How much does sod cost?
Sod runs about $0.40 – $1.10 per sq ft for the grass itself, which is a lawn in a day rather than a lawn by next spring. The number people forget is the soil under it: sod laid on hard, bare ground is sod that dies, and a few inches of topsoil is often the bigger line. Here is the price per square foot, per pallet and per lawn, and the honest comparison with seed.
Sod cost calculator
What will your lawn cost in sod?
Working out a whole yard rather than one bed? Sketch it to scale in the planner and every area is measured, costed and totalled together.
How sod is sold
By the roll or the slab, and by the pallet. A roll is usually two feet by five, ten square feet; a slab sixteen by twenty-four inches, about two and two-thirds. A pallet holds around 450 to 500 square feet and weighs a ton and a half wet, which is why it arrives on a truck with a forklift and why the delivery charge is what it is. Farms quote per pallet; garden centres per roll; everyone's price works out to a figure per square foot, which is the one to compare.
Variety moves the price. A common cool-season blend sits at the bottom of the range; warm-season turf like zoysia, or anything sold as drought-tolerant, sits at the top. Buy what grows in your county, not what looks best in the photo.
By lawn
Sod with five percent for cuts, and four inches of topsoil under it, at the national range. A quarter-acre lot with a house on it is usually somewhere around the middle row.
| Lawn | Pallets | Sod | Topsoil (4 in) | Together |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 sq ft | 3 | $420 – $1,155 | 12.3 cu yd, $309 – $741 | $729 – $1,896 |
| 2,500 sq ft | 6 | $1,050 – $2,888 | 30.9 cu yd, $772 – $1,852 | $1,822 – $4,739 |
| 5,000 sq ft | 12 | $2,100 – $5,775 | 61.7 cu yd, $1,543 – $3,704 | $3,643 – $9,479 |
Delivery is per truck on top of this, and a lawn over a couple of pallets is a lawn worth having delivered rather than collected: a car carries about half a pallet before the springs notice.
The soil is not optional
Sod is a living thing with an inch of roots. Laid on compacted subsoil or builder's fill, those roots have nowhere to go, the sod dries from the top down and you have paid for a lawn that lasts one summer. Two to four inches of screened topsoil, tilled into the top of what is there, is the part of the job that makes the rest of it work. How much topsoil covers depth and what the bags hide.
The planner draws a lawn as sod over topsoil for exactly this reason, and prices both. Paint the lawn and the two lines appear in the total together.
Sod against seed
Seed runs about $0.08 – $0.25 per sq ft with straw, a fraction of sod's price on the same ground. What you buy with sod is time: a lawn you can walk on in a fortnight instead of a lawn you keep the dog off until next year, no washouts on a slope, and no weeds getting the first word. On flat ground you can keep watered and keep off, seed is the better deal. On a slope, in a front yard, or anywhere that has to look finished this season, sod is what people end up buying anyway. How much sod has the pallet arithmetic and the seed comparison in more depth.
Quick checklist
- Compare per square foot; pallets and rolls are just packaging.
- Add five percent for cuts, more for a curved lawn.
- Price two to four inches of topsoil under it, and till it in before laying.
- Have more than two pallets delivered; less than that, collect.
- Lay it the day it arrives and water it the same hour. Sod on a pallet is dying.
Paint the lawn and the planner prices sod and topsoil for your state, or swap the sod for seed to see the difference on your own square footage. The suburban back yard example is a 1,600 square foot lawn done this way.