What goes on the lawn, and why.

Screened fine sand is the leveling workhorse: it flows into low spots, packs firm without going hard, and lets existing grass grow straight through it. It is the right call for shallow imperfections on established turf — and the wrong call, on its own, for deep fills, where pure sand stays soft underfoot and dries out fast.

Where a fill is deeper than an inch or the soil profile itself is thin, a soil component gives roots something to live in. The screening matters: unscreened "topsoil" from a pile is how you import rocks, clods, and next year's weed crop onto a lawn you just paid to fix.

Compacted, lifeless soil sheds water and starves turf. A compost component reintroduces organic matter and biology, loosens the profile, and improves how water moves. It is the difference-maker on lawns that have been fed for years but never actually improved.

Most projects use a blend — sand for smoothness, soil for body, compost for biology, with the ratio decided by what the lawn actually shows: how deep the faults are, how the soil drains, what the turf needs to recover fast. The blend is a diagnosis, not a menu item.