Sod Installation and Lawn Grading
Sod is the easy part. What is under it decides whether the lawn is still there in three years.
Grading comes first
The old turf comes off rather than getting buried, the base is graded so water runs away from the house instead of toward it, and topsoil goes down to a real depth. Sod laid on thin soil over compacted fill roots badly and browns off in the first dry spell, no matter how good the sod was.
On a new build this matters more than anywhere else, because what is left behind after construction is usually compacted subsoil with a thin skim of topsoil over it. Where the whole yard is being built rather than just the lawn, that grading is the first step of a landscape installation and the irrigation goes in while the ground is still open.
Laying and rolling
Rolls are laid tight with staggered joints so seams do not open as the sod settles, cut in around beds and hard edges, and rolled to press the roots into contact with the soil underneath. That contact is what lets it root; an air gap under a roll is a dead patch waiting to appear.
The first three weeks are yours
New sod needs consistent water while it roots, and that is the stretch where most new lawns are lost. You will be told exactly what it needs and for how long. If the property has irrigation, the schedule gets set for establishment rather than for a mature lawn — those are different settings.
Sod, town by town
The whole service area gets the same job, but the ground and the timing differ enough that the busiest towns have their own pages: sod installation in Aurora, in Vaughan and in Kleinburg, where estate-sized lawns make access and timing the whole job.
Sod installation, asked and answered
How soon can I walk on it?
Keep traffic off it while it roots. Light foot traffic is usually fine after a couple of weeks, but it is better judged by whether the sod lifts when you tug a corner than by the calendar.
Can you sod over an existing lawn?
It is not worth doing. The old turf breaks down into a spongy layer that stops the new sod rooting into real soil, and the problem shows up a year later.
Do I need irrigation for new sod?
No, but it makes the establishment period far more forgiving. Hand watering works if it is genuinely consistent, which in a hot July is a bigger commitment than people expect.