HowMuch

Sod calculator

Enter the area you are turfing. Sod is only sold by the whole pallet, and a pallet is not a fixed size — 400 to 700 square feet depending on the region and whether your farm cuts slabs or rolls. Get that number from the farm before you order.

Pallets to order 3 pallets You cannot buy part of a pallet.
Sod needed including cuts 1,050 sq ft
Slabs or rolls 394 pieces
Left over after whole pallets 300 sq ft This is the number to take back to the farm — ask whether they will break a pallet.
Approximate delivered weight 6,000 lb A pallet runs 1,500–3,000 lb and up to 50% more wet; 2,000 lb used here.

How the number is worked out

Take your area, add 5% for cuts (10% if you are working around curved beds and trees), then divide by the coverage of one pallet. A 1,000 sq ft lawn needs 1,050 sq ft of sod, which at 450 sq ft per pallet is 2.33 pallets — so you buy three and have about 300 sq ft spare.

That last part is the bit competing calculators skip. They return square feet. You cannot buy square feet of sod; you buy pallets, and the rounding is often 20–30% of the order.

A pallet is not a fixed size

This is where orders go wrong by a whole pallet. Published coverage figures:

Those odd 399 / 452 / 503 figures are not typos. A pallet is stacked by piece count — roughly 150, 170 and 189 slabs — and the square footage is whatever that works out to. The round numbers on the invoice are marketing.

So the spread across the industry is 400 to 700 square feet per pallet. On a quarter acre that is the difference between 17 pallets and 27. Call the farm and ask how many square feet are on their pallet before you calculate anything. Any page that tells you a pallet is 450 sq ft is guessing on your behalf.

Order in square feet, not pieces

For the same reason, place the order in square feet. Piece counts depend on the farm's cutter width, and a farm that runs 18 in rolls will not recognise your slab count.

Weight, and why you cannot stockpile it

A pallet weighs 1,500–3,000 lb, and up to 50% more if it was cut wet. That is a ton or more per pallet, so a half-ton pickup carries part of one and delivery is nearly always the answer.

Sod is a living crop with the roots cut off. Lay it the day it arrives — certainly within 24 hours in warm weather — and water it in as you go rather than waiting until the whole lawn is down. Pallets left stacked in summer heat compost themselves from the middle outwards, and you will not see the damage until a week after it is laid.

What this does not include

Common cases

Questions people ask

How many square feet are in a pallet of sod?
Anywhere from 400 to 700, which is why this is an input rather than a constant. Slab pallets are actually 399, 452 or 503 sq ft; northern hand-roll pallets are 400, 450 or 500; large-roll pallets run 500–700. Ask your farm — on a big lawn the difference is several pallets.
How many pieces of sod are in a pallet?
For 16 × 24 in slabs at 2.66 sq ft each, about 150, 170 or 189 pieces on the 399, 452 and 503 sq ft pallets. Northern hand rolls are 10 sq ft each, so 80, 90 or 100 rolls per pallet. The count varies by farm, so order in square feet instead.
How much extra sod should I order?
Five percent for a rectangular lawn, ten where you are cutting around curved beds, trees or a path. Because you buy whole pallets, the rounding usually swamps the waste allowance anyway — check the leftover figure and ask whether the farm will break a pallet.
How much does a pallet of sod weigh?
1,500–3,000 lb, and up to 50% more if it was harvested wet. Individual rolls are 15–30 lb. That rules out most pickup trucks for anything beyond a partial pallet, and it is worth checking the delivery truck can reach where you want it stacked.
How long can sod sit on the pallet?
Lay it the day it is delivered, and within 24 hours at the outside in warm weather. A stacked pallet heats up from the centre and the grass dies there first, so the damage is invisible until roughly a week after you have laid it.

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