No Grass Between Sod and more?

[Song Bird]

Hi Everyone,
This is a little long with lots of questions and ideas we have.

We just dethatched a new yard yesterday and found some interesting problems we have never seen before.
It is a 15-year-old yard. We know in talking to the homeowner that proper prep was not done before the sod was laid down. Now sadly parts of the yard are in tough shape.
On one side in one area there is no grass growing in strips. The homeowner says there was grass there but with in the first year it started to die right along the seams where the sod strips meet. He has tried adding some compost and new seed but nothing seems to grow in these strips. It is wearied. The area is shaded over half the day and I did ask if he was using a shade tolerant seed, he was not sure.
Has anyone had this problem or seen it? What did you do or someone else do to fix it?

He said if we can come up with a fix for the problem he has not tried he would pay us half to try our idea and the other half if it works.

The strips are 4 - 7" wide. Our idea was to go in dig up the soil either totally remove it and replace it with new or to mix the old with compost and more to make it healthy. Then put it back down and seed the strip with shade tolerant grass that would match his existing grass color. Have him properly water it and see what happens.

The sad thing is the whole yard sits on CLAY and other parts are just not doing well either, not strips but not very deep roots due to the clay under the sod.

So another though was to go in this fall plug aerate, add a 1/2" layer of good compost, and over seed the yard.

Or do the aerate, compost on top and over seed the nicer parts of the yard and maybe carefully cut off the sod in the bad area's (or start with new sod or seed) and make sure the base underneath is properly prepped with a good mix of compost, soil, sand, etc. Then put the old sod, new sod or seed down depending on what he wants us to do.

I know a lot of ideas, sorry.
He and his wife have thought about totally starting over and that is the final and most drastic idea.

What are your thoughts?
Thanks!

[Hoots]

Pics would help.

What do you mean "no grass between sod"? If the yard is 15 years old there is no "sod". When you say sod, I think of Picking up a pallet of sod to install a new lawn.

My first guess is that when you scalped the lawn there may have been some older ruts that your mower bottomed out on or cut a little lower, that would leave long strips like that. Again, no pics, difficult to tell.

[Song Bird]

We have never mowed this yard!!!!
We DID NOT Lay this yard down!!!!

But this is what I know from the home owner.
When the yard was put in Rolls of sod were laid down. Yes the kind off of a palllet. The area between the sod rolls died!!!! There is now a stripe where there is no grass growing in the area between the sod rolls! This stripe is 4 - 7" wide.

I did not have my camera when we were there, I did not expect this.
I will try and get pictures with the home owner's permision.

I thought about scalping or old ruts. The home owner mower it himself. If they were ruts or scalping they would be curved not straight. They run over 5 feet long right along the edges of where the two sod rolls meet.

[dougaustreim]

This sounds like the typical bad sod job up north here. This is probably entirely different from what you would see in Texas. It would be bluegrass, likely a peat based sod. If the soil wasn't prepared properly, the sod never really roots. It just continues to exist with irrigation and fertilization on top of the ground. Continuous core aeration can be helpful overtime. Sometimes it is better to spray roundup and either cut the old sod off and haul away or thoroughly rototill and then reseed. I am a strong beleiver that a seeded yard is far superior over the long term than sodding. Many coontractors prefer using sod to cover everything up, rather than do a proper job of seed bed prep.

[Hoots]

Calm down song bird. The part that I am not sure on is how the sod survived 15 years and still has visible seams.

Good luck with the problem.

[Song Bird]

Sorry. You were just a little "harsh".
Why the seams are visible after 15 years is our question too.

It is Bluegrass. It is only on one side and one corner of the yard.
There are some other problem area's but these area's do not have the stipes.

dougaustreim thank you for you post.
There was not prep done to the yard before the sod was laid at all. It sod was laid right over the Clay soil and in this area a lot of it is blue clay. Nasty, sticky stuff.

As I have said the home owner said he and his wife have talked about totaly starting over. That is going to be one of our suggestions, as well as other as you can read in my first post.