Home Improvements

[reese125]

You mean a contractor put a deck on your house for you?  Yeah.

Anyway...Did you just throw down seed and that's it?   That won't work.

Here's what I would do: 

buy:
seed...I don't know exactly which kind, I'd ask a landscaper friend and get whatever he says, but I know for a fact that he doesn't use fancy schmancy stuff with coatings and trademarks and all that crap.
tierra negra/Leafgro as mentioned above.  something rich and organic, not loaded up with expensive chemicals.  don't know how big the area is you want to repair, but you won't need a lot of this, you'll just want enough to give the entire area a dusting (see below)

aerate the the soil around the dead grass.  manual aerators can be had cheap at Lowe's or Home Depot.  It's just a pair of hollow 4" spikes on a stick that you drive into the ground every six inches or so.  each penetration shoves the core made on the previous thrust out onto the ground so you end up with a bunch of goose turd-looking cylinders of dirt.  leave them where they fall.  they will dry out and crumble in time, producing a small but important layer of fluffy soil.  Seeds need fluffy soil to nest in before they take and grow.  The cavities left behind by these plugs also give room for grass roots to spread, and allow water to soak into the soil better.  If you just put seed on a hard packed area (like one that was compacted by the weight of a deck's worth of lumber being stored) they can't get under the dirt to put down roots.  [Incidentally, I never put lumber directly onto the ground.  I always use dunnage strips to protect the lawn and keep the material dry.  Your contractor should do the same.  I'm sure he'll enjoy it when you tell him how to do his job.]
take the tierra negra and throw/spray it across the area.  the idea is to spread it evenly.  try not to trample the area too much after you do these things.
spread seed.
go over the area lightly with a leaf or spring rake.  just enough to mix some seed into the fluffy soil you've developed on top of the grade
cover (not bury) with straw

water water water.  don't flood it, you don't want rivulets of runoff carrying your seed away.  you want to keep the new seed damp and cool as best as possible as it germinates.  once you have new grass poking up, it will be thirsty.  stay off of it.  let it get tall and then set your mower as high as possible before you mow.  You don't want to stress the grass so don't chop it all the way down.  keep this regimen up for as long as you can.

that's what I'd do anyway.  there are other methods and people who know better than me.  I'm a no-chem, high labor kind of guy...willing to suffer slow improvement and even setbacks but over the long run, I get good results

thanks man

[Diomedes]

getting Central AC installed this week.

had to make a concrete pad for the unit

http://imgur.com/a/HF2uM#0

[rjs246]

Finishing up a complete renovation of the kitchen. The ladyfriend's father did the floor, in between ingesting gallons of neat vodka. Did a lot of the minor installation stuff ourselves. Paid someone to do the rest like the yuppies we are. It's taken too long and caused too much stress but its just about done, its farging awesome and we saved shteinloads of money. Win. 

[Diomedes]

Photos?

What kind of flooring did you select?

[rjs246]

Maybe once the granite is installed this week. But probably not since I'll almost certainly forget. Hardwood throughout. I told you, we're yuppies. Of course it's farging hardwood.

[ice grillin you]

you dont have to be a yuppie to get hardwood...you just have to not be an idiot

[Diomedes]

Granite however...that is both idiotic and yuppie.

[PhillyPhreak54]

What kind of wood?

[Diomedes]

Didn't he say it already?  He's a yuppie.  Brazilian cherry.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Not a bad choice. Better than red oak, in my opinion.

I like walnut and white oak the best for floors.

[Diomedes]

Walnut flooring?  Christ that must be expensive.

[Rome]

Bamboo flooring is excellent because it's resistant to water, environmentally friendly, & strong & durable.  It also happens to be beautiful as well.  Expensive as a motherfarger, but worth it, though.

[hbionic]

I agree with all of the aspects and benefits of bamboo flooring and it looks good when installed but i cant seem to ever want to install that flooring at home. I've been leaning towards that engineered hardwood flooring. It's high end laminate to me, but it looks good and lasts.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Walnut flooring?  Christ that must be expensive.

It's in the higher price range, yes - but not too bad. I sell a shteinload of #1 common grade to custom flooring guys. The #1C grade goes for about $2.30 a board foot compared to over $4.00 for the higher grade.

[Diomedes]

meanwhile, a nice yellow pine is what, $1.25?