Question about my yard

Hi, i'm a newbie to gardening. Just bought my first home and have been overwhelmed with my landscaping challenge. My backyard was overrun by weeds with pockets of st.augustine. I was told that I had to kill everything and start anew. So hired a guy to put new sod ( he applied a thin layer of soil over the dead grass and weeds). I think he pulled a fast one on me, as i followed his directions for aftercare (specially water everyday for 2 weeks), but there are brown spots and the grass is not thick, as a result weeds are growing . Help what do I do to make the grass grow thicker. I know st.augustine doesnt have seeds, so what should i do to re-seed the bald spots. I'm in Houston.

I wish I could help but know nothing about that grass. Call a local nursery or your local extention office and see if they can help. Good luck

Firstly, get back to the guy who sold you a pig in a bag as far as lawn is concerned, if he really didn't do proper ground work first then this will be the result for a long time to come, my advice for garden work is always have a few estimates done for the job and while they are their, pick their brains so you understand exactly what needs done to rectify the problem BEFORE they start to lay sod etc, but it is too late now for your case, so get him back, for weed killing, you need to wait between applications to make sure all the weeds are gone, perennial weeds are not easy to kill in one go, and I suspect this is why he laid your sod so he would be well gone before the weeds regrew again,
Other things to try in fall is to keep attacking the weeds but use a paint brush so you dont get the weed killer spraying onto other areas that you dont want to kill, after you are happy the weeds are gone, say next spring, you need to reseed the areas that are grass less, or cut out a square shape that holds the weeds, refill this hole with fresh soil and reseed the area again yourself. maybe if you could send a pic we could help you more. good luck. WeeNel.

Also - sod won't look gorgeous from day one. (Well it MAY look gorgeous AT day one----but maybe not gorgeous 3 weeks later.) It may be stressed and have brown spots and bare spots, etc. It needs to be supplemented by seed ---(not sure about St Augustine..maybe it needs to put out runners or something) anyway, it needs to take hold and fill in. I am not trying to minimize your challenges with the less than perfect sod application, but since what is done is done - I wouldn't give up hope for the lawns just yet. Do get up with the guy and try to get some agreement that he will come and help replace if it fails and state your concerns about how it was done. If he really did a lousy job (and knew it) he probably won't honor anything --but it is worth a try. Could it be that he is a newbie too? If yes, he just may come back to help. Good luck, I hope it works out ok.

Was the sod pressed down well enough? If it was just laid on top of the yard and not pressed in that makes it harder for the roots to take hold and could explain what's going on. Also if the surface of your yard was very rough and uneven then even if the sod was pressed down the same thing could happen.

Thank you all for replying. yes the sod was laid on uneven ground, he basically just put a thin layer of soil and then the sod. what can I do before winter begins.

You can fill in with seed, or if it's not too late in your area you could see if you could get the sod patched or replaced. If you lived here I'd say you'd be fine sodding now but in your area I don't know.