lawn on clay soil

The garden lawn is on very dense clay soil. The water just doesnt drain away and its awful.

I am after a way to improve the drainage, but digging out the clay and replacing isnt an option. I have looked at buying some aerating shoes?

What do you guys think?

I have read that the gypsum thing is a myth?

In the meantime, all you can really do is spread compost over the entire lawn every spring, up to an inch if possible. In the future, there will be enough for the grass to live on more easily. There's no cheap quick fix with clay soil.

I know its a very long shot BUT.If your clay soil is over a layer of sand/gravel or other more permiable subsoil you could drive holes down through the topsoil with a crow bar and punctureing the clay allowing for better drainage.

It sounds nuts but it worked here.Its is/was heavy clay but when we were digging a soakaway for the house and the hymac went down about 2 foot it broke through the clay and in to sandy gravel.The soak away was filled with hardcore and the whole think has acted as a big drain for the whole lawn .Im not suggesting digging with hymac but if you drove a crobar down in an out of site area you could detect what the soil strata was in the area.If there is sand/gravel down there punctureing it here and there could make a big diffrence