Don't rototill. Yes, every magazine and all the books tell you to rototill, but don't. I used to work with in the grading business and we just sort of laughed at the recommendations to rototill. The problem is unless you have a rototiller on a tractor, a human being cannot hold a tiller perfectly level for even 1 foot of travel. You end up with an uneven subsurface. When the level surface settles (it takes 3 years), you are left with the profile of the original uneven subsurface. Don't rototill.

If we can assume your soil is intact and did not wash away with the storm, then at most you would need minor leveling...if that. Preparing the surface can be done with anything you can drag across the surface to loosen the very top of the crust. You need only slightly loosen the surface. You will be rolling the seed down into that loosened surface after you scatter it. A piece of chain link fence with some weight on it makes an excellent drag. Drag it in all directions.

In the previous efforts to establish seed, was the area watered briefly, several times per day, every day, for 2 weeks? It sounds like it was not. Seed needs continual moisture to germinate so you have to keep it moist. If it gets that, it is hard to prevent it from sprouting.

Thanks for the replies! In reply to billhill's post, I would say that my expectation is #2. I have 2 small boys, so I know it will be a while before we have the "perfect lawn". Watering will not be a problem. I am prepared for that. I will post some pictures for you later today.
Does this mean I shouldn't put seed down this spring at all?

Great idea on the chain link fence dchall. I will do that...much easier than raking!!. I did spend a lot of time watering late last spring thru the fall. The crabgrass and foxtail loved it!! I don't know if the builder put down a reliable or much seed after the hydro seed washed out. I feel that there's plenty of soil. Hopefully, my pictures that I post later will reflect that.

Stay tuned.....

John

If you expect to have nothing but weeds this season anyway, you may as well get started with some KBG seed. Bluegrass seed takes longer to germinate so you will be germinating crabgrass seed longer, too. However, if you allow the KBG to grow up tall to 3 inches or higher, you will shade out (choke out) some of the crabgrass. You can also help yourself after the KBG seed sprouts by backing off on the watering to make it a weekly event. You can't do this cold turkey but you can work your way to that point. You obviously need to water longer to get a full inch of water down all at one time. Crabgrass seed needs continual moisture for a few days to sprout. If you only water once a week, the crabgrass seed will not stay wet long enough to sprout. By the way, many (MANY) weeds are like this. You can have a lawn full of weed seeds that will never sprout because you are watering correctly (deep and infrequent).

The reason for KBG is that it spreads like a carpet. Fescue is nice looking but it does not spread to fill the bare soil between the fescue seedlings.

Here are the pictures of my back yard.

Back yard 1

Back yard 2

Back yard 3

Do what that neighbor behind you did. That lawn looks great.

They've been there 5 years and their hydro seed didn't wash away. I wish I could!!

"I did have a company come aerate and spread seed last September. Still there's not much happening, although there are some areas that show growth."

If it washed away, that's just a bad roll of the dice. Try again. If it didn't wash away and you still didn't get a good germ with a fall overseeding, you might want to read up on al the advice here about how to treat a yard after overseeding to best effect, especially how to water not too much and not too little.

If it wasn't the result of those two things (fall overseeding failure) you might want to just read up on overseeding in general to make sure you have good soil, sun and approach.

As for right now, based on your pics, I'd just mow low and rent a slit seeder and get them going. Not sure about your temps, but the sooner you can get a spring seeding germinated, the better usually.

Good luck.

Well, I dragged a piece of chain link fence with several large stones as weight around the yard this weekend. It worked fairly well, I think. Other than the neighbors and my wife calling me a MULE, it wasn't too bad. Much easier than raking! We'll see how the seed takes. I also put down starter fertilizer. I'll keep you all informed.

Thanks for all the advice.