Sod Calculator: Pallets, Pieces, Topsoil and Water
Lawn size less the beds, and it returns pallets, pieces and what gets wasted on the last pallet. A pallet does not divide, so the leftover is shown on the page instead of being buried in a rounded number.
When the figures look right, the sod material list downloads as a real PDF with your business details on it, built inside your own browser. Nothing you type is uploaded anywhere.
Worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with and the answer it gives. Change anything above and every number below moves with it.
- Lawn length50 ft
- Lawn width40 ft
- Beds and hardscape to deduct200 sq ft
- Piece sizeRoll, 2 by 5 ft
- Pallet coverage450 sq ft
- Topsoil to spread2 in
- Waste allowance5 %
Pallets to buy5 pallets
Sod does not keep. It is a cut plant and in warm weather it wants to be down and watered within a day of leaving the farm. 5 pallets is more than a two person crew lays in a day, so either stage the delivery or put more hands on it.
| Gross area | 2,000 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Beds and hardscape | -200 sq ft |
| Net area | 1,800 sq ft |
| With waste | 1,890 sq ft5 percent |
| Pieces needed | 18910 sq ft each |
| Pallets to buy | 545 pieces on a 450 sq ft pallet |
| Left over on the last pallet | 360 sq fta pallet does not divide |
| Sod weight | 5.2 tons10,395 lb at 5.5 lb a sq ft |
| Topsoil to spread | 11.11 cu yd2 in over the net area, order 12 because bulk soil sells by the whole yard |
| Water, one inch | 1,122 gal0.623 gallons a sq ft |
The material list this produces
| Sod pallets | 5 |
|---|---|
| Or sod pieces | 189 |
| Starter fertilizer, bags | 1 |
| Topsoil, cu yd | 12 |
What this calculator assumes
- Sod is bought by the pallet and a pallet does not divide, so the order is rounded up to a whole pallet and the leftover is printed rather than hidden. Pallet coverage is a yard by yard number, from 400 to 600 square feet, which is why it is a field here instead of a constant.
- Waste sits at five percent rather than the ten a sheet material gets. Sod cuts around a curve with a knife and the offcut usually goes somewhere, so the loss is real but smaller.
- Weight is figured at 5.5 pounds a square foot, which is a pallet around two and a half thousand pounds. Freshly cut or wet sod runs heavier, and that is the number that matters when you decide whether it goes in a pickup or on a delivery truck.
- Topsoil is the amount to spread and grade before the sod goes down, not the amount already there. Two inches is the common starting point on a bare or stripped yard and none at all is right on ground that is already good.
- A pallet line and a piece line are both printed because yards sell sod both ways, by the pallet on a big lawn and by the piece on a patch. Only one of those two lines gets bought.
- Starter fertilizer is figured at a bag per five thousand square feet, which is where most starter products land. Read your bag rather than this line, because the spread rate is printed on it.
- The water line is one inch over the whole lawn, which is 0.623 gallons a square foot. New sod wants roughly that much every day for the first week, which is the part of a sod job people underestimate.
The pallet is the unit, not the piece
A 50 by 40 lawn is 2,000 square feet. Take 200 out for beds and hardscape and 1,800 is left. Five percent waste for cutting around curves puts the order at 1,890 square feet, which is 189 standard 10 square foot pieces.
Those 189 pieces come on 5 pallets, because a 450 square foot pallet carries 45 of them and four pallets only reach 180. Five pallets is 2,250 square feet, so 360 square feet gets left over, and that is 19 percent more grass than the yard needs.
The leftover is on the page for a reason. It is the number that decides whether you shrink a bed, widen the lawn by a strip, or find a neighbor who wants a patch, and it is the number a quote quietly hides when it prints pallets and nothing else.
Pallet coverage and piece size are both local
A sod pallet is a farm by farm number, anywhere from 400 to 600 square feet, which is why both the pallet size and the piece size are fields here instead of constants. Guessing 500 when the farm loads 450 leaves a job a pallet short on delivery day.
Piece size moves just as much. A 100 by 80 lawn is 8,000 square feet, 8,400 with waste. In 10 square foot rolls that is 840 pieces. In 16 by 24 inch slabs at 2.67 square feet each it is 3,147 pieces, and a 500 square foot pallet holds 187 of them.
That second lawn takes 17 pallets and leaves only 100 square feet over, which is a much tighter fit than the small yard got. Nothing about the lawn changed to make that happen. It is only that 8,400 divides into 500 more evenly than 1,890 divides into 450.
Weight decides how it arrives
Sod is heavy and wet. At 5.5 pounds a square foot the small lawn is 10,395 pounds, 5.2 tons, and the big one is 46,200 pounds or 23.1 tons. A single pallet at 450 square feet is about 2,475 pounds on its own.
That is why one pallet is a pickup job and five is a delivery truck with a forklift, and why the weight line sits next to the pallet line rather than in a footnote. Fresh cut sod after rain runs heavier still, so treat 5.5 as the light end of the range.
It also decides where the pallets get dropped. Twenty three tons of sod does not move across a lawn by wheelbarrow in one afternoon, and a driveway that takes a forklift is worth confirming before the truck is booked rather than after it arrives.
Topsoil and water are the part people skip
Two inches of topsoil over 1,800 square feet is 11.11 cubic yards, so order 12, because bulk soil sells by the whole yard. Over the 8,000 foot lawn it is 49.38 yards and you order 50. On ground that is already good the answer is none, and the row says so.
New sod wants about an inch of water a day for the first week, and an inch over a lawn is 0.623 gallons a square foot. That is 1,122 gallons a day on the small lawn and 4,984 on the big one, which is the part of a sod job that surprises people after the truck has gone.
Sod does not keep either. It is a cut plant, and in warm weather it wants to be down and watered the day it arrives, which makes the delivery date and the prep work the same conversation. Ground that is not graded when the pallets land is a lawn you pay for twice.
Questions people ask
How many pallets of sod do I need?
Divide the area plus waste by the pallet coverage and round up. A 1,800 square foot lawn with five percent waste is 1,890 square feet, so 5 pallets at 450 square feet each. That leaves 360 square feet over.
How many square feet is a pallet of sod?
Between 400 and 600 depending on the farm, with 450 and 500 the most common. It is a local number, not a standard, so ask the farm before you order rather than assuming. This calculator takes it as an input for that reason.
How much does a pallet of sod weigh?
About 2,475 pounds for a 450 square foot pallet, figured at 5.5 pounds a square foot. Five pallets is 5.2 tons, which is a delivery truck and a forklift rather than a pickup. Wet sod runs heavier.
How much topsoil do I need under sod?
Two inches over the planted area is the usual starting point on bare or stripped ground. Over 1,800 square feet that is 11.11 cubic yards, so order 12. Ground that is already good needs none.
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Common sizes, worked out
The same calculator with the numbers already filled in, one page per size, each ending in its own material list.