Sod Calculator: How Much Sod Do I Need?
Enter the area you are turfing and how much cutting the shape involves. You will get the square footage to buy, the roll count, and — most usefully — a mixed order of whole pallets plus the loose rolls to finish, which is how sod is actually sold.
Lawn measurements
Measure the grass only — beds, paths and patios come out of the total.
Roll and pallet sizes vary by region and supplier — check yours and change the figures above. Sod is perishable: order it to arrive on the day you can lay it, not before.
How much sod do I need?
Measure the area you are turfing, add an allowance for the pieces you will cut off around beds and paths, then convert to rolls and pallets. The conversion is the part worth getting right, because sod is priced by the pallet and a pallet you barely use is expensive.
Sod is a living product with a short shelf life. It should go down within a day or so of being cut, so time the delivery to the day you can lay it and water it in — a pallet left stacked in summer heat will be dead in the middle.
How much waste should I allow?
| Waste | Good starting point for |
|---|---|
| 5% | Rectangular lawns with straight edges |
| 10% | Curved beds, trees, paths to cut around |
| 15% | Many obstacles or an irregular boundary |
Sod waste comes almost entirely from cutting: every bed edge, tree ring and path takes a curved cut out of a rectangular piece, and the offcut usually cannot be used elsewhere. A plain rectangle wastes very little; a lawn threaded around planting beds wastes a lot.
Rolls and pallets
A standard slab is about 2 × 5 ft, which is 10 sq ft, and a pallet commonly holds 450 sq ft — though 400 to 500 is all normal depending on where you are. Both are inputs here for exactly that reason.
The mixed order matters because pallets are cheaper per square foot but only come whole. If your job is 630 sq ft, buying two pallets means paying for 270 sq ft you will not lay. One pallet plus loose rolls is almost always the better order.
How to measure a lawn
Beds, paths and patios come out of the total, not into it.
Add each as its own area. Areas are summed before the allowance, so splitting never changes the order.
The waste is in the cutting, so count the edges you will have to curve around.
Common mistakes
- Rounding up to a whole pallet when loose rolls would finish the job.
- Using a rectangular allowance for a lawn full of beds and trees.
- Ordering sod before the ground is prepared and ready to lay.
- Assuming every supplier uses the same pallet size.
Preparing the ground first?
Sod needs good contact with loose soil — work out the topsoil layer underneath.
Open the Topsoil Calculator →