Here is a dilemma I have year after year. After planting seed in the fall, I still have a lot of bare spots in the spring. If I put seed down and no pre-emergent weed killer, then I get a ton of weeds. If I put down the pre-emergent weed killer , the grass does not grow. Any suggestions in this area would be welcome.

Use a post emergent broadleaf weed killer. Get the weeds early before they develop seeds. Keep the grass cut short. It may take a few seasons, but you should get to a point where the weeds are manageable.
Don't forget, pulling weeds by hand is a very effective and efficient way to solve this problem. It sucks but it works.

From the way you wrote your post, I'm assuming you are the one who is applying the pre-emergent. If that is correct, maybe you could intentionally NOT apply pre-emergent in those spots where you want to plant seeds. That way you would minimize your weed production in the rest of your lawn.

Also, pre-emergent works best on undisturbed soil. If you go ahead an apply pre-emergent everywhere, just work the soil well with a shovel or a bow rake. That will break up the pre-emergent chemical and minimize it's affect on preventing your grass seed from germinating.

For the past four years, I have had a service doing my chemical application. The past three years I have told them not to put the pre emergence on the Eastern half of my front yard (One side of the driveway) where I need some heavy seeding. Since I am not home when he comes, I can not supervise his work. None of the seed I planted grew. So last year, I threw some seed in an area he does not treat to see if it was a seed issue. Well, all of that seed came up but not in the treated area. So this tells me he is treating the whole area with pre emergence
Well, I am done with them (The lawn service) and will be doing it myself this year. It appears we (And most of the US) are having an early spring, so I plan to work on my yard this weekend and get some seed down. I will put the pre emergence on the rest of the lawn,and just the fertilizer on this portion. Then if no grass grows, I can't blame them.

I will let you know how it comes out.

Do you have an update since your last post?

Originally Posted by Newsom Seed

Do you have an update since your last post?

We haven't had much rain and I have not turned on my sprinklers yet. So I have nothing to report. I am going to make my much hated trip to the crawl space after work tonight to turn on the outdoor shower and the sprinkler system. My house is 85 feet long and of course the opening to the crawl space and the water shutoffs are on opposite ends.

Originally Posted by Newsom Seed

Do you have an update since your last post?

2nd update:

The new grass came up and covered about 70% of my bare spots. I am very pleased. I threw some additional seed down last weekend and hope to fill in the other 30%. I will then overseed in the fall. From the road, My lawn's look great. Finally starting to get a lot of rain here and it is growing lime mad. Might add some pictures if I get a chance this weekend.

So what did the trick? Were you still spraying the weed killer before planting seed or did you just spread the seed and hope for the best? I'm curious.

I just recently read that one of the best ways to kill weeds is to simply allow your grass to grow out a bit, or in your case that would mean not using the chemical sprays, and the grass naturally takes care of the weeds over time.

I'm so glad to hear your lawn is back!