It seems pretty high to me, for 500 square feet. How big are the trees and bushes? How deep is the topsoil? I would ask for a breakdown of the items, ask if there is an adjustment that could be made (do you need the loam? can you get by w/o it? or with less of it?) and I would get estimates from at least one other company, if not two. Did you ask for referrals of jobs he has done that you can drive by or speak with customers?

It does not sound high to me. It is a lot of money, but the question is whether someone will do all that for less money or not.

There is equipment needed to remove the old weed patch and haul it away along with a dumping fee. The contractor will pay about $250 for he loam, have to pick it up in his dump truck (two loads in a 1-ton). He'll need to dump that in place and use a skid stear to spread it,most likely. He'll need to grade it out with labor that gets billed out at an average of $45 an hour in this region. No one is going to mobilize a hydroseeder for less than $400 no matter how small an area you have. Plants installed by a landscaper run between 3 and 4 times wholesale. There would also have to be some preparation for where the plants are going (existing empty bed?, probably not).

It sounds reasonable for this area. You certainly can continue to have other estimates which will answer that question directly. That would be much more productive than having people from all backgrounds from all over North America guess at whether it is too much or not.

500 sqft--if you're not over 65, why not do it yourself? That's a weekend project, and you'll have a lot more satisfaction from doing it yourself.

Also, crab grass doesn't appear by magic, and if you continue to do whatever it was to your lawn to make the crabgrass grow in the first place, you'll have it again in just a few years. $2k down the tubes. If you let wood chips/sawdust just sit on the lawn because the people you hired didn't clean it up properly, I don't think this will be a good investment for you.

500 sqft is something I'd weed by hand. If the lawn is too overrun, I'd kill it, fix the grade myself, reseed it, and then baby it for a while. After that, any weed that appears, I'd take out by hand.

As a teenager, I weeded my parents' front yard, which was bigger than that. When we moved in, it was pretty awful. A couple of years of consistent weeding with virtually no chemicals, and it was magazine-perfect.

The short cut will get you there, but it won't KEEP you there.

I'm a woman, too. I'm not single, but I planted 30 bushes last year while 7-8 months pregnant. (I got family to help with the rest!)

Thanks to all who responded. Reyesuela, I think I might take your advice and do it myself! The lack of maintenance wasn't me.....I only closed on the house on May 1st, so the lawn was a already a mess. Like you, I enjoy doing things for myself. First thing I did when I moved in was remove the old toilet and put in a new one, not an easy job when you barely weigh 100 pounds. Then I tore up the carpeting, sanded and finished the hardwood floors. But I've never really had to do any yardwork as my former residence was a condo. So how do I go about killing what remains of the lawn and grading it on my own??
Thanks again, folks.

In that case, it shouldn't kill you! :-)

I'd fix the grade first. From what you've said, I'm not envisioning a who slope that's off, just a big hole in the middle, maybe with raised edges. Settling after you try to regrade can be a big problem if it isn't compacted well, but I hate to tell you this, it's going to be somewhat a problem no matter what because of the underground roots that will rot over the next 5-10 years. So I'm warning you that even if you do it correctly right now, you'll have to repeat this...

Regrading with a bobcat will destroy the structure of your soil, too, and wouldn't fix the settling problem, so this is the better way to go, anyway.

If there isn't a TON of sawdust, I'd leave it. It will rot. If there's a lot, rake it out and compost/dispose of it. If there's a raised ridge, shovel it into the hole before you start.

If it's small enough, I'd get the cheap topsoil from Lowe's and just fill it in by hand. Get three times as much as you think will make a 3" hill on top of the low place. Then, once you use all the soil you bought and realize you don't have enough, go back for more. :-) (Can you tell I've done this???)

Compress it as well as you can by stamping on it. Then water it and compress it some more. I'd do this every day for about a week. Pack as much in as you can. Even then, don't make it perfectly flat--a very slight doming will be your friend when that rotting I was taking about happens. (I'm saying this as I glare at a spot that WAS flat 6 months ago...)

A garden rake can help you apply the final flatness, so it isn't all lumpy.

You can kill all the grass next. Chemically is one option. Cut the grass as short as humanly possible, and for once, I wouldn't mulch--the seed needs to touch bare ground, and there could be some weed seeds in what you cut. Round-Up is a very safe way to do it. Buy the super-concentrated stuff and dilute it yourself. Using stuff with dye to mark where you spray might be helpful, too.

The alternative is renting a sod cutter. It will make germination easier, but I've never done it, and anyhow, I like the idea of keeping all the roots and things to rot and provide organic matter to my new baby grass.

Decide whether you want sod, plugs, or seed. I've only done seed, myself. I have been happiest with local mixes made by local lawn and garden companies for my particular climate.

Google planting a new lawn--there's plenty out there about watering intervals, protecting with straw, etc.

In the future, when the spot settles again, just throw another bag of top soil over it, tamp it down, and reseed.

Reyesuela,

Thanks for the instructions. I started work on the regrading last night, and am really psyched now about doing it by myself!

Yay!!!!!

I messed it up (specifically, filling in a hole where a tree was) the first time, so I've learned how to do it well the hard way. It will be depressing in 3-5 years to watch it slowly sink back down again, but next time, you'll have less to do!