My advice, and I've seeded a lot of KBG and other mixes, is this: don't put too much down. It's tough to tell when that is, but I'll try to give you a guideline or two: 1. Go get your toothbrush, and set it on the windowsill, with the bristles sticking upward. Imagine that that's your grass, three weeks after seeding. If your seed comes up that dense, every last grass plant will die, except for the ones on the outside edge, about fifty of them, that can actually get some sunlight. The rest will die. No sun. Too closely packed together. Too much seed got put down, too close together. You even got germination, eh? Too bad. They'll all die, except for the ones that are able to get some sun. So in this example, that's TOO CLOSE TOGETHER, or too much seed in one place. That's obviously one extreme. Let's go to the other extreme. If you plant just a handful of seed, to where the ground is barely speckled with some seed, but you can see all the dirt, with a few white flecks (the grass seed), it's too thin. Each plant will likely come up, and be healthy. But you'll have bare spots, even after the grass sprouts, and the fact that KBG spreads out (over a year) won't make up for the fact that you've got a thin lawn there, and could have done better. That's the other extreme. Here's how to find the middle, that successful middle ground. Keep in mind that this is an APPROACH, a way to get started. Bestlawn's advice, just above, is correct: if the seed maker wants 5lbs of seed to cover about 2000 sq feet, you should measure out 2000 sq ft, and decide that that package will be fully used, in that staked out area. But here's how to get started. You, or somebody in your family, enjoys fried eggs. More than that, you or they enjoy pepper on those eggs. Not scrambled, but fried, over easy. When you put pepper on those eggs, you don't DUMP the pepper, you sprinkle it, moving the pepper shaker, so that a nice, evenly distributed amount of pepper is all over the eggs. You look at it. If there isn't enough pepper, you sprinkle it again, very evenly, perhaps even more lightly, but you're adding more pepper, and when you're done (with that application), you'll look at it. Again. If you moved too fast, you'll even more lightly sprinkle the pepper, evenly, and then you'll look at those eggs, until the pepper is JUST RIGHT, as Goldilocks said. Here's the deal. Don't tell me you don't like pepper on eggs. Somebody does, in your family, or circle of friends. Fix the eggs. I want you to, with the pepper eater at your side, lightly, lightly, sprinkle the pepper on those eggs, evenly, to the VERY POINT, that the pepper eater says "NO. No. That's too much, and I'm not eating those eggs. I could have lived with it, last time, but this last bit you put on there, hey, it's just too much, and I wouldn't eat the eggs. I'm not going to do it. Gimme some new eggs, or take these away." That's it. Take a very good look at those eggs. With evenly distributed black spots, the pepper, and now imagine that that's your dirt, with a bunch of evenly distributed white spots (your KBG seed), at about the same density. Nicely, evenly spaced, but you're only going to apply it up to a certain point. That's it. YOu're there. You're done. Move along, and seed somewhere else.

It will take 3 full years for the new soil to form a structure. You may as well get going now.

From what billhill said, after slit seeding you would be ok to walk on the seeding ground. I have to assume some level of walking would be possible, being careful of course. If the seeds are ok to run a roller over to get good soil contact, a footstep or carefully driven wheel barrow wheel can't be too hard. At some point the 80/20 principle has to come into effect. Worst case, I'll have a few places that need a little more seed come spring. I would hope the compost does more good than harm in this case. I have 8k sf and I've calculated that needs a little over 6 cu yds of compost to cover 1/4". That'll be 27 wheel barrow loads for me. I'm envisioning the best way to spread the compost in a seed-friendly way will be to get a 5-gallon bucket, sharpen one side of the mouth so it slices into a wheel barrow full of compost easily and shake to cover. I don't anticipate it being a quick job but after having moved river rock by the wheel barrow load, this seems to be time consuming but not necessarily back breaking. The reason for my original question that started this thread was because the only way I could envision putting out this much compost was to wheel barrow into piles and then spread with a rake. As I think about how thick 1/4" really is, I think the raking will be much more work than just shaking the compost on. Remain standing upright while shaking compost on the ground to cover or bend over pushing thick piles into thin sheets? I'm open to other ideas though.... I've been researching good ways to put down compost and there are just very few options.

Please tell us what kind of turf seed you are planting. I assume you are using TTTF. This is the best choice since it will blend with your existing lawn, and can tolerate both full sun and moderate shade. It is also the best cool season grass for the transition zone where you live. KBG in Tennessee is possible, but it's an uphill struggle. Also if you do go with KBG there are some cultivars that do better in your area, and I can almost guarantee you won't find any of them in a big box store or bag put out by Scotts. Check the NTEP trials to see which ones perform best in your region if you want to go that route.