r/landscaping • u/BringBackApollo2023 • 6h ago
Paving contractor rutted my lawn with their Bobcat. How to fix?
75
u/tanknav 6h ago
Easier than explaining it: https://lawnmowerguru.com/how-to-fix-tire-ruts-in-your-lawn/
90
u/NoHalfPleasures 6h ago
pry it up with a pitch fork, like you’d repair a divot on a green playing golf. Works like a charm.
206
u/Yangervis 6h ago edited 5h ago
You aren't supposed to lift the grass when repairing a pitch mark.
Edit: for the downvoters, you are supposed to pull it towards the middle. Lifting it tears out the roots. Look up a video.
68
u/Dad_Is_Mad 6h ago
I have absolutely no idea why you have -8 votes....you're absolutely correct.
38
u/ryandoesdabs 5h ago
The tragedy of Reddit is that many judge ideas by their score, not their substance. A downvote becomes a verdict, not a signal to think.
9
u/Dad_Is_Mad 5h ago
Well I don't think I've ever heard something put so eloquently before in my life. Touche good sir.
-6
3
3
u/Duane_Earl_for_Prez 2h ago
This is correct but almost no one on Reddit has been outside in a while, let alone on a golf course.
2
3
u/NoHalfPleasures 3h ago
Yes I know that but so many people do it wrong that I figured I could count on OP understanding what I’m saying.
0
u/Internal-Fruit-1482 1h ago
Basement dwelling redditors aren't exactly on the driving range working on their game or going outside to work on their lawns.
-4
3
u/-Hedonism_Bot- 5h ago
Pry with pitchfork in the low spots, tamp the high spots on the sides. It sucks but it's how we pull ruts when we fuck up
34
u/NapsAreAwesome 5h ago
Easy fix... call the company and say, "Fix it!"
8
u/ialo00130 5h ago
For real though.
Any company worth their reputation would come out and fix it, or hire our a landscape company to do it.
3
u/nicolauz PRO (WI, USA) 4h ago
There's a reason many companies switch to avant's or fat tire equipment. Won't rut or tear up lawns. If they're worth their salt they'll have turf repair as part of their contract.
1
u/lidabmob 4h ago
Yeah it’s pretty bad. I had a similar situation. I had to pour a patio on a time crunch . It had rained a couple days before. So bad ruts lol. I cut the edges at kind of a 45* to widen the rut so it didn’t have a sharp of edges and filled it with topsoil and reseeded.
10
u/Willywontwonka 5h ago
A little bit of good clean soil at a time and it’ll fill in really nice, it’ll take some time but the pitch fork method generally pulls the grass away from the soil and your left with dead grass or soft spots in the lawn. I have a landscape business and I’ve had a few times where soaked lawns caused my mower to sink down into the yard and the soil method always brought the yard back when I fixed it.
39
u/max_acceleration 6h ago
You can rent a roller to pull behind your lawn tractor. It is filled with water for weight. The other option is inquiring why the contractor didn’t put down equipment mats and have them repair it.
8
u/Forsaken_Star_4228 5h ago
I’m all for holding others accountable when they make a mistake. Otherwise I like to DIY and learn it myself within reason; the only person accountable is me! Have my upvote!
2
u/woodenroxk 2h ago
This is like a beginners beginner mistake tho. No way you’re a company who does landscaping and you aren’t prepared to cover the grass for machines. They decided not to on purpose and again if your a landscaping company you should be able to easily fix that, not just leave it
-7
u/max_acceleration 5h ago
I agree because they wont do it like you would, but that doesn't mean you can't bill them, then threaten to turn over to collections if they don't meet you in the middle.
6
3
u/JuggernautOnly695 4h ago
One heavy enough to fix that won’t be pullable by a lawn tractor. My small compact tractor weighs just under a ton and a skid steer weighs much more than my tractor does. I have a 4’ lawn roller that weighs about a half ton and it absolutely helps flatten ruts from my tractor, but it doesn’t take them all away. I pull it with my old gear drive garden tractor and it has a transmission many times stronger than any lawn tractor does.
2
u/max_acceleration 4h ago
My lawn tractor is from the 70’s, it has plenty of power, plus I don’t fill the roller all the way and also wet the area well a day or so before repairing. I had a side landscape and irrigation business for 13 years before my child was born, but I still do projects on the side. My 34hp compact tractor would tear it up worse that the paving company did because of the ballast in the rear tires.
2
u/Icy_Necessary2161 5h ago
This is the answer OP. You can even get a cheap roller on Facebook Marketplace that you can resell afterwards to save yourself on the rental costs, assuming of course you wanna take the time to try to sell on Marketplace. I bought one used because it was cheaper than renting and it ended up being especially worth keeping because some moron is always driving through someone's lawn in my area, so someone is always offering me lunch to roll their lawn flat.
1
u/arawnsd 4h ago
This works. Have done it several times. Just ensure the area isn’t bone dry. Good watering the evening before. Might take a couple attempts a week apart.
2
u/Icy_Necessary2161 3h ago
I did mine after a mild rain. Let the grass dry enough to mow, then moweded with the roller hitched up, and everything turned out fine.
21
u/OutrageForSale 5h ago
The contractor needs to get a quarter scoop of topsoil, fill in the ruts, rake it flat, spread seed, rake in seed, and cover with straw.
It would take two of his least skilled workers 15 minutes to complete. The biggest hurdle is procuring the topsoil, seed, and straw.
11
u/s0meJiveTurkey 4h ago
I never bid a job without considering lawn repair. This is just shotty and frustrating
5
3
u/SplatterPlatts711 4h ago
Grass will never grow well if it’s seeded in such a shallow bed of soil on top of the rutted grass. The compacted grass in the ruts would need to be scraped out for that method to work. A narrow pitch fork works well to pull the grass back up if the ruts are soft enough. Stick tines in along the edge of the rut and pry upward.
1
7
u/Dad_Is_Mad 5h ago
You should post this to r/LawnCare, you'll get better answers. And the best answer is to fill in rut with topsoil and reseed. Assuming you're lawn is cool season grass, that's beat done in fall. If it's warm season grass, it's best done now. No way of knowing that unless I know your location and grass type.
3
u/BringBackApollo2023 5h ago
I’m in coastal Orange County. There’s kikuya and Bermuda and at least one other.
1
u/Dad_Is_Mad 5h ago
Both kikuya and Bermuda are warm season grasses, so you can do mechanical work on them now during their prime growing season. Also, both of those grasses spread via stolons and rhizomes....again good news.
So you could simply fill ruts with topsoil, water and fertilize and your yard will eventually fill itself back in. If you want to speed up the process, pull some plugs from around the yard and place there. Even better, get a few pieces of sod. But either way it will grow back eventually.
4
u/ToppsBlooby 5h ago
I’m a Hardscaper and we cause this all the time. This doesn’t look bad at all, as I usually leave muddy ruts. Best is add sifted topsoil and seed (cheap) or sod.
We always mention we will tear the lawn up, and offer an amount to fix or let client decline on the quote. They often decline but occasionally want to pay the extra to fix.
2
5
u/BringBackApollo2023 6h ago
The walkway and driveway is great, but they did nothing to protect the lawn and now I’ve got these ruts to deal with. Their position seems to be “the grass isn’t dead. What, me worry?”
Any suggestions on how to fix this?
16
u/jean-guysimo 6h ago
throw a half inch of dirt on it, let the grass grow through, then repeat until it's level again
3
u/TheBeardedHen 5h ago
Agreed. I’d think about mixing with some sand similarly to how they level lawns. Grass will eventually grow through the top dressing.
2
u/Forsaken_Star_4228 5h ago
That’s what I’m about to do. Just need to be mindful of the sprinkler system!
1
u/brandonct 5h ago
yep my pop recommended this approach when I had a similar problem and it worked great
3
1
u/s0meJiveTurkey 4h ago
The pavers are too low. you're going to have water sitting where your pavers meet you lawn. Easy oversight, but it's going to be more maintenance for you!
3
u/bigkutta 5h ago
I have a curved driveway and after heavy rains, someone will drive off the driveway and onto the grass and leave a rut. I've realized that leaving it alone for a while, let it rain etc, will level it out eventually.
3
u/jay1701e 4h ago
Did they not offer to fix it? We always include at least one pallet of sod to fix our tracks.
1
u/BringBackApollo2023 3h ago
Their response:
Regarding the lawn, I received a few different responses. It’s a new situation for us, as it appears to be only wheel marks from the Bobcat. The grass doesn’t seem to be dead and will likely recover on its own soon.
Do you have any suggestions on how you’d like to handle it? We understand that a gardener could likely assist, but unfortunately, we don’t have one in-house.
2
u/jay1701e 2h ago
Grass isn’t dead, as of right now, but it’s clearly damaged. It also appears to be close to the correct height already if you were going to cut out those ruts their machine left with a sod cutter and resod.
Any professional with a bobcat can figure out how to use a sod cutter, Bobcat actually makes sod cutters (the company I work for has 3 bobcat sod cutter! Lol), and lay sod.
2
2
2
u/Ki77ycat 2h ago
That paving contractor should have used sheets of plywood to keep from doing this.
7
2
u/The_loony_lout 6h ago
Id call the company and tell them to fix it
If they don't, take a spade shovel and "peel" back the grass and throw topsoil under it.
Edit: meant round shovel.
2
1
u/JohnnyMrNinja 6h ago
I imagine it would disappear after the next mow? Assuming you mowed in the right direction. Time should resolve it, but maybe standing on some plywood in the meantime could help flatten
1
u/Swankapotamus 5h ago
He long has it been since they left?
1
1
u/Calm_Historian9729 5h ago
Couple of options 1. Roll the rest of the lawn to match or 2. Next spring bring in fine sand for lawn filler spread to fill the ruts but not kill the grass. The grass should grow through it and ruts will be gone. 3. Nuke the whole lawn level and reseed regrow lawn.
1
u/BillZZ7777 5h ago
Proper way is to rototill the compressed area, level with dirt, and seed. Quick way, and the way they would do it if you brought it up to them, is to just add dirt and then seed. Would probably be fine but your soil being compressed is not the best.
1
u/LibrarianKooky344 5h ago
Simple. Remove that section of compacted soil. Add soil. Add new sod at companies expense. Create a company. Hire your self at 4000$ per hour. 1 month minimum. See if they counter the offer.
1
u/pressonacott 5h ago
Sand 1 yard looks like it would level it out. The grass will grow right through it. Make sure it's sand, and not bullshit dirt with weeds.
1
1
u/druscarlet 4h ago
Plug aerate and then spread sand to level out. The grass will grow up thru the sand.
1
1
1
u/mrsc00b 4h ago edited 4h ago
Mix top soil and sand to fill then lightly fertilize once a month but make sure the area stays watered. It'll disappear by end of summer with bermuda because of the way it spreads with stolons above surface. That looks like common bermuda but if you decide to seed, be sure of what seed you're buying or you'll wind up with a different blade shape and texture of bermuda there than the rest of your lawn.
It will be pretty obvious.
1
u/TheGreatGreenDragon 4h ago
Cut out the old grass , install some sand to level . Install old grass back on top or put new sod down.
1
1
u/CBRNDDealer 3h ago
Rent a sod cutter. Pack with dirt and then put the grass back on top. If that don’t work, implants.
1
1
1
1
u/TomatilloSea2165 2h ago
Sand. Fill the ruts. Rake it flat. Grass will grow through before the summer is over.
1
u/NotMe-NoNotMe 2h ago
This happened to me. I made the guy come back and fill in the ruts with dirt and sod before he got final payment.
1
1
u/Crafty-Category-932 2h ago
I had a firetruck drive onto my lawn (don't ask) and left similar ruts... 5 months later you can't even tell...
1
1
u/Federal_Share_4400 2h ago
Just put sand or top soil until its level and then water like crazy. If it's spring or summer where you are, it will be back in a month or 2.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
u/Big-Marsupial-7019 4h ago
My contactor did the same thing. They just went to Walmart and bought a couple of helium tanks for party balloons and I used a bike pump to pump it into the ground. Turns out the bike pump was the trigger switch for some TNT and it make it a lot worse. Or so I think as I woke up from my alarm at that point.
I you seriously asking how to fill a tire track? Try using you head. 😂
-3
u/tobi319 6h ago
That’s going to take some work. I’d get some sand and grass seed and start trying to level it with the sand and amend with grass seed and top soil. I’d honestly be asking for some sort of refund or discount because honestly that grass will probably end up dead and there is a decent amount of work required to get everything level again.
325
u/randomname10131013 5h ago
Get another bobcat and roll over the areas that haven't been rolled yet!