Lowering the lawn

[pohorsky]

We have a 30,000 square ft. lawn surround and divided by a concrete path. The lawn is about 2 inches higher than the cement so every time it rains, the pathways get submerged and muddy. What would you use to remove 2 inches of dirt? I've thought about a scraper, but maybe there is something better.

 

[CalG]

a sod cutter

remove the sod, (sell it) then plant a new lawn from seed.

 

[truckdiagnostics]

A lot of how you can do it is going to depend on the top soil depth. If you can take 2" out then replant or replace the sod and still have good top soil? If I was doing it I would use one of these, going forward it will allow you to take small amount off and push into pile.

I would take the top soil off push it into a pile then go in take the clay out put the top soil back. If I had good grass, there I would rent the sod cutter roll it up then unroll it and put it back.
However, depending on how much concrete I had I would look long and hard about either raising it. Putting in drain tile, or putting in a ditch. What I just outlined above is a lot of work.

 

[leonz]

We have a 30,000 square ft. lawn surround and divided by a concrete path. The lawn is about 2 inches higher than the cement so every time it rains, the pathways get submerged and muddy. What would you use to remove 2 inches of dirt? I've thought about a scraper, but maybe there is something better.

a sod cutter

remove the sod, (sell it) then plant a new lawn from seed.

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If it were me:

1.Mow the lawn at a two inch height first
2. collect all the clippings.
3. rent a lawn de-thatcher making sure you de-thatch the lawn
at 90 degree angles and then collect the thatch-you are not done
until you have removed all the thatch.
4. rent a lawn aerator and aerate the lawn at 90 degree angles
a. spread gypsum on the cleaned lawn surface to dissolve the clay
5. plant more GOOD grass seed if desired
6. Be sure to weed whack the edges on all the side walks on both
sides as the grass will have a heavy mat of grass growing over
the sides of the sidewalks.
7. decide if you want to rent a lawn edger to clean the grass
away from the sidewalks edges.

It will cost you much less to do it this way than excavate the old sod
and install new sod as you will still have the same problems if you do not do the above.


Short of that you can contract with a house jacker and pump sand under the sidewalk to
raise it above the sod. BUT if the sidewalks were done poorly...........................................

More than anything you drainage pipe and hopefully you have a grade to drain the water away AFTER
you do the work.

I would sacrifice some sod, rent a ditch witch and have a contractor install drainage piping.

BUT if your lawn is in poor condition I would dethatch, aerate it, spread gypsum, plant good seed
and then finish it with a light roller.

 

[pohorsky]

============================================================================


If it were me:

1.Mow the lawn at a two inch height first
2. collect all the clippings.
3. rent a lawn de-thatcher making sure you de-thatch the lawn
at 90 degree angles and then collect the thatch-you are not done
until you have removed all the thatch.
4. rent a lawn aerator and aerate the lawn at 90 degree angles
a. spread gypsum on the cleaned lawn surface to dissolve the clay
5. plant more GOOD grass seed if desired
6. Be sure to weed whack the edges on all the side walks on both
sides as the grass will have a heavy mat of grass growing over
the sides of the sidewalks.
7. decide if you want to rent a lawn edger to clean the grass
away from the sidewalks edges.

It will cost you much less to do it this way than excavate the old sod
and install new sod as you will still have the same problems if you do not do the above.


Short of that you can contract with a house jacker and pump sand under the sidewalk to
raise it above the sod. BUT if the sidewalks were done poorly...........................................

More than anything you drainage pipe and hopefully you have a grade to drain the water away AFTER
you do the work.

I would sacrifice some sod, rent a ditch witch and have a contractor install drainage piping.

BUT if your lawn is in poor condition I would dethatch, aerate it, spread gypsum, plant good seed
and then finish it with a light roller.

A couple of things I should have mentioned. The grass is very poor and also very dry. The dirt level is what is high. From what I've been told the cement was there first, and then they filled the area with dirt. We would probably start with new seed. We might put drainage in, but with lowering the soil level the problem will still remain.

 

[Mendonsy]

Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to just add 2" to the top of the concrete?? There are several fairly simple ways to do that.

 

[boomer1025]

Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to just add 2" to the top of the concrete?? There are several fairly simple ways to do that.

:thumbsup:

 

[pohorsky]

Wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to just add 2" to the top of the concrete?? There are several fairly simple ways to do that.

That's at least 1800 square feet of concrete, maybe more.

 

[JerryK]

If the walkways are cracked, in sections... you could raise them with a layer of sand. I have moved sections before years ago... Back before I had a FEL with a set of forks.. and more time than sense..

 

[s219]

I'd probably dig a ditch on each side of the walkway and lower it by a few inches below the sidewalk level. Then fill back in with gravel or river rock, or regrade the dirt and put down some grass seed. No way I'd be thinking about lowering a large area of the lawn just to keep the sidewalk clean. Just leave the lawn be and make ditches so that the sidewalk isn't the lowest point.

 

[jaotguy]

4" tall x 6" wide cement berms poured on the edges between the cement and lawn ....

 

[davesl708]

Landscape edging will keep the mud off the drive. Cheaper and easier than lowering the ground or raising the concrete.
As to drainage, the water will need someplace to go. Tile drains and gravel work well. Find the low spot and install a French drain to redirect the water.

 

[Gary Fowler]

From your photo, just lowering the soil isn't going to keep the run off from crossing the sidewalk, too much of an elevation change up to the trees. Water is going to run down hill, gather up at the sidewalk till it overflows and still do the same thing. You need some drainage ditches to direct the runoff to a spot where you can install a drain UNDER the sidewalk for the water to get off the lawn.

Raising the sidewalks by 4" would take about 22 yards of concrete (1800 sq feet of surface)but still might be cheaper than your planned removal of 4" of soil and re-sodding of the area which would be very labor intensive and still not solve your water overflow problem. The concrete elevation change would be at most a 2 day effort.

 

[JerryK]

Put in an winding elevated walkways/trail and sell tickets for nature walks.....

 

[in2toys]

You might start getting in to tree roots as well when you start digging

 

[kebo]

4" tall x 6" wide cement berms poured on the edges between the cement and lawn ....

I kind of like this idea too, but all of the low spots in the sidewalk will still hold water. Hard to tell if there is any slope to that yard, but that could exacerbate it, if he were to add the berms on the edges of the sidewalk. Also, it would make it hard to raise the deck and drive a mower across the walk, which I'm guess the OP may do sometimes just to avoid having to go around the long way.