Sod Calculator

Rolls = lawn area (ft²) × (1 + waste ÷ 100) ÷ coverage of one roll (ft²)

A

Lawn area to be covered, measured with the beds, paths and trees already taken out

w

Waste allowance, as a percentage — the sod cut away at the edges

c

Coverage of one roll, in the size your supplier sells

Use it once you have measured the lawn and once you know the roll size, which is a question for the supplier rather than for the catalogue. A square or rectangular lawn measured on the ground is accurate enough; a lawn with curved beds wants the curves taken out first, because the waste on a curve is real and a percentage will not cover it. The waste allowance is a judgement about the shape: 5% is right for a rectangle, 10% for a lawn with several curves or a diagonal edge.

1. A 1,000 ft² lawn, 10 ft² rolls, 5% waste

   1. Area: 1,000 ft²
   2. Add 5% for the cuts: 1,000 × 1.05 = 1,050 ft²
   3. Rolls: 1,050 ÷ 10 = 105
   4. In metric: 1,050 ft² = 97.55 m²

   A 1,000 ft² lawn is a small front yard — about 20 by 50 feet. Five rolls of waste on top of the hundred is the difference between a lawn that reaches the edge of the bed and one that stops a roll short.

2. The same lawn with 9 ft² rolls

   1. Area: 2,500 ft²
   2. Add 10% for a lawn with curves: 2,500 × 1.10 = 2,750 ft²
   3. Rolls: 2,750 ÷ 9 = 305.6, rounded up to 306
   4. The same area at 10 ft² rolls would be 275 rolls — 31 fewer

   This is the whole point of the roll-size field. Nothing about the lawn changed; only the size of the roll did, and the order moved by more than thirty rolls. Ask before you calculate, and calculate before you order.

3. A quarter-acre lawn, 10 ft² rolls

   1. Area: 5,000 ft², which is a little over a tenth of an acre
   2. Add 5%: 5,000 × 1.05 = 5,250 ft²
   3. Rolls: 5,250 ÷ 10 = 525
   4. In metric: 5,250 ft² = 487.74 m²

   At this size you are ordering by the pallet rather than the roll. Pallets are quoted by area, so multiply the number of pallets by their square footage and check it against 5,250 — and give the delivery a hard surface to sit on, because a pallet of wet sod is heavy and starts to heat from the inside within a day.

The roll size is the number that decides this answer, and there is no standard one: 10 square feet, 9 square feet, 2.67 square feet for repair patches, and by the square metre in most of the world. Whatever the page returns is only as good as the coverage figure you typed in, so confirm it with the supplier before ordering. The waste allowance is a judgement, not a measurement: 5% suits a rectangle, 10% or more suits curves and diagonal edges, and a lawn with many obstacles wants more again — the alternative is measuring the shapes properly and ordering exactly. Sod is a living product and starts to heat in the stack, so most growers want it laid the day it arrives; a percentage of waste is cheaper than a second delivery. This page counts rolls and gives no weight, because weight depends on soil type, moisture and thickness. If you are seeding instead of laying turf, use the grass seed calculator; if you know how many rolls you have and want to know what they will cover, divide the roll count by the rate above.

How much sod do I need for 1,000 square feet?

100 rolls if a roll covers 10 square feet, plus waste. At 5% waste that is 105 rolls. If your supplier's rolls cover 9 square feet the same lawn takes 112 before waste and 117 after, so confirm the roll size first — the difference here is twelve rolls.

How many rolls of sod are on a pallet?

Pallets are usually sold by area rather than by roll count, so the honest answer is to ask for the square footage. Then it is the same arithmetic this page does: a 500 ft² pallet is 50 rolls of 10 ft², or 56 rolls of 9 ft². Deliveries are quoted in pallets and pallets are quoted in area, so the conversion is worth doing before you compare two prices.

How much waste should I allow for sod?

5% for a plain rectangle, 10% for a lawn with curves, diagonal edges or several obstacles. Waste is not lost material so much as cut material: every edge, every tree ring and every joint between rolls produces an offcut, and curved edges produce more of them than straight ones. Measuring the individual shapes properly is the alternative, and on a lawn full of beds it is often the better one.

What size is a roll of sod?

10 square feet (2 by 5 feet) is the most common in the United States, and 9 square feet (2 by 4.5 feet) is the other size you will meet often. Small repair patches come as 16 by 24 inch pieces, about 2.67 square feet. Outside the United States turf is normally sold by the square metre and cut to whatever the grower uses, so take the supplier's figure rather than assuming one.

Can I use this calculator for a lawn measured in square metres?

Yes. Switch the area field to square metres and set the roll coverage to however many square metres one roll covers — the two fields do not have to be in the same unit, and the roll count comes out the same. A 200 m² lawn with 0.9 m² rolls and 5% waste is 234 rolls.

Should I lay sod or sow seed?

Sod gives you an instant lawn and holds a slope the day it is laid, at several times the price of seed. Seed is far cheaper but takes a season to fill in and cannot be walked on, and on a slope it washes out before it establishes. Sod is normally the answer for a small area that has to look finished, and seed for a large one that does not.

• Approximate Conversions from U.S. Customary Measures to Metric — the chart behind the square foot, square yard and square metre conversions used here — National Institute of Standards and Technology
• The International System of Units (SI) brochure — the square metre, the unit the metric half of this page is written in — Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM)