Third year, regrading sanity check

[five8five]

[five8five]

Just an update for anyone following along. My plans have changed a bit, based on talking to various people and having a couple landscapers come out and tell me what they could do.

1) I decided against the initial plan of me cutting and moving all that sod back in place. Mainly because I did some reading on how much time it would take for that area and realized it was going to be much longer than I thought initially.

2) I looked into renting a bobcat / track loader with a tilling attachment to just till the sod in and push the mix around. This would be the cheapest option, and probably most fun, but I'd really rather have a professional doing the job if I can afford it.

3) One landscaper who came out indicated he could bring his excavator out, and move + level the soil underneath with the bucket after cutting up the sod and moving it to a lower area of the lawn.

4) Another landscaper has suggested bringing a bunch of new soil in. This could get more pricey, but it appeals to me most because it seems least likely to result in surprises. After getting some more precise measurements, I'll have a better idea of whether this option is affordable.

[goblue35]

Good Luck with the decision here. I've toyed around with the same idea and ultimately landed on hiring some one with a bobcat to come a laser level the back yard. If I were to do it I would be adding sod to the low point rather than "shaving" the high side down. Just make sure when you order fill dirt if you go that route you do it early enough in the season when they are still delivering. I've found out last year they stop making deliveries in my area in late Novermber/ early December.

My plan will be to seed/ hydro seeding/ or laying down new sod in the spring.

[five8five]

Well, I went with the landscapers who suggested bringing in topsoil. They started at 16 cubic yards and were initially confident they could get it all leveled in 16-24 cubic yards total. Turned out to be way too little, as I had originally feared, but I trusted their professional opinion. To their credit, they did come back a few days later and did most of the remainder of the grading by excavating a bit on the high side, and brought more topsoil in for the fine grading. So in the end, I got a hybrid job. I'm happy with it. Just framed it with my OSB boards today. Going 30'x60' for the first time this year, so that should be fun.

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I was originally planning the job for early fall, which would have been good seeding time, but got the job done a bit late. So I'm either going to dormant seed just before putting the liner down in a few weeks, or wait till spring to loosen the soil the bit and then seed. Either way, germinating in spring vs early fall.

If I had to do the grading job again, I would trust my own rough measurements a bit more, and I might get the nerve up to rent a loader/bobcat myself if I was just adding soil. If I decided excavating was needed, as it was in this case, I'd probably still have someone else do it.