Simple and nothing to figure out. Just leave it. Ideal organic material for the soil. After it's all dead, rake it really good so as to rid the thatch, but leave the rest. All the better if it is already pretty even. If it isn't, this is a good time to level it. I'm not all that familiar, but I've never seen soil level a certain distance below the surrounding pavement. Impossible in most cases, espcially since you really should be adding organic soil on a regular basis (at least once a year). The only thing in that respect I would be concerned about is making sure there is enough subsoil and topsoil already there. You can check here for help with that.

Of course, my advice depends on whether you plan to seed the lawn or lay sod. If you're going to lay sod, then I think you have to get the sod cutter.

I agree with Bestlawn. Leave it. If you want to change the level a tad, like removing the tops of the hills, and filling in the valleys, you can't do better than a core-aerator. Do the whole lawn, in two directions. Go get the rental, they're heavier, and then you'll have plugs of soil that look a lot like your little finger, laying all over the lawn. Turn a rake upside down, and rake the cores in to the low spots, leaving nothing on the mounds.

This fall, do it again.

You've done two things, with this: you've adjusted the height a tad, and you've moved some soil that used to be two inches down up to the surface, where it will break down, and spread out.

I'm going to be doing this from seed, Galaxy Plus KBG to be precise, and as far as the subsoil goes, um, yea... don't really have any of that.

If you were to dig on my lot, within the first six inches you would find a pretty solid formation of inorganic red clay and anywhere from 8-16" below that you'd find rocks. Some the size of your fist, some the size of your car. "Rock Shelves" or some such is what the neighbors call them. Just par for the course - no pun intended - in my neck of the woods in Middle Tennessee. :sigh:

within the first six inches you would find a pretty solid formation of inorganic red clay and anywhere from 8-16" below that you'd find rocks

+ Everybody Else. Definitely leave it rather than give up soil when you have a limited amount. You can rake it thoroughly if you want. I found that a dethatcher worked miracles, and I mowed up the hay and discarded it. You can even keep some bags back as cover mulch so you won't need straw.

Those rotting roots, reaching down at least to the red clay, will do good things for your soil.

morpheuspa wrote: + Everybody Else. Definitely leave it rather than give up soil when you have a limited amount. You can rake it thoroughly if you want. I found that a dethatcher worked miracles, and I mowed up the hay and discarded it. You can even keep some bags back as cover mulch so you won't need straw.
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This is the route I think I'm planning to take. After it's dead I'll scalp it with a mower use a dethatcher to pull out as much as I can and then just thoroughly till the hell out of it after that.

I've got at least a cubic yard's worth of compost I made last year and I'll probably buy at least twice that much more and work it into the soil as I'm tilling it. All the old grasses (read "WEEDS!") will be tossed in the new compost piles out back.