Often asked: How To Build A Lawn Aerator?

How do you make a homemade aerator?

1. Repurposed Oil Drum Aerator. This DIY aerator is made from a five gallon oil drum and it’s pretty simple to put together. Once the spikes are in place, you add a handle and wheels and then just push the aerator through your yard to keep your soil and grass healthy.

Can you use a pitchfork to aerate your lawn?

You can aerate a lawn with many different tools. The most inexpensive way is with a pitchfork or spading fork. This tool is most useful for aerating smaller areas. Simply punch holes as deep as possible in the turf layer and then rock the fork to enlarge the holes.

What is the best tool to aerate your lawn?

Here, the best lawn aerators you can buy for a happy, healthy lawn.

• Best Overall: Agri-Fab 48-Inch Tow Plug Aerator.
• Best Machine: Sun Joe 12.6-in Spike Lawn Aerator.
• Best Manual: Yard Butler Lawn Coring Aerator.
• Best Pull-Behind: Brinly-Hardy PA-40BH Tow Behind Plug Aerator.
• Best Spike: Agri-Fab 40-in Spike Lawn Aerator.

Can you aerate a lawn too much?

Loose soil doesn’t need to be aerated very often. Especially thick types of grass may also call for aerating more frequently. As a general rule, you shouldn’t need to aerate more than once a year at any time (“too much of a good thing” applies here, since you don’t want to damage your soil).

What does Epsom salt do for lawn?

Epsom salt, or magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), does indeed contain magnesium, which is an important component of chlorophyll. It is touted as a safe, natural product that can be used to increase everything from seed germination, nutrient absorption, growth, and general health of lawns and plants.

How do I know if my lawn needs aeration?

10 Signs It’s Time To Aerate & Seed Your Lawn

1. It’s Fall or Spring. The fall is the perfect season to aerate and seed your lawn.
2. Puddles. Puddles are an indication of compacted soil.
3. Worn Areas. Patches in the yard?
4. Inability to Moisten.
5. Thinning Grass.
6. Discolored Areas.
7. Uniformly Thin and Dull.
8. Yard Stopped Growing.

Should you pick up plugs after aerating?

Lawn care after aeration is important, and luckily, it’s relatively straightforward. Leave the soil plugs on the lawn to decompose and filter back into the holes left by the aeration machine. Your lawn mower will often break them up and help work them back into the soil within two to three weeks.

Which is better spike or plug aerator?

Plug aerators are usually more effective at relieving compaction in lawns with a heavy clay soil since the solid tines used on spike aerators compact the clay soil further when they push into the ground. Soils that crumble easily are usually high in loam and sand which benefit more from the use of a spike aerator.

Do aerator shoes really work?

Myth No.



While you can buy spiked shoes touted for aerating lawns you won’t achieve much aeration using them. Spiked shoes don’t work because they impact too small an area and further compact already compacted soil. University studies have shown you can use spiked shoes to kill Grubs.

Which is better core or spike aerator?

Spike aerators work best when the soil is not extremely compacted. Core aerators do a much better job than spike aerators of breaking up severely compacted soil, and the holes they leave behind encourage healthy root growth and improve access to water and nutrients for the grass.

How much should I charge for aeration?

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.

What does it cost to aerate an acre?

Aeration Cost Per Acre



Expect to pay $480 to $650 for an acre of aeration.

How Much Should lawn aeration cost?

The cost to aerate your lawn by hiring a lawn care company is about $15 to $17 per thousand square feet. The average lawn size is about ten thousand square feet, making the average aeration cost around $150. It will take a lawn care company about 30 minutes to aerate a ten thousand square foot lawn.