Till or power rake for lawn renovation

[Keith P]

I will be renovating my lawn because it is all weeds (new construction). I haven't applyed Round Up. I plan to just either till the top of the soil a couple of inches deep to break up the soil and pulverize the weeds or power rake/vertical mow the weeds, rake the weed material and re power rake/vertical mow to lightly break up the soil before I put the starter fertilizer and seed down. What do you guys think. I live in easst central Illinois, so now is the ideal time to do this.

[Runner]

If you till, all you will do is surface thousands and thousands of wed seeds. Also, without Roundup (or any other glyphosate), all those weeds that you are tilling are just going to regrow - as you are just stirring, dividing, and replanting roots.