Let’s face it, we’ve all been there, it is quite common for someone to drive on your lawn. Whether the person drove on your lawn accidentally or intentionally, this happens quite often, it is not a crime after all.
Luckily, no serious damage is caused in most cases. Besides, if the ruts don’t go deep, your grass only needs a few weeks to grow back healthy and strong.
In other circumstances, however, it might have rained the previous day and with wet grass, the car is most likely to leave tire ruts on your lawn. Worse still, the damage can be extensive. In either case, you need a solution. So, what do you do when someone drives on your lawn?
Before attempting any fixes, ensure that you access the damage caused. For instance, determine whether the tire ruts are shallow or deep. This will help you find the most appropriate solution to the problem at hand.
If someone drove on your lawn and after accessing the damage you realize it is extensive, the cost of repair may be very high. The amount of damage goes hand in hand with the repair cost.
But like we’ve already said, you can easily take care of some car ruts using simple DIY techniques. But what happens if a heavy vehicle, say an 18-wheeler ran over your turf of green?
Yes, you guessed that right, this can cause major rut damage and may be very costly to repair. Depending on the size of your lawn that was damaged, you are looking at costs in the hundreds or thousands of dollars.
This means that you are most likely going to need assistance in paying off the repair bill. But how do you approach the person? In most cases, it could be an immediate neighbour and you don’t want to ruin the peace in the neighbourhood.
In such a case, try to be respectful and treat the person the same way you’d want to be treated if you were in their place. You might be surprised at what being civil can earn you, you might probably have the entire cost paid in full.
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Someone Drove On My Lawn (What To Do Now)
In short, if someone drives on your lawn and the damage is too expensive, first determine the estimate. Next, contact the person and respectfully request a reimbursement. It is their decision whether to pay you on their own or let their insurance handle it.
On the other hand, if there is only slight damage caused, it is easy to fix the ruts left. It is an easy DIY process that involves loosening, lifting, and leveling shallow ruts. However, to fix deeper ruts, you’ll have to replace the sod grass.
Although someone driving on your lawn can cause potential damage, it is a problem that you can easily fix in cases where the ruts left by the car are shallow. You’ll however need some tools and the appropriate guidelines. In a few weeks of growth, the tire ruts should be fixed. All you need is to give the grass some time to grow and speed up the fix by leveling the soil along the tire ruts.
Method 1: How to Fix Shallow Tire Ruts in Lawn?
Fixing tire ruts caused by someone who drove on your lawn is annoying. Besides, you didn’t put up all those efforts to grow a healthy and attractive lawn only for someone to come and destroy it! Nevertheless, it is necessary to restore your lawn if someone drives on it.
Shallow ruts are usually 1 to 3 inches deep. At the time, over-seeding the damaged area may seem like the perfect solution but don’t let that fool you – an area with care tire ruts has compact soil. The following procedure will help fix shallow ruts on your lush green turf:
- Gather The Necessary tools
For this process, you will need a spading fork, a shovel, a garden hose, or any other preferred watering container.
- Loosen The Soil
The first thing is to locate the edge of the tire marks. You can then come with a spading fork or a shovel – place the tool at a 45-degree angle into the tire out and use it to loosen the soil. Notably, you should not dig too deep, remember that shallow ruts only penetrate up to a maximum of 3 inches beneath the grass surface.
- Lift The Soil
Our main aim is to level the ground. In other words, you want to use your shovel or spade fork to lift the soil to an average of one and a half inches above the grass level. You can then let it settle on its own and this should be enough to correct shallow ruts.
Pro tip:
Wait until your grass growth spurt begins to fix the tire ruts, this is the perfect time to apply your fix. Typically, this will vary depending on the type of grass you have.
For instance, if your lawn has cool-season grass, it is best to repair it in early fall. On the other hand, the growth spurt of warm-season grass happens in late spring.
Also Read: Can You Be Fined For Not Mowing Your Lawn?
Method 2: How to Fix deep Tire Ruts In lawn?
It is much harder to fix deep tire ruts. If someone drives on your lawn with heavy machinery, with force, or when the lawn is wet, your turf is most likely to get extensive damage. On the bright side, you can still fix deep ruts as follows:
- Get The Necessary Tools
For this procedure, you will need tools like a garden spade, spade fork, sod knife, garden hose, sand, compost, and grass seed.
- Remove The Grass
Locate the rut sod edges and dig all the grass within the rut using a sod knife or a shovel. You want to remove everything including the grassroots.
- Loosen The soil
Drive a spading fork into the rut at an angle of 45 degrees. This helps to loosen the compacted soil. Since this is a deeper rut, you will need to dig deeper.
- Fill The Rut
Fill up the rut with an equal ratio of soil, sand, and compost. Also, make sure that you top up the new soil 1 to 2 inches above the current soil level. This will help grow a deeper root system when the grass is reinstalled.
- Grow The Grass
It is now time to reinstall the grass. You can install new grass if the sod was entirely damaged or it has a lot of sparse areas. Nevertheless, ensure that the new grass sod you install is the same type as your lawn grass. The last thing you want is a mismatched lawn that can be unappealing.
Also Read: Can You Mow Grass after Frost?
Is It Illegal To Drive On Someone’s Lawn?
No, it is not illegal to drive on someone’s lawn. Nevertheless, it is treated as a civil matter in most places. Normally, it is recommended that you get an estimate, contact the person, and request them to pay for the damage caused.
It is up to them to decide whether they will handle it or contact their insurance company. However, if the offender refuses to cover the damage, you can report them to the law enforcement authorities.
Someone driving on your lawn is property damage and you can sue the person in small claims court.
How to Make Sure No One Does This Further? How to Stop People!
You can stop people from driving on your lawn using the following ways:
- Erect a Fence:
it is one of the easiest and most effective ways to prevent people from driving on your lawn. Besides, it is quite affordable since you can make the fence from readily available materials. On the other hand, if you want a long-lasting option, you can opt for modern fences.
- Hedge:
If you don’t like the idea of fencing your lawn, you can establish a hedge to block people from driving on your lawn. The best way to do this is to plant knee-high hedge trees. They are a perfect barrier and no one will even bother to trespass.
- Concrete Pyramid:
You can build concrete pyramids on the edge of your lawn. Although they are costly, they form a perfect barrier. You can use white paint to alert any driver.
- A Rock Barrier:
Another easy way is to use sizeable rocks on your lawn borders. Such berries will bar anyone from driving on your lawn.
- Erect a Flag:
A flag is yet another obstruction that can prevent inattentive drivers from driving on your lawn. I’ll let you into a little secret; if you are using concrete pyramids, you can attach poles with flags on them.
Conclusion:
Minor rut tires are easy to fix but deeper ruts can cause extensive damage to your lawn, If someone drives on your lawn and after making an estimate the repair cost is too high to cover, you should contact them and request that they pay you for the damage.
They can either handle it on their own or they can contact their insurance to handle the matter. Nonetheless, you should implement effective strategies to make sure that no one drives on your lawn.
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