This is what I learned.: If you have a bad lawn and want to plant seed that you must do it in the fall, because the ground is still warm. You should not wait till the frost though. In New York October is about the latest time to consider, unless we experience unusually warm weather. If you want to do sod, then you can do that in the fall or the spring. I took the route of doing sod because I had surgery in the fall and I missed the deadline of getting seed planted. Here are the steps that I took.
1. Cleaned the area with weeds, tilled the old lawn, cleaned it, then leveled the area off.
2. I added top soil and peat moss that was to help level the area and add to the sandy soil that I have being near the beach. The sprinkler system was installed after the soil was delivered and spread out.
3. Lime was added to help balance the PH and fertilizer was used.
4. The sod was put down. It must be installed the same day that it is cut for it dries out very easily.
5. Sprinkler system was turned on to provide water beginning at 9 pm every night until 7 am with 1 hour intervals.
As for pricing. I got 4 quotes, and 3 were in the same ball park and the fourth was much less. I gambled and took the lowest price and am very happy. The guys were professional. They showed up every day and had several guys working all day long for over a week. It was not easy to do this job. I had no idea of how many people told me the wrong thing about doing a lawn. It is very costly and time consuming. I do recommend that you stay every day watching over the workers to make sure that they are doing what you want them to be doing. Good Luck!
Photo, JoAnna Levenglick
Photo, JoAnna Levenglick