Sod Installation Cost Calculator

This calculator adds up what a sodded lawn costs installed, not just what the pallets cost. Give it the lawn size and your own rates for the sod, stripping the old turf, preparing the ground and laying it, along with delivery, equipment hire and tax, and it returns a line by line estimate with the total and the cost per square foot and per square yard. Waste is added to the sod only, since the offcuts come off the roll while the labour is charged against the lawn that is actually there. A second mode puts a contractor quote next to what the same job costs you in materials and hire, and works out the hourly rate at which your own weekend is worth more than the quote. There are no built-in prices, because sod and labour vary too much by region for an average to mean anything.

Calculator Type
Measurements and Rates In
This moves the whole form. Every measurement and every per-area rate below is read in the system you pick here, and the answers come back in it too. One-off sums, hours and percentages are the same either way.

Every rate is yours to fill in, from your own quotes. Leave anything you are not paying for at zero and it drops off the estimate.

Square feet, or square metres if you switched above. Fill this in for a lawn that is not a rectangle and leave the length and width at zero. It overrides them.
About 5 percent for a plain rectangle, 10 for curved edges, 15 or more where beds and paths mean every edge piece is cut. It is added to the sod only, not to the labour.
Per square foot, or per square metre if you switched above. Divide a pallet price by the area it covers: a 220 dollar pallet covering 450 square feet is 0.49 per square foot, and a 120 dollar pallet covering 45 square metres is 2.67 per square metre. Quotes by the square yard divide by nine. Left blank this is 0.50 per square foot, which is 5.38 per square metre.
What the crew charges to lay it, on top of the sod itself. Some quotes fold the sod into this figure, in which case put the whole rate here and the sod price at zero.
Cutting and hauling away the turf that is there now. Zero if the ground is already bare.
Grading, rotovating, topsoil and any amendment worked in before the sod goes down.
A sod cutter, a rotovator, a roller or a skip.
Starter fertiliser, a soil test, staples for a slope.
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Measurements and Rates In
This moves the whole form. Every measurement and every per-area rate below is read in the system you pick here, and the answers come back in it too. One-off sums, hours and percentages are the same either way.

Put a contractor quote next to what the same lawn costs if you lay it. The last line is the one that decides it: the hourly rate at which your own weekend is worth more than the quote.

Square feet, or square metres if you switched above. Fill this in for a lawn that is not a rectangle and leave the length and width at zero. It overrides them.
About 5 percent for a plain rectangle, 10 for curved edges, 15 or more where beds and paths mean every edge piece is cut. It is added to the sod only, not to the labour.
A rate is read per square foot, or per square metre if you switched the units above. A lump sum is a lump sum either way.
Per square foot, or per square metre if you switched above. Divide a pallet price by the area it covers: a 220 dollar pallet covering 450 square feet is 0.49 per square foot, and a 120 dollar pallet covering 45 square metres is 2.67 per square metre. Quotes by the square yard divide by nine. Left blank this is 0.50 per square foot, which is 5.38 per square metre.
A sod cutter for the day, a rotovator, a roller, a skip for the old turf.
Count the stripping, the prep, the laying and the trips to the tip, not just the laying. Your own honest guess is better than any average.
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