What to do about a rough lawn

[xp356]

A new customer of mine has one of the roughest lawns I have ever seen. The problem is that there are so many dips and hills that you end up almost scalping the grass (and sometime you do) in one place and having it very long in another with just one pass. After you get done you see the barespot hills and the rich green low spots. It looks really weird. I would like to suggest something to fix it but I don't have any idea on how too. The only thing I could think of was adding topoil.

This is a pretty new lawn on a house that was built about 2 years ago. The grass is still healthy enough that it probably doesn't need to be totally ripped out and reinstalled. But it the scalping is what concerns me. You can already see the damage that it has been doing to the grass in the past before I started.

Keep in mind this is pretty much the entire front yard and about 4k sq ft. The way it is now I almost need to wear a seatbelt so I don't get thrown off.

[Prestige]

Is the owner aware of this? Its almost like they never graded the yard before they seeded it from what you are saying. Could the owner go to the contractor who built the house and say something? May not work but just a thought. Something does not seem right.

[xp356]

I am pretty sure the owner is aware of it. Next time I see them I will ask them about calling the contracter though.

[Phil Nilsson]

4,000 sq feet isn't really that large an area ... suggest that instead of trying to deal with low spots only, trying to match grass seed types that you simply start over again ... eliminate lawn with Roundup, regrade (pack down tight those low spots first) more soil, reseed or hydroseed. In 10 days the lawn will begin to return.

Phil

[Hollis]

This could be why you got the job, you were the only one that bid on it. It might be best to give the job up if owner doesn't want to fix it. You must protect your mower for your other jobs. When I bid on jobs I always look for problems like this and won't even bid. If he won't fix the problem and says he sees no problem you might find its hard to get paid as well.