Sod Calculator
The tool content is available above. The interactive widget will be added soon.
Measure the lawn. Get the pallets to order, and not one piece more. Sod is sold three different ways — by the piece, by the pallet, and by the square foot — and most calculators only answer in one of them, which leaves you doing the other two conversions on the phone with the sod farm. This one gives you all three at once. A 50 by 30 foot lawn is 1,500 square feet; add the usual 5% for cuts around beds and edges and you need to cover 1,575 square feet. With standard 16 by 24 inch slabs that is 591 pieces, and at 450 square feet to a pallet it is 4 pallets. It also shows the line nobody else does: or 3 pallets plus 85 loose pieces. That split matters because sod is alive. It starts to yellow and rot on the pallet within about two days, so the 225 square feet of leftover on a fourth full pallet is money you pay for and then watch die in the driveway. Most suppliers will sell the loose pieces if you ask. The pallet size is a field you can change, because it really does vary by farm and grass type, and there is no ZIP code, email or phone field between you and the number.
How to use
- 1
Pick the shape. Rectangle takes a length and a width. Circle takes the diameter — the distance straight across, which is what a tape measure actually gets you. Area takes square feet or square metres you already worked out, which is the right choice for any lawn that isn't a simple shape.
- 2
Choose US or metric. US reads feet and answers in square feet and square yards; metric reads metres and answers in square metres. Switching keeps the numbers you typed and resets the piece size and pallet coverage to that system's usual sizes.
- 3
Leave the waste allowance at 5% for a lawn with straight edges. Push it to 10% if the lawn curves around beds, trees or a winding path, because every curve means cutting pieces and throwing the offcuts away.
- 4
Set the piece size to match what your supplier sells: 16 by 24 inch slabs are the most common in the US, 18 by 24 inch slabs and 2 by 5 foot rolls are the other usual sizes. In metric, 1 m² rolls are standard.
- 5
Check the pallet coverage with your supplier before you order. 450 square feet is a common pallet in the US and 50 m² is common in Europe, but farms stack anywhere from about 400 to 500 square feet depending on the grass.
- 6
Add a price per pallet if you want the cost, then read the pallets at the top. If the exact-fit line appears, ask for that combination instead — it's the same coverage with less sod left over. Hit Copy to paste the order into a text or an email.