I am planning to redo my back lawn as the previous home owners just let it run wild and now it's a mess of random grasses and weeds. It will be very difficult for me to dedicate an entire day to prepare the entire lawn and sod the following day.
As per my question, is there any reason why I shouldn't do a portion of the lawn at a time? By this I mean if the lawn is 500 sqft, I would do 100 sqft at a time spread over multiple weekends. Thanks for the help!
On the assumption you will be digging out what's there currently as part of the preparation involved for laying sod, there is a very good reason why you shouldn't spread the preparation and sod laying out over a period of time. You can prepare and level the entire area by digging and removing all the growth you don't want and lay the sods a few days later when that's done, so a gap of time there is okay. However, if you prepare one area and lay sod, and were then intending to prepare the next, adjacent area at a later date, you are unlikely to finish up with a level lawn. Digging (by machine or hand) an area disturbs the soil - that then needs to be raked level, compressed by walking over it to get out any soft spots, then raked up again and re-levelled. Trying to match up the separate areas if they are prepared and sod is laid at different times is very difficult to do, often resulting in some areas higher or lower than others, or ridges where the two areas join.
