I am aware that lawn aerators and scarifiers are available (indeed, I am sure I have pointed other people in their direction), but I have never used one myself. My grass is badly compacted, and like all lawns will need regular scarifying and aerating - given my glass back, and joints that are increasingly stubborn, I am considering buying one of these fellows - but, are they any good? Are they a worthwhile investment?
Not had one of these myself, but I copied and pasted the details into Amazon and it gets good reviews. http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-rev...ie=UTF8&filterBy=addFiveStar&showViewpoints=0
Instead of buying straight away, could you hire one locally and see how you get on. After all £90.00 is a bit of cash to lay out and you have to store and maintain the thing too. a-a
I could hire one, although not sure where from - then again, if it's 30 quid or so to hire for a weekend, that is a third if the cost of buying one? @Joolz - thanks for the link, I will take a look once I am back on PC (one phone at the minute)
Lawn aerator hire - FROM £73.12 a day, Lawn Scarifier hire - FROM £45.15 a day; in fairness, they are petrol and look to be quite hefty beasts, but at that rate I would rather buy my own and then I can use it at my leisure.
I looked at Einhell , when I bought my scarifier ( I bought second hand on ebay ) It looks very good value with the scarifying and raking cassetttes. Einhall seem to be an established German firm, reviews are good . As you say , a big bill can be racked up by hiring. On the downside its another thing to store.
My lawns are OKish now , I am not looking for a bowling green . I would think once the lawn is in fair condition probably every two years for scarifying . With the rake attachment on yours you could use that twice a year . If you are laying new turf , I wouldn't do anything to it this year.
I have only put new turf down in some places @HarryS - mostly to cover the removal of a scabby old path that has been driving me mad since we moved in; I used the final few rolls to replace areas at the back where the grass was non-existent, but the bulk of the lawn remains as it was with the old grass and it is this old grass that I will be targeting. This picture shows the path that is now gone
I have one similar to that FC. They work fine but can be a bit clumsy until you get used to them. I also found using it on my large front lawn, 60 x 50ft the box was useless because moss fills it so quickly.
The majority of reviews suggest going boxless and then using the mower to Hoover up - a strategy I am likely to follow
I don't use the grass box when scarifying . It fills very quickly and falls off on every turn. The first time you scarify a lawn is a bit scary . The huge amount of debris it takes from the lawn , you think you are scalping it bald !
Reviews on Amazon are excellent. Interesting thread for me as Im trying to pluck up the courage to hack my lawn to bits !
