leveling and filling in holes

[td3201]

Hello,

First time posting here. A good portion of my front lawn is sunk from a downspout gone wild. I want to bring in some dirt and re-level the lawn. I am guessing it is at least sunk six inches in about a 15x15 foot area. What is the best way to go about this?

[hendi_alex]

First fix the downspout so that the water stream is slowed.

If it were my area, would just buy top soil and add until it was slightly above grade, to allow for settling. My daughter had a big dip in the area above and around her septic tank. She ordered a load of decent top soil, then we added a bit more after the soil settled. Finally we planted grass over the area. Her yard is clay, the top soil was sandy loam. You can't tell there was ever a dip now some two years later.

[td3201]

1. Should I just put the soil over the existing grass in the low spots then sod over?

2. Should I tamp the soil to compact it if I want to plant sod immediately?

[hendi_alex]

1. We did.

2. Would make sense to level then compact the soil a bit. Maybe even throw some stabilizing grass seed in before the tamping. That is what we did, and planted grass. Still had to do a little additional fill and leveling later, but just minor issues.

[tomf]

You will need about four yards of top soil to fill a hole 15x15' x6" .