NOT 45 MINUTES. Four to five minutes!!!

Eek. Thank you for your reply! I hope I haven't damaged my poor lawn. No wonder I'm getting a few footprints. Can this be fixed?

Roughly how much water should new sod get each day? It's supposed to rain tomorrow roughly a half inch (15 ml). Note, I believe we have Kentucky Blue Grass sod and we're located in zone 5a (Canada).

You only need enough water to keep the bottom of the sod moist, not soggy. The roots need just a little moisture in both the sod and the top surface of the underlying soil to penetrate. If the underlying soil is soggy it won't have enough air in the soil for the roots to want to go there.

Watch it very carefully for signs of drying out. As soon as you see any part of the grass changing color (indicating drying) or the blades folding together, then water it briefly and restart your 4-5 minutes per time routine.

Canada is a big place. Are you in the part that is south of Detroit or in the part that is an island in the North Atlantic or the part that is up by Alaska? It can be very important to know. Zones don't mean anything when it comes to fixing lawn issues.

OK, so I'll adjust my water schedule starting tomorrow.

I look at the lawn from the kitchen window and it looks a darkish green, but when I get up close, I notice a little bit of yellowing just above the bottom of the sod. This picture will show what I mean: http://www.flickr.com/photos/98008678@N07/9135851228/in/set-72157634323446756/lightbox/. Is that OK or sign of too much water (in my case)?

BTW, I'm in Ottawa Ontario.

If you can get your camera about 6 inches away from the yellowing parts of the grass that will work better. Also it needs to be in a shadow or under clouds.

Ottawa - thanks.

Hi again, I've run out and taken some more photos. It's probably too dark to tell, so I'll take more tomorrow if needed.

Here is a link that might be useful: New photos

haha...not so much dark but amusingly blurry. The flash will have the same effect as the sun in putting too much contrast on the plant. Needs to have light coming from all directions to get the contrast right. Take them in the daylight but in the shade or shadow.

OK, so I took some better photos this morning. Hopefully they will be more helpful to determine if the lawn is overwatered. The photos are of the worst areas while over all the lawn looks very green as mentioned previously.

I watered for 15 mins this morning and set up a couple of ramicans (similar to tuna cans) in the yard to catch water. One collected 1/8" of water and the other slightly less than that.

After watering, I lifted up one section of sod and took a pic of that. The soil underneath was slightly damp, but not muddy and the root-end bottom of the sod was damp.

So I'm assuming that was enough water, though we did get a little rain over night.

Here is a link that might be useful: Daytime photos + underneath sod