Utah, You almost nailed it. Glyphosate sprayed four or five times over eight to ten weeks should keep bermuda out for a least for a few years. Bermuda grass is a perennial grass that spreads by stolons and rhizomes what you are doing each time you spray is killing the bermuda back to a point, because the herbicide can only translocate so far. Then when you spray again two weeks later whatever you did not kill the first time has rolled out new leaves is susceptible to the herbicide. By mowing after the first spray you may have reduced the efficacy of the herbicide. As far as the raking goes, any bermuda grass that did not get killed by the herbicide sprays quite possibly was spread around your yard with the rake. Your best bet bet would have been to spray and then left the yard alone for the winter. Then in the spring bring out the sod cutter and resod. However, if removing the dead sod is not an option I would just lay the new sod right on top of the dead sod. I would skip the top soil as well. The only advantage to bringing in topsoil is to level your yard if needed. When you bring in topsoil there is always the possibility that the topsoil will have some bermuda grass sprigs in it, and then your back where you started. Tilling is not necessary either all your going to do is spread the bermuda around. You might also need to raise any irrigation heads after sodding. If you don't have irrigation then I would suggest tall fescue it is much more drought tolerant. To keep the bermuda grass out of your new lawn make sure you keep a healthy actively growing lawn through out the summer. When and if the bermuda starts to come back you can spot spray it out with selective herbicides turflon and acclaim, if you go with tall fescue, and then reseed. If you go with KBG then just use round up on small spots and resod. Good luck.

I'm going to go ahead and resurrect this old post so hopefully someone can learn and hear from a different perspective from a professional. I would first like to mention, TexasWeed, I know who you are, I've read many of your post, and you have some knowledge. With all due respect, I respectively disagree with you in many aspects though. One of the paint points I disagree with you on, is you suggesting a SLOW RELEASE FERTILIZER in the original posters situation. While slow release fertilizers can be great in many areas, and especially in particular times of the year. This was not a great suggestion for the poster in my honest and fair opinion. Why? The poster is growing a lawn on sand. We know what that means. Lower CEC levels, and little nutrient holding power. Nutrients will never last as long in Sand. The same PPSCU, XCU, and Sulfur coated fertilizers that may claim 2-3 months, is not near the case for turf growing on Sand. Even for lawns growing on Clay such as myself here in Central Texas, many people fail to understand how "Slow Release" products work. Knowing the growth characteristics will put you far ahead of the game. Many PPSCU and various other slow release products contain coatings which are dependent on various factors. If you study these factors, most of these coatings are designed to be broken down with the main factor being "TEMPERATURE." Slow to release nutrients when cool, and they literally dump nutrients when soil temperatures are very warm. In Texas, this is the majority of the time, so what you get left with, is an over-priced bag of "Slow Release" that's dumping much quicker then "SLOW" due to high temperatures being exhibited. My approach, especially on dealing with "SAND" such as the poster is SPOON FEEDING quick release fertilizers. Bermuda especially, needs to be supplied adequate nitrogen for outstanding turf quality, density, and color. The goal is to feed the turf what it needs as it uses it. By doing so, the turf will continue to be fed, and the sandy soils that don't hold nutrients will continue to be ideal for the turf. The original poster had great improvements from doing 1/2 applications from Ammonia Sulfate every few weeks and this supports exactly what I'm saying. However, to the original poster, you are forgetting many important nutrients. A soil test will be MANDATORY for the perfect lawn. Without a soil test, I can't recommend phosphorus, I see enough of it around my parts of Texas. The problem is much of the phosphorus isn't available. Same with Potassium, except I consider this CRUCIAL. Your lawn needs potassium to aid in extreme temperatures and disease pressure such as what we have here in Texas. Potassium is a luxury consumption nutrient, meaning you put it down, the turf is going to use it, if in available form. Much of our potassium in our soils is NOT AVAILABLE when comparing from my recent soil test, to actual TISSUE TEST. Also, using 21-0-0 provides lots of Sulfur that will aid in bringing Texas's natural high pH down and will also aid in uptake up other nutrients, including our long lost Iron. If you've ever applied Iron in Texas, you'll notice, there might or might not be a response, if you get a response, it doesn't last. This is pH related and calls for using only CHLEATED IRON products which is much more usable and available to the turf in our area. If you want a usable mix, trust my word on this, try it, and come back to me and tell me you have the best lawn in the neighborhood after half a growing season. (You might have to source these products), but they are all available in Texas. Depending on your work schedule and free time you can adjust your rates and applications, but you need to apply in adequate water to avoid burn potential. Most likely, you will have to go with the lower spray rates and more often unless you have a high volume sprayer like we use that holds hundreds of gallons. Bermuda: Weekly Fertilizer Mix: .25N per 1,000 Sq. Feet (From Ammonia Sulfate 21-0-0) .25 (SOP) per 1,000 Sq. Feet (Potassium Sulfate) .50 ounces per 1,000 Sq. Feet (Micro nutrients with chleated Iron and mg and mn. The micro nutrient product is really important and will aid in giving your turf the color you are looking for. I (HIGHLY) suggest either using (FeATURE 6-0-0) by loveland products or Main Event Chleated Micro nutrients If you don't have the time to spoon feed your lawn weekly, you can adjust the rates, either double for bi-weekly, or multiply x 4 for monthly. Don't go longer then month long applications. The only catch is, 21-0-0 has burn potential. You will need at (MINIMUM) of 1 gallon of water per 8 ounces of 21-0-0 in your mix to avoid burn potential. Do not adjust the rates above, this mix is tried and true on Texas Turf and will leave you with the greenest lawn in the neighborhood. If you don't have a large enough sprayer with capability of putting out enough water volume, you're better sticking with granular fertilizers. We use 200+ gallon tanks, with walking booms for an even application. Nozzles on the sprayer are also important. We use TeeJet Air Induction and FloodJet tips to reduce drift, depending on the water needed for the application.

The best solution for weed control is a healthy lawn. Lush, thick Bermuda grass will choke out most weeds and along with Bermuda hybrids, it is the best choice for a lawn in the Phoenix area. It will stay green until the first freeze (usually about Dec. 1) and begin greening up in March if not overseeded. There are two classes of weeds - grasses and broadleaf (clover, spurge, London rocket, etc.). If you have broadleaf weeds, use a product containing 2-4-D which will not harm the Bermuda. Your Spectracide does not kill Bermuda but is effective on a wide range of broadleaf weeds. It also comes with a warning not apply to Bermudagrass when daytime temperatures exceed 85° F. The poa annua will be dying as soon as warmer weather arrives, if its not dead already. Using Round Up now may not kill the existing bermuda. The active ingredient (glyphosate) needs to be translocated to the underground rhizomes and roots as well as the stolons, and it won't do this until the grass is actively growing when its hot - May - September. To reseed your lawn, wait until mid May when night time temperatures are consistently above 65 degrees to seed more Bermuda. Here's a link to the steps on seeding a Bermuda lawn. FYI, The seeded variety 'Princess' is a seed producing hybrid variety. It is legally termed a hybrid, due to the arrangement and selection of seed producing parent plants in production fields. 'Princess' produces a lawn which looks much finer then most other seeded types of Bermuda plants and is darker green in color.

This reviewed published scientific paper confirmed the usefulness of heavy plastic mulches against Bermuda Grass, and found some organic mulches that were also effective. http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/43/3/795.full From the abstract: "Therefore, a 2-year study was conducted under 15-year-old mandarin trees to compare the effects of rice straw mulch, cattail mulch, black plastic mulch, hand hoeing, cultivation, glyphosate, and unweeded control treatments on weed control, fruit yield, and fruit quality. The greatest control (94%–100%) of weeds occurred with the plastic mulch (200 or 150 μm) and three mulch layers of rice straw or cattail. Covering soil with cattail or rice straw mulch (two layers) gave 85% to 98% control of weeds. Uncontrolled weeds in the weedy control caused significant reduction in yield and fruit quality and decreased the yield/tree by 62% compared with hand hoe treatment. Plastic mulches of 200 and 150 μm, cattail (Cyprus articulatus L.) mulch (two or three layers) and two mulch layers of rice (Oryza sativa L.) straw treatments significantly increased the fruit yield/tree by 24%, 18%, 20%, 11%, and 12% more than cultivation treatment, respectively, without significant differences among these superior treatments. Soil mulching with three layers of rice straw, cultivation, glyphosate, and 80-μm plastic mulch treatments caused a significant reduction in weed density and weed biomass, but gave lower yield than superior treatments. Which weeds were in the experiment? " The major grass weeds present on the experimental site were bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.], barnyardgrass [Echinochloa colonum (L.) Link], torpedo grass (Panicum repens L.), and sandbur (Cenchrus pennisetiformis, Hochst. & Steud.) as a grass, and redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.), common purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.), and petty spurge (Euphorbia peplus L.) as broadleaf weeds."