How Much Does Lawn Aeration Really Cost?

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Lawn aeration improves the appearance and health of a lawn by reducing soil compaction and promoting air, water, and fertilizer access to the roots. Lawn aeration also breaks up thatch. Lawn aeration can be done on its own or as a preliminary to lawn overseeding.

Average lawn aeration cost is from $135 to $145 for most lawns. A small lawn may cost as little as $85 for professional aeration, with large lawns costing about $270 to aerate.

Professional Lawn Aeration Cost by Lawn Size

_{Up to 3,000 square feet is a flat price of $85. More than 3,000 square feet, add $10 per 1,000 square feet. More than 10,000 square feet, add $5 to $8 per 1,000 square feet.}

Types of Lawn Aeration

Core aeration is generally considered to be the most effective type of lawn aeration. Aerating a lawn with a spike-style tool creates holes but it also compacts the soil around each hole.

Core Aeration

Core lawn aeration creates openings for air and water without compacting the surrounding soil.

Core aeration uses a gas-powered machine, a tow-behind unit, or a hand tool with hollow tines to remove plug or cores of soil, grass, and thatch from a lawn. The cores are deposited on top of the lawn and left in place or sometimes raked away.

Spike Aeration

Spike aeration forces metal spikes on a rotating spindle into the lawn to create holes, much like core aeration.

The difference between spike and core aeration, though, is that no soil is removed with spike aeration. A hole is created, but at the expense of surrounding soil—which is compacted laterally.

Liquid Aeration

Liquid aeration costs $1 per 1,000 square feet, not including the cost of a backpack sprayer ($100 to $200).

The product contains liquid humates (organics) and surfactants (soap-like materials). It ensures that the soil is wetted uniformly and it does help the water penetrate the soil to a limited degree.

Liquid aerator product is a wetting agent, though, not a replacement for core aeration or spike aeration.

How to Calculate Lawn Aeration Cost

You can estimate lawn aeration costs by measuring your lawn and then applying the measurement to average lawn aeration price tables.

The most precise way to calculate lawn size is to measure the length and width of each section of lawn to arrive at its area (square footage). Add all sections for the total size of the lawn.

A faster but less precise method is to estimate that the lawn is a maximum of about 8,000 to 8,500 square feet, likely less.

The median size of residential lots is 10,890 square feet. Subtracting 2,300 square feet (the average size of a home) leaves 8,590 square feet. Hard surfaces may bring the total lawn size down to 8,000 square feet.

Lawn Aeration Cost Factors

Two factors influence lawn aeration costs the most: the size of the lawn and the aeration pricing structure. Other significant factors include lawn slope and the need for overseeding after aeration.

Size of Lawn

Larger lawns cost more to aerate. Having a larger lawn also means that you’ll be less likely to aerate your lawn with less expensive methods such as DIY aerator pluggers or push aerator spikers.

Pricing Structure

While the size of the yard affects lawn aeration costs, the prices do not always rise proportionally to the size of the lawn. Some professionals price lawn aeration so that the larger the lawn, the less the per-square-footage cost.

A typical professional core aeration package may cost $85 for the first 3,000 square feet (around $28 to $29 per 1,000 square feet). Over 3,000 square feet, every additional 1,000 square feet is $10. Over 10,000 square feet, the price drops to $5 to $8 per 1,000 square feet.

Slope

Steeper slopes typically increase lawn aeration costs. On slopes, the lawn aeration machine must be driven perpendicular to the slope instead of up or down.

If the machine needs to be crabbed (turned partially uphill) to prevent the machine from tipping, the slope cannot be safety aerated. The lawn would then need to be manually aerated, significantly driving up lawn aeration costs.

Overseeding

Planting grass seed after aeration is often the very reason for aeration. Cored or spiked holes in the lawn are large enough to accept new grass seed.

Grass seed costs around $25 for 7 pounds of basic fescue seed to $33 for 5.6 pounds of heat-tolerant blue mix with fertilizer.

Grass seed varieties are different for every region, so discuss the best grass seed for your lawn with the landscaper.

Cost of Grass Seed

How to Know If a Lawn Needs Aeration

To keep your lawn in top shape, lawn aeration should be an annual project.

• Soil is too dense to pierce: Stick a screwdriver in the lawn at several points. If it is difficult to pierce the soil, the lawn is highly compacted and should be aerated.
• Water pools on the surface: Water pooling on the lawn means that the soil is too compact and dense to accept water. Aeration introduces holes and breaks up the soil to allow water to percolate.
• Grass is patchy or discolored: Lawns with numerous bare areas or lawns that are yellow or brown can benefit from lawn aeration.
• Thatch is visible: Thatch is an interlocked bed of dead and living grass that normally hugs the soil. When the thatch overtakes the living grass shoots (generally one inch or higher), thatch removal is required. Aeration doesn’t remove thatch but it can break it up to assist with removal. Plus, it can prevent over-thatching in the future.

Tip

The best lawn aerator tool is typically a mechanized, core-type aerator. Spike-style lawn aerators can work, too, but they aren’t considered to be as effective as core aerators.

DIY vs. Professional Lawn Aeration

Lawn aeration can be done by yourself with manual aerating tools or with purchased or rented towable or mechanized aerators.

The cost of professional lawn aeration over three years is $435. Both DIY purchase options—a tiller and attachment or a tow-behind aerator for a garden tractor—cost more than professional aeration for the first three to four years. After that, they begin to pay for themselves.

The value of professional lawn aeration is that you can aerate large lawns quickly, without the need to buy or rent aerating machines. For very large lawns, professional lawn aeration might be the wisest choice.

Manual Aerator

Plug-style manual lawn aerators that look like shovels start around $20 to $50 to purchase. The user steps on the lower section of the aerator with their foot to push the double hollow tines into the lawn. Creating new holes extrudes the plugs from the tines.

This method creates sufficiently sized holes for aeration. But the going is extremely slow, making this practical for only the tiniest of lawns.

Tiller

Garden tillers cost from $200 to $1,000. Aerator attachments for tillers cost from $100 to $200.

A garden tiller provides a wide range of services around the yard and garden, mainly for preparing compacted or rocky soil. You can aerate a lawn with a tiller by purchasing a separate aerator attachment.

The best tiller for aerating a lawn is one that has a full complement of available attachments since they are brand- and machine-specific. Check the attachments catalog before purchasing the tiller.

Tow-Behind Aerator

Tow plug aerators cost around $300 to $700 to purchase or can be rented for around $50 per day. This does not include the cost of the garden tractor required to tow it. Some riding mowers may be able to tow a wheeled aerator.

A tow-behind aerator looks like a small trailer. Hollow-tine spikes on a spindle turn with the forward movement of the tractor, pulling out plugs as it goes.

Gas-Powered Aerator

Rent a professional-style, gasoline-powered coring aerator from a rental yard or home center for around $110 to $125 per day or $440 to $500 on a weekly basis.

These self-propelled, walk-behind machines can aerate as much as 29,000 square feet per hour, though in practice the size will be far less. Anyone who has never used this type of machine would need to build learning time into the rental period estimate.

Questions to Ask Before Lawn Aeration

• Which type of aeration is this—core or spike?
• Which type of machine is used for aeration?
• Can you aerate this slope? If so, will it cost more?
• Should I overseed the lawn at this time?
• Should I top-dress the lawn at this time?
• What happens to the removed plugs?
• Do you offer a lower price if I sign an annual contract?
• After lawn aeration, how should I maintain the lawn?

Frequently Asked Questions

Are lawn aerators worth it?

Lawn aerators are worth it if you have a large lawn that you’d like to keep in good health but you’re not interested in the ongoing commitment of hiring pros to aerate the lawn.

Can I aerate my own lawn?

You can aerate your own lawn. You can aerate a tiny lawn with a manual plug-style aerator. For small to large lawns, purchase or rent a tow-behind aerator that must be used with a garden tractor. Or, you can rent a standalone, gasoline-powered aerator, similar to the type used by professional landscapers.

How long does it take to aerate a lawn?

Most average-sized lawns take about an hour to aerate. If you’re aerating the lawn by yourself, it may take a day or two to finish the project, depending on the type of aeration method you’re using.

Read the original article on The Spruce.