Power Raking?????

[joe_stack20]

Too early to do this???

[doser]

Yes. You'll tear the roots right out now. I usually wait until the lawn is a wek or so away from it's first cutting.Alot people jump the gun on this way too soon.

[Powerstroke]

The ground is still too wet and soft. Yo'ull pull out as much live grass as dead grass greatly defeating the purpose. SOme companies out there and fly by nighter's will try to start doing this but its still too soon. You would like to see some green up and growth on the lawn before doing this.

I hand-raked about half my yard last sunday when everything was dry. I wasn't trying to dethatch though. I was raking to get up the dead grass and to "fluff" the matted areas to prevent mold growth.

[LwnmwnMan2]

Quote:

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Too early to do this???

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We're not starting until April 20th.

Customers get antsy when there's no snow cover, but we'll do more damage than good this time of year.

[harvey lee]

I also raked last week on the dry spots only. I raked up trash and did not dig into the grass. Last fall I thatched and aerated.

[Enids Hubby]

I've been thinking of doing this to my lawn shortly. don't know if I should rent a dethatcher and do it my self or hire a company . If I rent one you get a compact walk along side unit but if I hire it seems like they only use the pull behind tines on back of a lawn tractor and seems like the lawn gets more damage from driving the tractor around so many times . What is better ? what would one expect to pay to have it done with raking up the mess for about a 14,000 sq ft lawn.

[LwnmwnMan2]

A power one is going to tear up the ground as much as someone with a tractor, if the person with the tractor understands what they're doing.

I run a dethatcher on the front of my ZTR when I do spring cleanups.

You only have to put it in about 1/3", just enough to 'snag' the thatch, but not enough to get the roots of the grass you want to keep.

For a 14k sq ft lawn, you're probably looking around $75-100, if there's not alot of leaves, or bushes to blow leaves out, since it's all usually done with a complete spring cleanup of the lawn.