How Much Should Lawn Aeration Cost

Of Aeration Affects The Cost

The cost of lawn aeration varies depending on the method used by the lawn care provider. Core aeration, which provides the most complete advantages, is the most expensive since it necessitates the use of a machine that extracts plugs from the soil and ejects them onto the surface of the grass. This necessitates a more complicated apparatus, resulting in a larger equipment investment. Spike aerators are less expensive and work on a simpler foundation than core aerators.

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What Does Aerating A Lawn Do

If you notice your lawn looking dull or failing to thrive, aeration can help bring it back to life. Aeration removes physical barriers to the essential air, water, and nutrients that grass needs to survive and flourish, and it can be accomplished using various methods to suit your budget. No matter which method you choose, the basic principle is the same. Aeration allows air, water, and nutrients to be absorbed by the roots of the turfgrass, resulting in a healthier, more vigorous lawn.

What Is The Main Benefit Of Lawn Aeration

The primary benefit of lawn aeration is reducing soil compaction. Soil naturally gets compacted by precipitation, foot traffic, pets, and vehicle traffic. As the soil gets more compacted, your grassroots have a harder time getting the water and nutrients they need to stay healthy. As a result, compacted soil will often lead to browning or dead grass, bare patches, and overall poor lawn health.

Additionally, many species of weeds thrive in compacted soil, so aeration will act as a natural defense against weeds overtaking your lawn.

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Additional Considerations And Costs

• DIY. Aerating your lawn as a DIY project might reduce your costs, but it can also increase your level of aggravation and time away from other, more important things. Hiring a professional saves time and increases the probability of a positive result.
• Overseeding. When overseeding, plan to stay off the lawn for at least one month. Also, be sure to water the grass lightly and frequently to encourage germination and establish the new grass. About two weeks after germination, slowly reduce the frequency of watering to encourage the seedlings to develop deep root systems.
• Weeds. Weeds are a problem in lawns no matter where you live. The best defense against lawn weeds is dense, healthy turfgrass. After aerating, keep weeds at bay by watering thoroughly and infrequently , fertilizing often, and mowing properly.

When Is The Best Time Of Year For Aerating Lawns

If youre aerating your property once a year, early spring is generally the best time to do so. Loosening the soil at the beginning of the growing season will give your grass plenty of time to thrive before weeds become an issue. Healthy grass helps prevent weed growth, so aerating can be a preventative measure when completed in the spring. Late spring might be a better option if you have a warm-season grass type.

If youre aerating twice a year, most experts recommend one service in the early spring and one in the late fall. This will ensure your grass has constant, year-round access to the water and nutrients it needs to thrive. Aeration in the fall is also beneficial for cool-season grasses. Year-round lawn maintenance is essential for achieving a green, healthy, and lush lawn.

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What Fertilizer Should I Use After Aeration

After Aeration Overseed and Fertilize

Immediately after aeration, your lawn is ripe for overseeding and fertilizing. The holes provide excellent soil exposure for seeds and deliver fertilizer directly to the roots of your grass. For best results, use high-quality seed and fertilize with Milorganite®.

Cost Of Lawn Replacement With Sod

On average, you can expect to pay about $500 for the sod replacement if your lawn measures about 500 square feet. However, this price fluctuates depending on the type of turf you opt for and the condition of your soil.

Additionally, the labor and maintenance costs may add up to about $2.60 $3.40 per square feet. If your lawn is curved, you will also need to spend more on the sods, as some of it will be lost when shaping the corners.

Be sure not to overestimate or underestimate the size of your yard. If you overestimate, youll lose money if you underestimate, youll have an incomplete lawn.

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How Often Should I Aerate My Lawn

Generally speaking, lawn aeration should be done at least once a year. Homeowners who have excessive foot traffic or vehicle traffic on their properties or clay soil should consider aerating about twice a year. Homeowners with sandy soil might not need aeration at all.

Asking a professional lawn care company is an excellent way to guarantee the best results in timing your aeration services. However, you can assume your lawn would benefit from aeration if you notice visible compacted soil, water pooling on the surface of your property during rainfall, brown or dead patches in your lawn, poor lawn health, or excessive weed growth.

Cost To Aerate And Overseed A Lawn

Aerating and overseeding cost about $800 for an average size lawn. The cost to aerate and overseed one acre is $680 to $1,050. Overseeding is the process of scattering grass seed over soil and then waiting for it to germinate. While this description leaves out some details, one important way aeration complements overseeding is that it prepares a seedbed that increases the probability that the grass seeds will germinate. Also, overseeding ensures desirable grass seeds fall into the holes where undesirable weed seeds might migrate.

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Can You Aerate Your Lawn Yourself

Yes, you could use the DIY approach to aerate a lawn, although depending on the size of the lawn, it could take a first-timer an entire day to complete the process.

Alternatively, you could hire a professional lawn aeration company to do the job for you. Lets compare lawn aeration costs of both approaches, so you can decide which works best for you.

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How Much Do Lawn Aerators Cost

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. Accordingly, how much should aeration and overseeding cost?

A good rule of thumb is to charge for aeration, overseeding and fertilization about twice what you’d charge for aeration alone, so, if you charge $75 to aerate a lawn smaller than 5,000 square feet, you’ll charge $150 to aerate, overseed and fertilize that same lawn.

Similarly, is aeration overseeding worth it? Why Aeration Is Worth ItAeration loosens compacted soil. And while grass might not be able to thrive in compacted soil, weeds can. Another reason to aerate: it makes lawn treatments like fertilization and reseeding more effective.

Also asked, do you really need to aerate your lawn?

No, it’s not necessary to aerate your lawn every year, especially if your grass is healthy and thriving. Aeration is good if you‘ve got compacted, poor or clay-heavy soil that’s been impacted by heavy equipment or lots of foot traffic. Always do “core aeration,” which involves a machine that removes plugs of soil.

What is the best time to aerate your yard?

The best time for aeration is during the growing season, when the grass can heal and fill in any open areas after soil plugs are removed. Ideally, aerate the lawn with cool season grass in the early spring or fall and those with warm season grass in the late spring.

Difference Between Reseeding And Overseeding

While most people assume reseeding and overseeding to be the same thing, they are actually different processes.

Overseeding refers to the process of planting seeds over your existing turfs without removing the turf. This helps to thicken your turf and fills any bare spots on your lawn.

Homeowners also turn to overseeding when they want to keep their lawns green through all seasons.

On the other hand, reseeding refers to the process of ripping out your turf, removing all existing grass and weeds, then planting new seeds. This is done in cases of dead grass, extremely dirty patches, or excess weeds.

Reseeding also involved more activities than overseeding. You might have to do soil testing and remediation, among other amendment procedures that promote the new seed.

In both cases, youll have to use some fertilizer to improve the turf thickness on your lawn. Youll also have to know the right blend of seeds to use: whether warm-season grass with cool-season grass or vice versa.

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Comparing Lawn Aeration Costs To Get The Best Price

If youve never hired a landscaper to aerate your lawn, it can be difficult to know who is offering you a good deal. Airtasker can help you see the average costs and comparisons of services to help you make an informed decision.

The national average of aeration services is approximately $130 for a midsize yard. However, you can find services for small yards for less than $60, and aerator rentals for $60 to $90. Large yard spaces or yards with complex landscaping and sloping can average up to $500.

Typically, youll find cheaper per-square-foot costs for larger yards. Some companies charge a flat rate for a yard up to a certain size , and then add an extra $15 to $17 per additional 1,000 sq. feet. However, there is no one way that landscapers price these services. You will need to schedule a consultation and estimate with your landscaper to find out the exact cost associated with your size yard.

Do You Really Need To Aerate Your Lawn

No, its not necessary to aerate your lawn every year, especially if your grass is healthy and thriving. Aeration is good if youve got compacted, poor or clay-heavy soil thats been impacted by heavy equipment or lots of foot traffic. Its also good to aerate if you are renovating a yard or installing a new one.

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Buying Or Renting An Aerator

This is going to be your biggest expense in the entire process of lawn aeration. You could choose to buy a lawn aerator, which may increase your costs initially, but will ensure future aeration cycles require you to only invest in overseeding and fertilizing.

If you dont think youre ready to invest in an aerator yet, you could just rent one from your local Home Depot or garden supply shop.

If your lawn size is 5,000 square feet or smaller, what you will need is a manual core aerator. These handheld aerators have two or three spikes, so they wouldnt really be ideal for larger lawns. You could buy one of these from a large garden supply store for between $25 and $30.

If the size of the yard is larger, you can buy a larger aerator that attaches to the back of your lawnmower for around $200.

If you wanted to rent an aerator, you could rent one for around $90 for a full day from Home Depot, or $60 for four hours. Of course, you will also be expected to pay a deposit to cover the cost of damages and late returns, but that amount will be refunded in full just as long as you return the machine on time and damage-free.

Another cost you will need to factor in when renting an aerator is the cost of transporting it to your home. Unless you or a friend have a truck or a trailer, you will need to pay for the cost of getting it transported. Renting a trailer from U-Haul for the job will cost you between $15 and $25 for the day.

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Power Raking And Lawn Dethatching Costs

Thatch is a tightly packed layer of dead roots, stems, and leaves that accumulates between the grass and soil. Less than a 1/2 inch of thatch is beneficial, insulating the soil from extreme temperatures and holding in moisture. Too much thatch prevents air and water from reaching the roots.

• Dethatching costs $220 to $670 for up to 10,000 square feet and is best for yards with less than an inch of thatch.
• Power raking costs $150 to $450 and is a more aggressive method best reserved for lawns with more than an inch of thatch.

Lawn service experts recommend overseeding immediately afterward to fill in bare spots caused by dethatching or power raking.

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Cost Of Lawn Maintenance

If youve replaced or resown your yard with natural grass, you should also consider the maintenance costs in your budget. Reseeded lawns require a lot of attention during the first few years, and so youll incur some costs in watering and weeding.

You should also consider the cost youll spend on fertilizers and regular mowing. These services can cost anywhere from $50 $150 or more depending on the size of your lawn.

Negotiating Pricing & Package Deals

In some cases, you can negotiate the price of aeration, but this is often only with smaller, local lawn care companies. More importantly, you can use package deals available from local and national lawn maintenance companies to reduce the cost of aeration. For example, aeration alone might cost $150, but coupling that with lawn fertilization, overseeding, and other services will typically result in a lower cost per service.

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What Happens During Lawn Aeration

Lawn aeration typically involves using ground-penetrating aeration equipment to pull small inches of thatched grass and loosen compacted soil. The equipment can be pulled by a tractor, or by hand using lawn-mower like equipment to move around the lawn. The base of the aeration machine has cylinder-shaped tines that dig into the soil and loosen it without causing too much damage to the grass.

Aeration should not involve removing or uprooting the grass in the soil but, rather, de-compacting the soil and loosening thatched grass. Sometimes, you may need to first mow the lawn if the grass is too tall to allow the aerator to penetrate the compacted soil and properly aerate your lawn.

At the end of the aeration, you should have nicely loose but healthy grass across the entire lawn ready to be watered and left to spread the roots further. Look out for contractors who create uneven patches of dead grass or unattended weeds after aerating your lawn.

Signs Lawn Aeration May Be Necessary

The benefits of lawn aeration are many. If you notice any of the following, it may be time to take advantage of those benefits by having your lawn aerated.

If thatch builds up on a lawn, it can change from lush one year to splotchy with barren spots the next, limiting air circulation and the grass roots capacity to absorb fertilizers and nutrients. Aerating, dethatching, fertilizing, and other lawn maintenance activities should be done on a regular basis to keep your yard looking its best. Any of the following indications might suggest that your lawn is in desperate need of aeration.

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How Much Does It Cost To Aerate Your Yard

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Subsequently, one may also ask, how much does aeration and overseeding cost?

A good rule of thumb is to charge for aeration, overseeding and fertilization about twice what youd charge for aeration alone, so, if you charge $75 to aerate a lawn smaller than 5,000 square feet, youll charge $150 to aerate, overseed and fertilize that same lawn.

One may also ask, what is the best time to aerate your yard? The best time for aeration is during the growing season, when the grass can heal and fill in any open areas after soil plugs are removed. Ideally, aerate the lawn with cool season grass in the early spring or fall and those with warm season grass in the late spring.

Secondly, do you really need to aerate your lawn?

No, its not necessary to aerate your lawn every year, especially if your grass is healthy and thriving. Aeration is good if youve got compacted, poor or clay-heavy soil thats been impacted by heavy equipment or lots of foot traffic. Always docore aeration, which involves a machine that removes plugs of soil.

What is the best way to aerate your lawn?

Before You AeratePeiffer says the best aerating machines are those with hollow, metal tines that penetrate the ground and pull plugs of soil from the lawn. You can help the tines penetrate deeper by watering your lawn one to two days prior to areating. Apply about an inch of water to the grass.

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How To Calculate Lawn Aeration Cost

Several variables affect calculating the cost of aerating a lawn, and, in most cases, a rep from the lawn company will want to take a look at the property before quoting a price. You can opt to aerate the lawn yourself by either renting the equipment, buying it, or spraying on a liquid aerator product, but for many, its worthwhile to have a professional company come out and do it.

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