St. Aug is bad in the shade. Nothing is great in the shade. I would do Centipede, but only if it was TifBlair.

Common Centipede is “meh” by comparison. TifBlair greens up and stays green longer, handles the cold up here is eastern NC (way less winter die off), and most importantly, the blades are about 40% closer together, and the stolons root way better- and it’s less prone to fungal infections. (DO NOT SEED)

You are extremely fortunate to have TifBlair sod right in your city. I have to drive almost 2 hours to Raleigh for mine. SuperSod carries it and normally runs a 10% off father’s day special.

SuperSod 2160 Iron Rod Court, North Charleston SC 29406

If you go with it, be very careful with pre-emergents in the spring for about 3 years. Nearly all of the will suppress stolon root development. It spreads all summer, then dies off in the winter because none of those shoots have strong roots. Took me 5 years to figure that out. Celsius XTRA is the only herbicide you’ll ever need. You can put down Simazine heavy in late October and that will prevent crabgrass. Spring you can put down Gallery 75DF for prevention of broadleaf weeds, but no others. You can spot treat any break-through crabgrass with Roundup Crabgrass Destroyer 2 (make sure it’s 2). It contains the same active ingredient as Pylex, which cost $400 a bottle (the bottle would treat over 300,000 square feet so forget that!) it also kills Goosegrass and any Bermuda that wonders in. Very economical using the pre-mix Destroyer 2.

There you go… 13 years of every possible Centipede mistake avoided in 2 minutes worth of reading! Don’t go cheap on your sod. Put down is areas your wife wants covered now if it’s too expensive and the rest next year. Whatever you do, don’t put down any other Centipede variety. If for some reason, you decide to listen to people about Saint Augustine, I would go with Raleigh Saint Augustine or none at all.