[Rathji]

Amazing how many strange opinions about how to lay sod are out there. If this thread continued on much longer, I wouldn't surprise me to see someone suggest a voodoo doll and a lock of a maiden's hair.

- Get your yard mostly level with whatever dirt your builder left you. Make sure that everything slopes away from your house and is packed down as much as possible. You don't want to be filling big holes with screened loam if you can avoid it, especially near the house and/or in sheltered areas, where you will get the most settlement.

- Get some screened loam and level it nice with a good landscape rake (rent one from Home Depot) - Make sure it isn't too thick, the purpose of this loam is to make your ground level and give a little bit of a base for your sod to take root in, your grass isn't going to care if it is 6 inches thick, but you sure will when it all settles down and you have a yard that looks like an idiot sodded it.

-Roll your loam, especially in areas where you put more than a couple inches. This is optional really, but it helps prevent settling and shifting when you lay the sod, plus you will have the roller for afterwards.

- Lay the sod. Don't order it on a hot day if you can avoid it, but if you can't make sure the pallets don't dry out by spraying with a hose. If your sod is dry, it will shrink, making gaps. Start laying at the bottom of a slope and don't walk on the loam before laying the sod, ie stand on the sod you previously laid to lay the next piece. Stagger each row by at least 30% of a piece length, so it holds together nice. Use either a utility knife or linoleum knife to cut your sod, and keep any cut peices to at least 2-3 inches wide at the narrowest, to avoid it drying out later.

-Once the sod is laid, roll it once in both directions.

-Water it as soon as you can. For 2 weeks, water every day, long enough so that if you were to step on the grass you would sink in 2 or so inches, but DONT step on your lawn, not even to move your sprinkler. This means that you are going to want to position your sprinkler so it gets the entire lawn at once, or purchase an extra hose/sprinkler so you can just change them at the tap.

- Put some liquid fertilizer on it right away. I can't remember what brand/ratio we used, but ask at Home Depot etc and they can tell you what is best. Get the stuff for new plants. I will see if I can contact our old horticulturist to find out, and edit this post when she responds.

Don't use garden mix, compost, or anything like this. Regular screened loam has the right mixture of lumps, rocks and loam to do the job right. If you use something that is too fine like garden mixture, it will pack down like mad.

If sections of your sod start showing gaps, even when you are laying it, that means it is drying out and you need to water more. If it is crazy hot, you might want to get someone to water when you are halfway through the room. Don't get super stressed if it happens somewhere and by watering it doesn't fix it. You can, and should be expecting to, top dress any holes etc with some loam in a few weeks. You can seed afterwards, but it shouldn't be needed unless the hole is pretty big.

Make sure you get your sod at a place that specializes in it, preferably some place that gives you a guarantee of some type. You can get sod at a random big box store, but they don't care about selling sod, so not only will you pay more but you will likely get garbage product. I always used Manderly (South) or Blue Grass (North), but the pricing might be different for non-contractors, so shop around. Chances are you will get the best rate from one of those 2 places.