Please help! Excavator screwed up my lawn!

Hi Guys,
I've been reading through the site and the forums and I love it but I still don't know what to do.  I recently bought a house in CT on slightly over .75 acre. The area is somewhat wet (High water table)? Anyway I had a swingset built for my children and this involved an excavator bringing in fill to level off an area. The truck sank about 18 inches. He attempted to fix it by adding more dirt and grass seed but now when we walk there i sink into the lawn up to my ankles or even deeper. I have no idea how to correct this and its making me nuts because my kids can't play back there now. The lawn has lots of other problems (Brown spots, weeds crab grass etc) but i want to fix this first. Please help
Bob

well you probably need to tamp down the area and fill it more until it is a bit more solid..once your grass roots take hold it will stabilize it a lot.

we have had a lot of that kind of damage after our housefire..we ended up refilling over several areas and reseeding them..and yes..the fresh fill is generally quite sinky until the grass seed roots well.

but  tamping or raking and tamping will help a lot to settle it..

A picture would be helpful.

Do you make compost?

Do you have woody material that you want to get rid of?

Not only is that spot all lumpy, but now that soil is seriously compacted.  So we need to fix the surface and the stuff under the surface.  But, you know, embracing the cheap and lazy path.

My thinking is to dig that area up a bit and then lay in some woody stuff (sticks) and then cover it up with what you dug out.  The result should be a little mound.  In time, that mound will sorta sink back to flat-ish.  If you are following the lawn care article, then by the time it starts to deflate, it should end up a bit level-ish by your other organic matter in the area.

The woody stuff underneath will help with uncompacting the soil in time.  If you get it a good two feet deep, that would be good. 

THE TRUCK MADE A SMALL POOL OR POND BY SINKING INTO THE SOIL AND COMPACTING THE BOTTOM AND SIDES.   ADDING DIRT JUST TURNED IT INTO A MUD POOL OR MUD POND.  THE WATER CANNOT ESCAPE THE AREA BECAUSE OF THE COMPACTION.  IF AT ALL POSSIBLE DIGGING DOWN IN THAT SPOT TO GET PAST THE COMPATION WILL USUALLY WORK, OR IRRIGATE OUT THE AREA WITH EITHER A TRENCH TO A DITCH OR TO AN AREA THAT JUST DRAINS BETTER.   BASICALLY DIG IT UP AND BURY IT BACK.  JUST DON'T WATER FOR A WHILE.