The easiest management technique is available to homeowners with underground sprinklers. A 20 minute watering at mid-day, every day, helps control thatch by keeping it wet. Such a watering also is adequate for watering the lawn. Three other options are open to homeowners without underground sprinklers. They are power rakes, coring and topdressing.
Power rakes, or dethatchers, use power driven tines to tear the thatch out of the lawn.
Much of the lawn gets torn out in the process. While this is the most common way to dethatch, it is probably the least desirable. Sections of very thatchy lawns may need to be reseeded due dethatching injury. Early September is the best time to use this type of thatch removal. A more desirable alternative is coring.