My usual technique is to make a garden bed and put the sod over the low spot. :) Digging the sod and putting dirt under it to raise the level should work. I use a spade to dig sod in foot to foot and a half squares. I dig down about three inches and them pry up a couple of inches and push the shovel under the sod to loosen it. By the time you're done, you may not consider 5*5 manageable. You could put a garden in the low spot and use the sod to improve the lawn elsewhere. :) If I'm putting sod on other sod I soak it until it is soft enough to mold to the underlying surface -- wet it and whack it.

Digging up the sod would work if you have the energy.
The easiest is to put soil over to be level and put grass seed, I know it's not instant green but the seeds grow fast if kept moist, the end result is better then digging up.

I do what Konrad said, fill it with topsoil and seed grass over top. I find some grass will grow through and the rest will fill in from the seed.

Mostly I don't care if my yard is bumpy. It's light soil so I don't get puddles. I only fill holes if they cause the lawnmower to scalp the edges.

After reading this, I'm sure I don't have the energy to dig it up, as there's so many other things to do.

I guess I'll put some topsoil on top, if the grass grows through, maybe add a little more topsoil.

If the grass grows through, great, if not, I'll seed it. I'll use the wait and see approach =:)

Thanks =:)

LOL..one good hint my wife does every year with some dead spots from winter kill and dog kill is to put some grass clippings over when seeded, just a thin layer, this helps to keep it moist, the grass with grow through.

Yes, sod will grow up through soil if you do it gradually. Don't put all 3 inches on at once, do it gradually in about 1/2 inch increments, about 2-3 weeks apart to allow the grass to stretch to the surface. I think your plan of doing it gradually is the easiest approach.

This is a very useful thread, thanks for starting it, nutsaboutflowers!

My front lawn was damaged last week - the day after the soaking rain we had in Calgary, my neighbours had the sod delivered for their back yard. The delivery person just drove up on my lawn without any protection/plywood and now there is a nice deep trench (OK, I exaggerated, it's more like a depressed area due to the weight of the vehicle) in my lawn.

Since this is a deeper area, should I use the same techniques by laying down soil gradually over time?

Wow that's disappointing Ostrich. People should be more professional than to drive over your lawn, even if it was dry.

I would fill it in gradually, giving it time to settle, and if the grass is sparse in the fall then throw a bit of seed on it.

First of all, does your neighbour know this happened? Ideally, your neighbour should give you a leftover piece of their sod that you could use after you fill the depression with soil. If you're lucky enough for this to be the case, make sure you allow for settling and build the soil up a bit higher than the existing grass.

I have a spot like that from a truck, too. That's where I got my new load of dirt put so the leftovers fill in the dip.

Don't get me started on contractors and delivery people. Some contractors, in particular, seem to be among the most inconsiderate people around. DH was a contractor many many years ago, and was well known for cleaning up any mess and not damaging people's property. Has anybody else noticed the amount of garbage flying around when contractors are building? Wind storms and contractors don't mix. Rant =:)

Thanks, northspruce and nutsaboutflowers!

My neighbour knew about this - he promised to fix it, but I'd rather that it didn't happen in the first place if they had done some more preventive work by laying down some big pieces of plywood. Where they used some on my neighbour's side of the lawn, there was no damage. It's only on my side where they did NOT use any protection that there was damage.

Hopefully, this is going to be fixed and it will not happen again....

Oh yes, nutsaboutflowers, we have trash flying all over the place due to the nearby construction!!! I just cannot wait until all this construction around me is DONE! Sigh...

That's awful news ostrich. We had something akin to that about 5 years ago when the neighbour across the alley built a new garage. The contractor in charge of the pad didn't have one of those tall booms so they wedged the truck as best they could on our pad and cracked it. I asked what the contractor what they were going to do that about it and he laughed at me. Hopefully your neighbours are better than ours.

As for advice I use Konrad's method of light fill all the time. It does take a while to grow in though...

This brings up something about new house construction that really annoys and I think is just plain stupid.

In the town and on the block I was raised houses used to be offset, ALWAYS, to the far north side of the lot.
That way if a vehicle large or small for near any reason had to be driven on the lot there was a large area to do so, plus there was the alley access from the rear.

Now the houses are nearly centered on the lots and often, especially since they no longer build alleyways, there is almost zero way of accessing the rear yard without going at least partly over the neighbor's lot.

Some where along the way city and road designers have acquired brain worms that cause permanent stupidity.

Yeah..I've never lived in a house with a back allay, ..kind of like the idea of heaving a allay but still don't know what's better. Sure, without, it eliminates some trash places in the back and less maintenance for access road, cleaning snow etc.