How Much Sod for 400 Square Feet?
Pallets to buy
1 pallet
400 square feet of new lawn, nothing deducted, 10 sq ft pieces, five percent waste.
At 2,310 pounds this is more than a half ton pickup should carry in one trip. Price the delivery before you price the fuel.
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How that number is worked out
These are the figures this page was built with and every line the calculator produces from them. Change anything above and all of it moves.
- Lawn length40 ft
- Lawn width10 ft
- Beds and hardscape to deduct0 sq ft
- Piece sizeRoll, 2 by 5 ft
- Pallet coverage450 sq ft
- Topsoil to spread2 in
- Waste allowance5 %
Pallets to buy1 pallet
At 2,310 pounds this is more than a half ton pickup should carry in one trip. Price the delivery before you price the fuel.
| Gross area | 400 sq ft |
|---|---|
| Beds and hardscape | 0 sq ft |
| Net area | 400 sq ft |
| With waste | 420 sq ft5 percent |
| Pieces needed | 4210 sq ft each |
| Pallets to buy | 145 pieces on a 450 sq ft pallet |
| Left over on the last pallet | 30 sq fta pallet does not divide |
| Sod weight | 1.16 tons2,310 lb at 5.5 lb a sq ft |
| Topsoil to spread | 2.47 cu yd2 in over the net area, order 3 because bulk soil sells by the whole yard |
| Water, one inch | 250 gal0.623 gallons a sq ft |
The material list this produces
| Sod pallets | 1 |
|---|---|
| Or sod pieces | 42 |
| Starter fertilizer, bags | 1 |
| Topsoil, cu yd | 3 |
Lawn area compared
Every small lawn size on this list, at the same piece and pallet coverage. Watch the last column rather than the first: the pallet count steps, and the square feet you pay for and do not use swings from almost nothing to most of a pallet between one size and the next.
| Lawn area | Pallets to buy | Pieces needed | Left over on the last pallet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 sq ft | 1 pallet | 6 | 397.5 sq ft |
| 100 sq ft | 1 pallet | 11 | 345 sq ft |
| 200 sq ft | 1 pallet | 21 | 240 sq ft |
| 250 sq ft | 1 pallet | 27 | 187.5 sq ft |
| 300 sq ft | 1 pallet | 32 | 135 sq ft |
| 400 sq ft | 1 pallet | 42 | 30 sq ft |
| 500 sq ft | 2 pallets | 53 | 375 sq ft |
| 600 sq ft | 2 pallets | 63 | 270 sq ft |
| 700 sq ft | 2 pallets | 74 | 165 sq ft |
| 800 sq ft | 2 pallets | 84 | 60 sq ft |
| 1,000 sq ft | 3 pallets | 105 | 300 sq ft |
What else matters here
Four hundred square feet is the most efficient size on this whole list. Forty two pieces fills a pallet with 30 sq ft left over, which is as close to no waste as a pallet gets.
That is worth knowing in the other direction too. If a lawn measures a little over 400, it is worth looking hard at whether a bed can be widened or an edge pulled in, because the next square foot past a full pallet costs a whole second pallet. The table on this page shows where those steps fall.
Before any of it goes down the ground has to be graded, and this is the last comfortable size to do that by hand. A level bed with a fall away from the house, raked out and firmed enough to walk on without leaving deep prints, is what makes sod lie flat. Every hollow left in the grade becomes a soft spot that holds water, and every high point dries out first and browns in July.
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.
Questions people ask
How many pieces of sod for 400 square feet?
42 pieces at 10 square feet each, which is one pallet with 30 square feet left over.
How many square feet does a pallet of sod cover?
Around 450 on the coverage this calculator uses, though it varies by grower and region between roughly 400 and 500. Ask your supplier, because it decides how many pallets you buy.
How should the ground be graded before sod?
Level, with a fall away from the house, raked out and firmed enough to walk on without leaving deep prints. Hollows hold water and high spots brown first.
The sod calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.