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I recently moved into a house and the yard is spongy and soft. The mower wont push over it, it has to be pulled. I tried dethatching an area with a dethatching rake but it pulled up the runners and leaves it bare. The rest of the lawn is covered in runners (the dog has fun with them). Am I dethatching wrong?
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @nickinbrisbane. It's terrific to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about dethatching a lawn.
Typically, when someone describes a lawn as spongey and soft, it's due to having a very thick layer of grass that is holding dead material. This is where dethatching comes in to remove the buildup. However, your lawn appears quite short, and I'm not sure why you would have trouble mowing it. Is it that you have the mower on one of the lower height settings, and the chassis is dragging on the grass?
Is the grass in the second picture that bare as you had dethatched it or due to being mowed exceptionally low?
Dethatching or scarifying a lawn does leave it looking very bare. Once you've completed the process you need to then add topsoil or sand over it to cover the exposed roots and runners. Check out @homeinmelbourne's amazing Lawn renovation. You'll see that their lawn looked very similar to the sections you've dethatched at stages. The process of dethatching a lawn to address sponginess can take several months until it's looking it's best again.
Here's a helpful guide: How to revive a lawn.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
The dethatching process can be a little brutal, @nickinbrisbane.
How level is the lawn? If there are undulations, the mower can also bog down and be hard to push. Applying topsoil to the lower spots can help raise areas. Once the grass grows through, you can progressively lower the entire lawn at the same time to create a flat and even surface.
Mitchell
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