Where do you live?
What kind of grass do you have now?
How much of that shade covers the rest of the lawn?
How have you been watering (frequency and duration)?

Live in Toronto, Canada.

I don't know what kind of grass it is.

The shade varies depending of time of day. There is a mature maple tree just to the left of this photo and the lawn gets full sun for about half the day, in the afternoon.

I haven't been watering consistently. Through rain or me watering via a sprinkler it gets watered about every 5 days, and for about 20 minutes at a time (other than when it's raining which would be for longer). We've had some intense sun the last few weeks as well which likely doesn't help.

Not sure if this helps to identify what kind of grass it is but attached is a close-up.

Thank you for the close up. Would you mind taking it again in the shade or when a cloud goes overhead? There's too much contrast to see the details. It looks like nutsedge just from that picture.

When you water this particular spot, does the water seem to collect and not absorb into the soil very fast? Does that happen anywhere?

Here you go.

Yes I do get water pooling, but only in intense rain. I will post what it looks like a subsequent message to this. I think I need to re-grade the lawn slightly to direct water away. Also I noticed a mushroom growing in one of the bare patches yesterday.

I'm planning to re-seed the whole thing tomorrow and hoping this will help. But any additional advice here is welcome.

Here is the pooling I mentioned. Again this only happens in intense rain.

You have real drainage issues. Is your basement wet?
Are you in a duplex? Is that your drainage pipe? Facing the house, which way is South?

No wetness or moisture issues in the basement.

Yes it's a duplex, and yes that is the downspout. The house faces almost directly north. The house is also on a hill, the downward angle going from east to west (right to left in the photo above). Note there is no pooling on my neighbour's yard to the right of the downspout. Apparently this issue wasn't there last year prior to my lawn being dug up by the plumbers.

The girdle of the tree is acting as a dam, so having the drain aimed at it isn't helping your drainage. Burying the pipe and running it to a curb-cut is the best option. Do both sides of the duplex share that drain pipe or is theirs buried?
Before you seed you are going to want to add soil and regrades your lawn so that it gently slopes from the house to the sidewalks. Some of your current lawn appears to be fescue. If all of the lawn gets at least 6 hours of sun, you may be able to establish KB.

Thanks, makes sense. I'll ask at the garden centre about the right technique to regrade with the topsoil. The lawn does get about 6 hours of sun during the summer - think I should get a sun and shade seed mix though.

Yes both sides of the duplex share that downspout. We only just disconnected it from going below grade due to a new city bylaw. We've got a landscaper doing our backyard so will inquire about burying the downspout. Thanks for the advice.

The plumbers left you with a hole. In my opinion a better idea than bringing in new soil is to remove soil you already have so it all drains away from the house out to the street.

Thanks. I've put down quite a bit of top soil and tried to regrade as much as possible. If this doesn't work, then dchall I'll go with your option.

A few hours after doing all this I noticed a lot of ants towards the sidewalk. Is this anything I should be concerned about?

Hopefully my next photo will be of a beautiful and lush lawn.

You probably just disturbed the ants when you did this work. Leave them alone for a week and see if they seem to be carrying your garden away. If not I'd leave them alone.

I've left them alone and there don't seem to be any issues.

Starting to get the first seeds germinating. Looking forward to a nice lawn!