Best Lawn Levellers of 2024, Product Reviews

 Lawn Levellers Buyers' Guide

What is a Lawn Leveller?

Lawns are often used for recreational purposes, as much as they are for visual spectacles, so keeping them safe and divot-free is important.

Lawn levelling rakes are designed to spread sand, grit, topsoil, and another substrate that matches your existing soils evenly over the surface of the existing lawn without needing to scarify, and without compaction.

What are lawn levellers used for?

Lawn levellers are used for covering divots and filling in holes in lawns where impact, compaction, or wildlife have dug up sections of earth.

While it might seem sensible to infill holes with soil, the results will usually end up with minor compaction, or minor hillocks. Both can be trip hazards, and both can affect the health of your lawn.

Because lawn levelling rakes are designed with flush, level surfaces, they are perfect for spreading topsoil through existing turf, and even better for filling joints between badly laid turf, without compacting, or affecting the drainage conditions of your lawn.

What to Look for When Buying a Lawn Leveller

Lawn levellers are simple tools, so there’s not much to look for besides the size and materials, as most of them share near-identical designs. 

Materials

Like any garden tool, it’s important to consider the lifespan of your tools, so long-lasting hard wearing materials like stainless steel and hardwood timber handles are important.

Length

Almost all lawn levellers come with adjustable handles. The only reason for this is so they can be used comfortably by anybody, and kept at 45 degrees to the lawn level to prevent catching and dragging turf out of the ground.

Personally, I prefer solid handled tools, even if it means there’s too much handle, just because they are sturdier and withstand more bumps and scrapes, but there are advantages to adjustable handles for storage, and ease of use.

Width/Size

From the models we’ve found there are only two sizes of lawn leveller rake that are worth buying; 30” and 17”. The depth isn’t critical when they’re used properly, but using any lawn leveller narrower than 17” will take you hours to manage any grassed space bigger than a small garden.

30” lawn levellers are definitely the most convenient tools, so if you can afford that option for a few dollars more than we’d definitely suggest it.

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How to Use a lawn leveller

There are two potential uses for using lawn levellers, but the method of use for both is the same. The suggested use is to level out uneven lawns, fill in divots, and even scrape back small hillocks, but they are also a great way to lay topsoil more evenly on difficult surfaces before laying new turf. 

For both uses, follow the basic method below:

1. Spread topsoil as evenly as possible by hand over the area to be treated
2. Work with the lawn leveller in front of you
3. Keeping the head flush to the floor
4. Keep the handle at 45 degrees
5. Use slow brushing actions, and walk backwards so you are agitating soil, rather than stepping on it.
6. Work in neat rows, slightly overlapping each row as you go.

The above method is great for levelling into divots. To remove small hillocks, including molehills or worm castings, follow the below instructions:

1. Set your lawn levelling rake in front of you, flush to the floor.
2. Pull the rake backwards, the forwards over any small mounds until the rake is level with the rest of the lawn.
3. Gently repeat that same action to distribute any broken-up soil into the thatch.
4. For particularly tough mounds, break them up with a stiff garden rake, then level with a lawn levelling rake.
5. You may need to reseed over this area when finished.

1. Rocklin Industry Lawn Leveller

The solid stainless steel handle of the Rocklin Levelawn makes it perfect for professional lawn care experts who need to create pristine lawns fast.

The wide rake head provides excellent guidance even on large divots and hillocks to quickly find the right level and create a flat, loose soil structure that grass can easily seed and spread into.

2. FLY HAWK Lawn Leveller

Fly hawk might not exactly be a household name, but they’re great at making budget tools that are *almost* as good at the real thing.

It’s not a mimic brand, so don’t worry – you’re not buying anything that’s ripping off the IP of bigger brands, they’re just a decent tool manufacturer for gardeners on a budget.

OK, so this isn’t the best rake on the market, but it’s got everything you need for simple do-it-yourself lawn levelling jobs and will produce results that are just as good as the next model up.

3. Scalebeard Lawn Levelling Rake

This fully stainless steel levelling rake is perfect for small gardens, and folds away to virtually nothing so is perfect for home users who like their tools to be stored away neatly when not in use.

The rake head is small, but well proportioned, and has durable scouring bars that easily work through bumps while you’re trying to rake over divots.

What’s good about Scalebeard though is that while their best seller is the smaller model for home use, they do offer a slightly higher-end 30” levelling rake in the same listing here, so you can opt for the faster tool if you like.

Rocklin’s lawn leveller rake is built to last. It’s durable and uses standard parts so it's easy to repair too on the off chance it breaks – though from what we’ve heard there are no experiences of snapped heads or damaged handles.

The wide head of this levelling rake is perfect for professional users or serious home gardeners who need things just so.

For home gardeners who like to stay on top of the garden but aren’t too worried about time or getting things absolutely perfect, you can save a lot of money by looking at the budget end of garden tools.

While this doesn’t have the width of more expensive models and comes with a sectioned handle it’s a perfect backup for lawns that need just the occasional bit of TLC.

Lawn Levellers Frequently Asked Questions

Can you level a lawn with a standard rake?

Standard rakes can be used to level small lawns, but need to be used with care as the pressure can scarify your lawn, and often create uneven surfaces which gather water on clay soils.

Lawn levelling rakes are special tools designed to keep flat surfaces and avoid pooling.

Can you make a lawn levelling rake?

Lawn levelling rakes are surprisingly easy to make yourself, but not particularly cheap. You will need stainless steel nuts and bolts, plenty of sheet steel, or steel bar and a rake handle and sheath.

If you’ve got all that in the garage then great, if not, it’s probably cheaper to buy a readymade lawn levelling rake.

Can you use a lawn roller to level a lawn?

Never use a lawn roller to level a lawn. Lawn rollers compact topsoil and bruise grass blades, making it harder to cut, and more likely to get fungal problems in wet weather.

While rollers are great for finishing cut lawns with pristine lines they are not good for the health of a lawn, and will only level through compaction.

For more tools to help you in maintaining your lawn, see our list below:

• Cultivators
• Lawn dethatchers
• Ride On Mowers
  
• Lawn rollers