Regularly I mean. I was just going to buy one of those 21 inch craftsman dethatchers instead of renting, if its required every so often.

Well you don't want to dethatch St Augustine Otherwise, if you have heavy thatch it probably indicates you haven't yet established a thriving population of good bugs (micro-herd) in your soil. Good quantities of beneficial bacteria and fungi will aerate the soil and also break down the thatch for you.

Jon

Dethatching is something they do with Kentucky Bluegrass. Southern grasses will be killed or nearly so by dethatching. If you have thatch with St Aug then you are not doing something right.

What grass do you have?
How are you watering, fertilizing, and mowing?

I dont think I have a problem with thatch - i just was curious how big of a problem it is in the south. the soil seems to just be really dry and i thought maybe it was a thatch issue - it just may be that im not watering long enough once a week. 30 minutes every couple of weeks vs an hour a week.

Thatch is usually only a problem for people who water once a day for 5-10 minutes. With St Augustine you can actually grow grass entirely above the ground by watering like that. It looks like thatch but it is the roots. Running a dethatcher over that will completely shred the entire plant, roots and all.