# Got some BAD sod with my new home... let's save it!



## musicjohnny (Jun 30, 2018)

Hey guys, I'm relatively new to the lawn world. The wife and I just bought our first home which is a new development construction on about 1/3 acre total lot size. Long story short, the Bermuda sod that was installed was really not awesome (super thin turf, already dying, etc) and on top of that, they had to pull some of it up to re-grade a portion of our lot for proper drainage, which didn't help matters. They ended up replacing the parts that they had to pull up from the re-grading, and those sections look great, but the rest of the lawn (the original part) is super patchy and thin.

What can I do to start getting it to fill in and stimulate growth?

Thanks in advance for the help! I'm attaching some images so you can see where we're at currently. 
The third picture shows some of the new sod they put down next to the original so you can see the difference.
-Johnny


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## viva_oldtrafford (Apr 4, 2018)

Start pouring the H2O to it. Do not put fertilizer on the stressed portions. Just keep it wet, because it doesn't have the root structure to pull the required moisture from the soil. It's bermuda, it should be ok.

Edit: pull those weeds too


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## musicjohnny (Jun 30, 2018)

viva_oldtrafford said:


> Start pouring the H2O to it. Do not put fertilizer on the stressed portions. Just keep it wet, because it doesn't have the root structure to pull the required moisture from the soil. It's bermuda, it should be ok.
> 
> Edit: pull those weeds too


Thanks for the quick reply. That's basically what I've been doing since I moved in, so that's good to know I was on the right track at least. It's been about 4 weeks of just water so far... when should I potentially be looking into the next phase of fertilization/treatment?


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## viva_oldtrafford (Apr 4, 2018)

musicjohnny said:


> viva_oldtrafford said:
> 
> 
> > Start pouring the H2O to it. Do not put fertilizer on the stressed portions. Just keep it wet, because it doesn't have the root structure to pull the required moisture from the soil. It's bermuda, it should be ok.
> ...


Starter fertilizer in the ok portions would be ok. For those thinner areas, you to avoid the fertilizer due to the fact that those plants are producing very few carbs and we dont want to waste those carbs while it's on life support. Waiting patiently is the name of the game.


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## Spammage (Apr 30, 2017)

@musicjohnny I don't want to question @viva_oldtrafford, but do you have a dog? It looks like a dog is fertilizing spots in the "bad" sod and making it look great. If so and you are keeping it well watered, then I'm thinking a starter fertilizer application on the whole yard would be a good thing.


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## Tellycoleman (May 10, 2017)

1st and foremost WELCOME to the Lawn forum

So how much water are you putting down every time you water?
If your answer is 'I water for blank blank minutes you dont know how much you are watering. Put out some empty tuna cans or get something like this http://a.co/cgZf5xt . Next water for 15 min and measure with a ruler how much was put down. 
Many people are often surprised by how little they are actually watering.
How many times a day or week have you been watering?
Do you have an irrigation system?
Have you put down any chemicals or weed killer?


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## musicjohnny (Jun 30, 2018)

Spammage said:


> @musicjohnny I don't want to question @viva_oldtrafford, but do you have a dog? It looks like a dog is fertilizing spots in the "bad" sod and making it look great. If so and you are keeping it well watered, then I'm thinking a starter fertilizer application on the whole yard would be a good thing.


Hmmm....we do! I hadn't even really noticed those spots before you pointed them out. So yeah, maybe a little fertilizer could start to work.


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## musicjohnny (Jun 30, 2018)

Tellycoleman said:


> 1st and foremost WELCOME to the Lawn forum
> 
> So how much water are you putting down every time you water?
> If your answer is 'I water for blank blank minutes you dont know how much you are watering. Put out some empty tuna cans or get something like this http://a.co/cgZf5xt . Next water for 15 min and measure with a ruler how much was put down.
> ...


Hey Telly! I'm going for around 3 inches per week. It's lrobably been a little more than that over the last 2 weeks cause we've had some heavy rain. Not irrigation system, just a lot of moving sprinklers around to try to get even coverage across the lawn. And no chemicals so far either, I wasn't really sure what to put down and I didn't want to mess anything up, so I just went with water haha.


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## fp_911 (Apr 10, 2017)

Our sod 4 years ago had army worms when they delivered it to our home. Of course the builder did nothing because we had already closed.

Took me about a year and a lot of reading on Bermuda lawns to get things working. Was so mad I considered nuking my entire lawn, but it bounced back!


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## musicjohnny (Jun 30, 2018)

fp_911 said:


> Our sod 4 years ago had army worms when they delivered it to our home. Of course the builder did nothing because we had already closed.
> 
> Took me about a year and a lot of reading on Bermuda lawns to get things working. Was so mad I considered nuking my entire lawn, but it bounced back!


@fp_911 Ugghhh that's brutal... what was like the biggest thing you learned about bringing back a lawn through all your research?


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## fp_911 (Apr 10, 2017)

musicjohnny said:


> fp_911 said:
> 
> 
> > Our sod 4 years ago had army worms when they delivered it to our home. Of course the builder did nothing because we had already closed.
> ...


As someone mentioned above the Bermuda Bible should be studied and followed closely. But in summary here are my key points that helped me progress:

- The armyworms had done such a job on my yard that I did have to go buy about 10 rolls of sod. I knew the Bermuda would eventually grow but the HOA was bothering me (yes I got letters from them even though it was the builder's fault!) so I had to replace some sections.

- My builder simply plopped the sod on top of whatever construction debris was in the yard. So I had to dig up areas that seemed to have issues with growth. Underneath I found some 2x4s, a glove, a styrofoam cup, and a few other items.

- Since I'm in NC the land underneath the topsoil is clay. I recognized that this isn't any good so any mowing I did, I made sure to leave the clippings. Even if it looked bad I knew the soil had to be conditioned. I also started dropping a bag of milo every month on the lawn. It must have worked because now when I dig up the ground the dirt underneath is a real dark brown meaning it's great soil for growth.

- Next was to mow low. I have a Honda HRX217 which will go down to 3/4" so I did that. It sometimes looked awful but then I learned you have to mow often to keep that from happening. I then found some low spots so little by little I would try to level them out using sand to keep the mower from bottoming out. Eventually I did move to a greens mower but even with my Honda I was still able to get a lawn that people asked me about.

- Watering is a bit counter-intuitive. You'll want to keep your sod moist but once it's rooted stop watering frequently. Most of my neighbors were watering every day and their yards still looked like crap. I would water maybe once a week and only if we didn't have any rain. I did that to make sure my Bermuda grew strong. In fact even with these awfully high temperatures I just started watering about a week ago because my grass was really getting parched.

As I mentioned before it took about a year to get things established. I moved into the house in September and it wasn't until late the next Summer where things really took off. People assume I spend hours on the lawn but honestly I cut it once a week and it takes me about 90 minutes to do front and back, trimming, and cleanup. Getting it to that point is work but once you're there maintaining can be easy if you're not too picky.

Now I still have some subtle low spots I need to fix but it's almost where I want it. Here's a picture from 3 days ago. You'll see there are some brown spots because I was out of town and couldn't get the watering started until some parts got a bit damaged. But it'll be back to normal again soon:


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## daganh62 (May 4, 2018)

The third picture shows some of the new sod they put down next to the original so you


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I would let the builder know you are not pleased with that crappy sod and that they should fix it. If it was a toilet that was all beat up they would replace it.


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## JRS 9572 (May 28, 2018)

@musicjohnny had similar looking stuff with my new home 3 years ago. Builder came out and replaced the bad pieces like you're showing. All they said when asked was "we'll take care of it."

Call the warranty dept. for the builder and get them to take care of you.


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## fp_911 (Apr 10, 2017)

JRS 9572 said:


> @musicjohnny had similar looking stuff with my new home 3 years ago. Builder came out and replaced the bad pieces like you're showing. All they said when asked was "we'll take care of it."
> 
> Call the warranty dept. for the builder and get them to take care of you.


You're lucky because our builder told us that anything living including the lawn had no warranty. So we were on our own.


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## Crabbychas (Apr 25, 2018)

You should have received a written copy of the warranty from the builder. I would read that before I believed something they told me.


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## JRS 9572 (May 28, 2018)

fp_911 said:


> JRS 9572 said:
> 
> 
> > @musicjohnny had similar looking stuff with my new home 3 years ago. Builder came out and replaced the bad pieces like you're showing. All they said when asked was "we'll take care of it."
> ...


That's really ridiculous. I guess Essex Homes is a really good builder. They sent two guys who were laying sod on another property and replaced about 20 pieces in 2 hours. But your guy wants to argue instead of making sure you are happy.

Thanks for the reminder. I have a small family business. Not in the construction industry. But stuff like this keeps me mindful of how not to be with my customers.


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## Smokindog (Jun 20, 2018)

If its Bermuda sod just keep it wet and make sure it's got ground contact. Walk it, tamp it, roll it, ...

About a year ago to date I was at a big box that sold sod by the piece. They way over bought Bermuda sod. There were 2 pallets of brown dry sod baking in the sun. I asked the guy what they did with the "dead" grass. He said they pay someone to haul it to the dump and get credit from the vendor. Being the nice guy I am I told him I'd haul it for free because I'm filling in a hole on my property.

I brought home 2 pallets of 419 that were brown and dry, dropped them directly on top if growing st Augustine that was encroaching on my lawn. I soaked the snot out of the area, rolled it, soaked it, rolled it for a week. Its lush and green and thick and beautiful as it was last Fall.

It took about 5 to 7 days to show signs of greenish sprouts and then about 2 to 3 weeks to green up and another 2 to 3 weeks to no longer require special care.

Tough to kill bermuda!!!


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## raldridge2315 (Jul 1, 2017)

Smokindog said:


> Tough to kill bermuda!!!


Dang near impossible. Shade will do it in, but nothing else that I know of.


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## fp_911 (Apr 10, 2017)

JRS 9572 said:


> fp_911 said:
> 
> 
> > JRS 9572 said:
> ...


Within our booklet when closing on the home was a warranty card that mentioned no responsibility for any landscaping or lawn issues if not mentioned before closing. Of course not being familiar with Bermuda and not knowing army worms were invading we closed and had no recourse.

I got it all worked out in the end but yes it's not an ideal way to do business and something that left a bad impression of the company on us. Thankfully the home was well built and we're happy with everything now but they did not have the customer's best interest in this case.


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## JRS 9572 (May 28, 2018)

fp_911 said:


> JRS 9572 said:
> 
> 
> > fp_911 said:
> ...


Had army worms wreck shop on a 419 backyard I had at my 1st home in 2002. Sprayed the yard with Diazanon (not made anymore) through a miracle grow garden sprayer. Two weeks later the yard was back full green like it never happened. Army worms will eat it all in about 72 hours. They're amazing.


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