Reseeding and raising damaged lawn

Hi,

I had started off with an already tidy and uneven lawn. I then had building work carried out, garden dug up for a new sewer, heavy machinery driven all over it etc.
The lawn was always considered to be a little low compared to the driveway beside it. So I want to cover the existing grass/vegetation with new topsoil and bring the level up by at least a couple of inches then reseed.

What do I need to do to the existing ground before covering with new topsoil - Kill the grass with chemicals? Use a Tiller?

How should I calculate the amount of topsoil required and how best should I level it (it's on a slight slope)?

Any other comments / advice would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Philip

 

Or Google will do the sum for you, if you type it in like this:

27 feet * 14 metres * 2 inches =

Answer:

= 5.85289152 m^3

or if you want to change the units output:

27 feet * 14 metres * 2 inches in cubic feet =

answer:

= 206.692913 cubic feet

 

Thanks for the replies so far.
If i'm honest I'm not 100% sure how deep the new soil is going to be - I'm getting a new driveway (the lawn is beside the drive but a good few inches lower) done next week and i'll make final decisions then. So let's say it's more than a couple of inches e.g. 6 inches do I need to start thinking about killing the old grass?

After levelling the new topsoil do I just reseed?

I want to make sure I'm not trivialising this and missing important details

 

If the ground is compacted it needs opening up - digging / rotavating.

No need to kill the grass - if it grows through that's fine - that's normally the case for just top dressing a lawn to remove the bumps and humps - cut the grass as short as possible (i.e. scalp it). Spread the soil. Over-seed (e.g. 1/2 the normal seed application rate). The grass will grow through, and the seed will help establish your preferred grass varieties (bowling-green or football-pitch )

So I don't see why you can't do that with a 6" layer, except that not much/any grass will actually grow through.

But if you have a lot of weeds in the existing grass you don't want them growing through, so kill it. If it doubt kill it anyway - you need to do that now as Glyphosate/Roundup it will take a few weeks to take effect.

And if in doubt rotavate/dig also (after the grass/weeds have died, and before you add the new topsoil on top)

 

Looking at it now there are a few weeds, i'll at least spray them.
At what point is it too late to do this? I'm assuming if i wait too long I'll have to leave it until the autumn?

 

If you can get it done in April that's fine, otherwise mid-August to mid-September - they are the "best" times, obviously some wiggle room on that if you are prepared to water to get it established "late" and so on.

My preference is Autumn, the weeds are shutting down, so the grass germinates without as much weed competition.

You could turf the lawn at any time - obviously needs more watering if you do it in mid Summer!!!