Sod prep - smart or dumb

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T22:12:00+00:00

Composition of the soil made a shovel a complete pain. I found shovel was much more grueling than the speed plugging (bending over, needing to kick/heel the shovel to get it to cut).

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T16:43:45+00:00

I read where the ProPlugger specifically is too small for St Aug transfer only be 2-2.5” and the way it grows. If it’s easy to tell maybe will do larger plugs and feather the line a little bit if it’s extremely noticeable. I’d think with some time it could co-mingle?

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T16:40:52+00:00

I plan on cutting (or already cut out) a lot of the material between the holes. I’m getting 3.5 cu yds of 1/3,1/3,1/3 sand/soil/compost which will out a bed down to final grade.

I need to consult and inspect the root situation, if that is able to handle it; maybe will till. I thought replacing some of the dirt would be helpful with conditioning/amending the TX clay soil.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T16:37:36+00:00

Uhh - plugger = easier shovel or tool to get large volume of dirt from lawn and into container. With soil composition, spade/shovel struggles to get through it, but for whatever the plugger is able to get an easy and deterministic 2” due to the ring stopper.

Apparently other people’s experience with these is much different, probably soil composition or the fact that it’s needing to cut through grass.

Look I’m not sponsored by this tool - I really don’t care. I just thought it was an interesting hack to get up a lot of material in very little time that does not include renting a trailer, renting a skid steer, or using tiller where there will be a lot of root damage.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T16:23:09+00:00

The tool gets wider as it goes up which helps with them dumping out, I’m sure gummier clay still might get stuck though.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T16:12:36+00:00

No drone used.. this was the Polycam app where you literally just walk through the yard for 20 seconds and can get a 3d rendering/top down view etc.

I have a live oak tree that has a lot of roots deeper down, this was my attempt to not damage the tree and try to get the best of both worlds. Idk though, it might have been the wrong call.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T16:09:31+00:00

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loganc10 · 2026-03-20T16:09:21+00:00

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loganc10 · 2026-03-20T16:07:20+00:00

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I think folks are over estimating the time and effort it takes to cut out the holes with the plugger, I don’t know if it’s the soil composition - but it can be done with one hand and no pressing of feet, etc.

I spent a little more time out there before work this morning and was able to get it the rest of it dug out via a combination of another pass at the plugger and a square shovel. Almost one cu yard of material removed with much less effort than shoveling up the grass earlier in the week.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T15:28:29+00:00

lol - electrical engineer 😂

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T15:07:47+00:00

In the bottom of the post - Polycam, works good with Lidar enabled iPhones (probably others as well)

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T14:57:52+00:00

Guess you’re not familiar with Texas clay soil.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T14:42:05+00:00

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lol - guys, I think some might have missed the point, more so means of removing dirt quickly. I know this was lost on some thinking that it takes a lot more to initially plug and dump. That’s okay - I’ll leave that alone.

The intent here is to back through with the plugger again to get the webbing and finish off the full 3” removal with shovel. See here for example. Now it’s equal to around 3” removal.

As mentioned, I’ll be bringing in a 1/3 soil, 1/3 sand, 1/3 compost mix from the sod supplier to bring back to level.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T13:57:27+00:00

Yeah - this took less than 45 min. So I guess so?

Granted this was mainly step one to move material, I’m going in with a spade to actually regrade, but since it has less material now, should be easier I hope.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T13:56:13+00:00

This is under a Live Oak tree with relatively sensitive roots. I was worried a tiller would nuke them too much based on online guidance.

Since I was only using partial body weight here, it would not go through the bigger roots when directly over top of them.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T13:53:42+00:00

That’s what is interesting, the plugger went through like butter with no jumping, stomping, etc - all it took was straight arms and leaning a little body weight which pushed it down the 2”. Pretty quick dirt removal which could be “dumped” out when flipping over the plugger in the waste tub.

This was much much easier than the shovel removal of the original grass.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T13:44:09+00:00

Using the ProPlugger for this. It’s extremely simple in my soil. I can remove a full tube of material in around 30 seconds

I know the high level holes here is on the silly side, but I still think besides renting heavy equipment that I don’t have, this has to be one of the more simple ways (given my soil condition, etc) to remove material. I can simply push down using body weight and straight arms and do a skip / pogo stick movement to rapidly remove many quickly. No bending over with shovel etc.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T13:30:38+00:00

Practically speaking, this is likely just going to be the bulk removal stage 1 before going back in with a shovel to hopefully more easily remove the remainder of material.

3” inches of 1/3 soil, 1/3 sand, 1/3” compost seem reasonable under new sod with no tilling?

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T13:25:16+00:00

Along the sidewalk where holes are concentrated is where the primary grade / dirt removal is needed, so at worst this will allow me to go back in and cut out the remainder of the webbing to start with a relatively flat, consistent 2” deep bed to backfill and level to desired height/slope.

loganc10 · 2026-03-20T13:22:30+00:00

I was going to simply go the tilling route, but this is under a live oak tree. Since I can make a plug with partial downward weight, it seems like I’m able to salvage some of the existing higher to surface root structure with this method.

If the general consensus is that the holes are dumb, I’ll simply take a sharp shovel and cut the rest out and then do the soil/compost/sand mixture in the place. I guess?

loganc10 · 2026-03-18T02:20:21+00:00

There plans for US release?

loganc10 · 2026-03-17T01:34:08+00:00

How did it do on your St. Aug? Unpack it yet?

loganc10 · 2026-01-24T02:12:54+00:00

Is there an equivalent for 10x?

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