How to topdress ??

[sailfish17877]

I live on the south shore of massachusetts and plan on doing some renovations on an existing lawn. It's about 28,000 sq ft and I would really like to topdress it, but don't know how you guys go about it!!?? Is it just purely labor intensive or can you actually rent a machine? Does anyone know of any places in my area that rent them? I've watched some of the videos of a machine doing this, but didn't know if they were readily available at the rental stores? any help would be fantastic!!

[Smallaxe]

28000 sqft is a large lawn to do by hand, but not having an adequate machine may be the only alternative.
The simplest that I have found is fill a wheelbarrow, have someone push it along, while I broadcast it with my hand. A continuous scooping and fanning motion gets pretty even coverage. We did 9000 sqft in about 1/2 hour a couple of weeks ago. The slowest part was refilling the wheelbarrow all the time.

[Turfco Tim]

Sailfish,
That is a huge area, even for top dressers that are designed for lawn care, to do by hand. It is not only labor intensive but it would consume a tremendous amount of time with the methods proposed above.
Our golf and sports turf division builds larger machines for top dressing areas that size. They are sold through "distributors" throughout the U.S. There may be a possibility you could rent one with a tow vehicle from one of them. Contact us and we can direct you to the nearest "distributor".
Another option would be "borrowing" a machine from a local golf course. That could be a stretch.
If all else fails we will gladly sell one to you!
Best of luck.

Tim Gray
Turfco Mfg.

[jeffinsgf]

I have an older version of the machine Tim is talking about. It's a Turfco Mete-R-Matic tow behind model. I bought it as a pile of junk on eBay and rebuilt it. Turfco has fantastic parts and repair support. I was able to buy every part for a 25 year old machine, right down to the decals. I have about 35,000 square feet of irrigated lawn that I topdress 2 or 3 times a year. If you were closer, I'd rent you mine! Check out a smaller, less prosperous golf course. They might be willing to rent their machine out where a top flight course couldn't be bothered. You'll be lucky to find anything in a rental yard.

[DUSTYCEDAR]

call rental yards some have some cool stuff.
also call a mulch blowing company and see what they offer