.