I'm guessing that you are watering too frequently, possibly daily, which has led to the lawn developing a fungal disease. Notice that there is a distinct arc to the brown blades from the bottom right of the picture to the middle left...that is another clue that it's a fungal disease and not caterpillars (worms). Quite often a fungal disease will form a near perfect circle. Can you post another picture? Get about 3 inches away from some of the grass at the edge of the brown area. The best pictures are taken on a cloudy day or in the shade to reduce the contrast. Fungal diseases show up on the blades of grass. If it is a fungal disease, my recommendation would be to apply ordinary corn meal at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Corn meal attracts a predatory fungus which feeds on the disease fungus. It goes to work immediately but it takes about 3 weeks to see the improvement as the green grass returns. I have used corn meal successfully every year since 2002 to eradicate disease in my St Aug. Although, now that I have Floratam in the back yard, the grass fights off the disease faster than it can spread. I still see signs of disease...and then it's gone. If you don't have Floratam now, you might consider putting down one flat of it and letting it spread into the lawn. If you had Floratam in the lawn currently, it would be spreading into the thin (brown) areas and taking over even while the disease is present. Cool stuff. Oh and as to the watering, this time of year you should be watering no more frequently than once every 2 weeks in your area. If you get high temps in the 70s, then you could back off to once every 3 weeks. If you are not doing that, please write back and tell us what you are doing so we can get you backed off to watering less often.

Have you done a soil sample yet? Thats the first thing you should do before anything else before you go adding things to your soil. Also tilling will leave your yard lumpy and uneven. Get someone with a tractor and blade to prepare your yard for sodding. It want take them long at all to have it ready and your lawn will be nice and level. And now that you have your results back from that soil sample and the lawn is nice and even , you are ready for that sod purchase. As for the best prices on sod I cant help there but one other thing you should consider and inquire about is what St. Augustine does good in your area. There are different varieties of it. You should post over on the Lawn Care Forum. There are several guys on that forum that are very informed. One guy is even a sod grower. Hope this helps and sorry about the prices, John

I'd like to add my dilemma until Carol comes back. Newly installed Palmetto St. Augustine. I am in Coastal South Carolina. Watered per respected installer (who did roll the sod) instructions....twice a day for 10 days then once and day for two weeks then every two days for two weeks then on the 6th week every 3-4 days for once a week, cutting back on the more shaded areas. Cutting at 3 inches. I replaced this sod because last year (when I purchased the house, the previous yard was highly neglected...bare spots or weeds basically) my newly installed Zoysia died within 6-8 weeks. With the Zoysia I was told it was due to pests. My current installer treated the lawn about a month before installation. I'll attach photos for reference. The dead spots are getting larger.

Please describe what you mean by "gone light on watering." I put some St Aug sod down in late Oct, watered it about every other day for a couple weeks, went to weekly watering in mid November, and stopped watering it in early Dec. It's doing fine. Your sod looks good in that it seems to be knit down. At this point you should be watering about 1/2 inch, all at one time, no more than twice a month. When the grass starts to leap out of the ground in March, then you should drop back to watering 1 inch, all at one time, once every 3 weeks. As the spring heats up you can increase the frequency to twice a month and then weekly, but in your area you should never need to water more than once a week. Measure 1 inch by placing several cat food or tuna cans around the yard and time how long it takes to fill all the cans. If some cans fill fast and others take forever, then you have sprinkler issues. Would you describe your soil as fast draining sand, or something else? Also, stop throwing stuff at your lawn. I'm not sure what "bullet proof" means, but you are destroying your soil by using so many different fungicides. You do have a fungus, but the chemicals clearly are not working. Chemical fungicides are immediate death to the soil microbiome, of which fungus is the majority of the beneficial microbes. What I would do now is apply an organic fertilizer. In particular I would apply ordinary corn meal from your local feed store. It should cost under $10 for a 50-pound bag. If the price is $20 or $30, then they are selling you something besides "ordinary" corn meal. Then apply the corn meal to the entire yard at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. I would apply now, Valentine's Day, and St Patrick's Day. Besides being an organic fertilizer, corn meal has anti fungal properties when used on St Augustine turf. I've been using it against disease in St Augustine successfully for 19 years. So how have you been watering it since the sod went down? We need to know so we know what to tell people about how not to do it.