Soil Samples:

Soil Sample 1
Soil Sample 2
Soil Sample 3
Soil Sample 4

And House Views:

House View 1
House View 1
House View 1

Here is a more simpler way to views the images, the copy and pasting might be a hassle =P and sorry for double post.

I would suggest you get a soil test first. That way you will know what your lacking and what needs to be added instead of being in the dark and chasing shadows. A soil test is about $20. (check Logan Labs or Penn State) An analysis is $30 more or you could post your results and someone here can help you interpret it. How long ago was it used for parking?

I'm not an expert. I'm an amateur. For sure. However, I'd like to give my input and see what others say.

Your soil and nutrients might not be wrecked. It might be compacted like crazy, but it might still be good. I'd recommend getting soil tested to see (it might still be good but it could show contaminants from the parking). If it is still good, aeration might help to fluff it up and loosen it. I'd pick out the large shell chunks. They might hurt a lawn mower. Or your leg. Compost is great for that price. My Parents live just outside of sarasota and my dad drives over about every month to see what he can get back for free.

Keywords
1) Soil Test
2) Aeration
3) Compost

Sorry I can't be of more assistance.

Its used for parking cars (around 13 vehicles) when football season hits , we live 10sec from raymond james stadium =( . Its only when there is a home game, works the same for USF bulls games as well, but I try to stop myself from parking there only for the benefit of the lawn.

When you say "replace", are you talking about actually removing soil and putting compost in its place? No, you don't want to do that. If you actually want to replace the soil, you need to replace it with more soil.

You can spread a thin layer of compost if you want. Just don't smother any grass if you want it to live. Personally, I'd never till my lawn.

Not necessarily replace per say, but more like remove 2-3 inches of the top layer and replace the volume of the grey dirt with compost.

Compost is not soil, it's an amendment to soil. You don't want to create a soil horizon with that much composton the surface. It looks like your current soil is 99% sand. If so, although I'm not an advocate of tilling, you want to till compost into the sand and not put a couple inches on top. At least with sand, it'll be easy to level and will settle pretty fast and tilling will help break up any compaction. But you should really get a soil test so you know what your dealing with and what mendments to add to promote turf. If you don't really care, just till in the compost, rake off the shells, level the soil, wait a week or three for it to settle, and seed with starter fertilizer and water.

I wonder if they make shell-hounds.

Maybe Andy or tiemco will help out but I don't see any reason for a soil test. You have pure beach sand with the occasional organic debris. Your soil needs everything and will hold nothing permanently.

Compost is organic. Anything organic completely disappears after it decomposes. That means if you dug a 10 foot deep hole and filled it with compost, in a year or so you would have an empty 10 foot hole.

You can tune up your beach sand. My back yard is beach sand hauled in to fill a 6-8 inch wash out area. When you cover it up with St Augustine and feed it with organic fertilizer for a few years, it becomes black with organic material. I did not take pictures of my soil jar test because it was over in a second. A jar test is where you determine the amount of sand, silt, and clay in your soil. Sometimes you can see organic matter floating in the water. When I did my jar test, the soil looked black to start. When I filled the jar with water, the bottom was covered with white sand and all the rest floated on top. No silt and no clay. So after 20 years my sand soil is still sand - SURPRISE! But it looks incredibly good with the St Aug growing on it. In fact I wish my entire lawn was growing in sand.

Are you saying you cannot stop cars from parking on your lawn during football season? Or was that just your father-in-law's gig to make a few bucks?

It boils down to you don't need compost or new soil. You need roots in the ground and organic fertilizer. My favorite this season is alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). You can grow grass with chemical fertilizer but you'll never improve your sand that way. Oh and beach sand does not compact like other soils. That won't be an issue.

Just a side comment-
Check the quality of the compost before you order it, the stuff from my county has a lot of trash in it. But the price is right.

I agree with Dave, you do not have any soil problems. You do not have any soil, it is all sand. You can have a great looking yard with pure sand. If you do not believe me look at any golf course green around your area. Not a trace of any soil in them, they are pure sand.

Tagging onto that thought, sand is what you make it. Regular soil comes with lots of baggage.

Start with roots in the ground. Grass is a type of plant which sheds about 30% of its roots every year. Those roots decay in the soil and become organic matter. The deeper your roots go, the deeper your organic matter will go.