Was told that I needed to scalp my lawn. How short before it is too short?

When you scalp it, it is never too short.

If you're stirring up a lot of dirt, you might have it too low. Seriously, I put it at about the 2nd to lowest setting on my mower.

The purpose of scalping a lawn is to cut the weeds down so that the grass will over take them and the weeds will die out...When scalping one of our yards, I use my push mower...I make certain the bag is in place and lower the frame to the lowest level available and move it in front of that notch...That is as low as the mower will go...NEVER, NEVER, NEVER do this in the summer or fall, only in the very later winter/early spring...

I usually set mine about one notch lower than the previous setting and that is all. I used to get it as low as possible then heap tons of extra high release fertilizer then wonder why I was mowing every 3 days

okie-dokie...thanks fellas

Now when the weahter gets hot soon put the mower to the top setting. The lawn looks ragged for a few cuttings and then it all seems to catch up. You'll have a nice tall and thick lawn (which you do not mow as often) while others have dead grass