Yeah man it's clay .... It's a foot down don't worry about it.

It does look like gray clay. You might do a jar test on it and see if any sand falls out.

Drainage, drainage, drainage. Be sure your new house is high enough above the surrounding grade so you don't get flooded in the inevitable upcoming monsoon. Is your contractor responsible for setting up the landscape (finish grading at least)?

Drainage definitely won't be an issue...code forces us to have engineers draft a plan and in NJ we have "Soil Conservation Districts" that approve said plans, and monitor/inspect the site. The contractor will be responsible for it.

My two biggest questions are:

1 - is the dirt that was dug for the foundation good enough to be used for the top layer of soil, or should I bring in something else?

2 - what do I do for seeding when the project will be completed in the winter? Should I seed it then or wait till spring? I know it won't germinate in the winter but at least it'll be down and ready to go once it warms up, giving it the most time possible to mature before summer. Make sense, or flawed logic?

Definitely jar test it just for funsies once it's done enough that you're pretty sure the top foot is stable. If the grading is established (except for the final raking and whatnot) early enough, you can get the soil test in late fall. I doubt that'll be the case and you'll have to wait until January if the soil is still unfrozen, or very early spring.

1) Yes, it's fine. All top soil started life as rock or clay, actually...and you wouldn't believe the soil I ended up with. That's not a problem. Soil test it, adjust it, and work with it. It can take several years, but you can take any soil and render it good for growing. In most of New Jersey, I don't expect that you'll have too much trouble, actually, and should be in spitting distance of decent soil in a year or two.

1a) How "spitting distance" depends on how perfect you want it. The organic matter levels will take a while to rise, but that's not much of a problem. Close enough on the resources can be done in a year...but as always, I really like moving soils into the exact perfect groove to give them more time before they drift to unacceptable values. Really, that's your choice, though.

1b) Those trucks are actually going to cause a fair bit of compression that'll take some time to loosen up, and this is the one case where a deep, thorough aeration might help. Dealers choice, though, on this as well. It'll reverse itself all on its own over time--and not very much time--once the compression is gone and the soil is supporting a basic lawn/gardens.

2) I'd probably dormant seed in late winter, realizing that results aren't going to be anywhere near perfect and may require a full Round Up and redo in August of 2017. Whether you dormant seed with your final cultivars and play it by ear, or whether you use something like annual rye and plan on renovating regardless is your choice.

2a) If it were me? I'd probably use annual rye. You'll get a great lawn in spring and well into summer, it's easy to wipe out, it adds some organic matter to your soil, and the inevitable weeds aren't going to cause you nearly as much emotional scarring. Then wipe the deck in July and reno with your final cultivars in middling to late-ish August. But either that or the final grasses are fine.

2b) Annual rye has the advantage of establishing incredibly fast, being very cheap, and being one of the few spring-planted grasses that will get through summer well enough.

2c) Another advantage of annual rye is that we don't care about it that much. Soil adjustments, if and whatever's necessary, can continue from spring right through your renovation time at high rates. If they end up damaging the grass a little bit due to apps in hot weather, or amounts going down, it's not that important.

3) An implied, but not stated, worry. Don't panic. Been there, done that, it ended up fine, and yours will as well. By June of 2017 you'll have a nice, if temporary, lawn. By October of 2017 you'll have a nice permanent lawn. By May of 2018, an excellent to extraordinary one.

Thanks for all the info and direction.

I'll definitely soil test as soon as I can. Would I get to decent soil faster if raked in compost or peat moss or boatloads of OceanGro (or anything else) this fall, long before seeding?

As for aeration, I assume you're talking traditional core aeration. Too big a job for shampoo?

If I dormant seed, is the primary issue weeds, or summer survival? Or both? If I spray Tenacity (for its preemergent properties) until the seed is established, then apply Prodiamine, do you think I could stay ahead of the weeds? And what if I supplement my desired cultivars with annual ryegrass to help get me through the first season? It'll die off over winter and leave only the desired cultivars in 2018, right?

Can you tell I'm impatient and really want that excellent to extraordinary lawn NOW?

>> Would I get to decent soil faster if raked in compost or peat moss or boatloads of OceanGro (or anything else) this fall, long before seeding?

Not really, no. Once the soil's not being disturbed any longer, I wouldn't object to you scattering around 10 pounds per thousand square feet of compost just to get some bacteria established. But they're probably already in the soil anyway, just napping.

>>As for aeration, I assume you're talking traditional core aeration. Too big a job for shampoo?

Because it's a physical compaction, core aeration would be called for. Not that shampoo won't help over time, if you'd rather do that, but it'l take a while. I never recommend core aeration for chemical compaction (it's strictly temporary), but to reverse physical compaction it's once and done.

>>If I dormant seed, is the primary issue weeds, or summer survival? Or both?

Both! However, once you mow for the third time, you can kill the weeds chemically with Weed B Gon. Even so, for the first few seasons you'll need to keep after that.

>>If I spray Tenacity (for its preemergent properties) until the seed is established, then apply Prodiamine, do you think I could stay ahead of the weeds?

It'll help, certainly, but won't be perfect.

>>And what if I supplement my desired cultivars with annual ryegrass to help get me through the first season? It'll die off over winter and leave only the desired cultivars in 2018, right?

More annual rye always survives more than a year than you would think. :-) I'd either use it exclusively or not use it at all; it develops so quickly that it can easily outcompete and force out your other cultivars in some areas.

>>Can you tell I'm impatient and really want that excellent to extraordinary lawn NOW?

Yep. :-) Unfortunately, things will need time to settle and the timing here is almost exactly as bad as it could be. :-)