Question
I live in coastal NC with very sand soil in my yard. I was planting sod recently and when I applied water to the bare soil where I was about to plant the sod, the water was running off and forming puddles in some areas, not soaking in as I had expected. The soil had been raked and was not compacted. It appears something has caused the surface tension of the soil to repel the water. We have had a wet summer here but in some areas of my yard the soil is not wet at all and in some areas there is visible moisture down 6-8 inches or more. The yard has pretty much the same soil type throughout and reasonable amounts of shade in most area.

Answer
Hi John, Most often this is caused by dust and very small soil particles that coat water droplets.  Once the water pools, it overcomes the dust and is absorbed. In steady rain, the soil is eventually saturated, but with watering, there may not be enough water except in the pooling areas to be absorbed.  There are products you can spray on the soil to speed absorption or incorporating organic matter into soil will usually help.  Jim