[Phids]

I have lawn service that has a ride on aerator do the work on my 7700 square feet. They charge me $135.00 to do it. Considering I just turned 52, and I've had back surgery about 10 years ago. That's well worth the money to me instead of wrestling that pig around the yard (and pick up and return) and I don't think the results are as good with the rental units. I do rent a walk behind blower to blow all the cores (red clay) into piles to make the clean up easier. I would most definitely throw the sand top-dress down to fill the holes first, and then applying more to level.

When I rented an aerator from HD, the machine (a Classen I think) relied on the weight of the machine to push the tines into the soil. If the soil isn't entirely soft, this can limit how deep the cores get. Better aerators use some sort of mechanized system for pushing the tines into the soil, which seems like it would be much better.

This year I didn't get around to renting an aerator, but part of my lawn on a slope was really compacted in places. I went the poor man's route and bought a cheap 1/2" drill bit (12" long) and went at it in the places where compaction was really bad, going down 6-7" inches. I put sand in some, but left others empty. I can't tell if this alone did it, but the lawn did start to improve along the slope afterwards.