Sod Calculator
Work out how much sod your lawn needs, in square feet and in rolls, before you order. Measure the areas that will actually be turfed, add a waste allowance for the cuts, and you have a number you can take to a supplier or to us.
How much sod do you need?
Measure the areas that will actually be sodded, add them up here, and the calculator gives you the square footage and the number of rolls to order. Leave out patios, decks, driveways, sheds and garden beds.
How to measure your lawn for sod
You do not need surveying equipment. A tape measure, a measuring wheel, or the property plan from your purchase documents will get you close enough to order from. The trick is not precision on a strange shape — it is breaking the yard into shapes you can actually work out, then adding them together.
Measure only what will carry sod. Patios, decks, driveways, sheds, garden beds and mulched areas all come out of the total, and on a typical front yard they come to more than people expect.
The three shapes that cover most yards
- Rectangle or square — length × width. A strip 40 feet long and 30 feet wide is 1,200 square feet.
- Triangle — base × height, divided by two. A corner 20 feet along the fence and 15 feet deep is 150 square feet.
- Circle — the radius multiplied by itself, then by 3.14. A 12-foot circle has a 6-foot radius, so about 113 square feet.
Curved beds, winding walkways and irregular property lines are where this stops being tidy. Cut the area into smaller rectangles, triangles and circles, round each one up rather than down, and enter them as separate areas in the calculator above.
Why you add a waste allowance
Sod arrives in pieces and gets cut to fit around gardens, trees, patios, utility boxes and curved borders. Those cuts create offcuts, and the offcuts are not free. A clean open rectangle needs very little allowance; a yard with tree rings and a rounded patio needs more.
Five to ten percent is the usual range — the low end for simple lots, the high end for detailed ones. That is not padding the order. It is the difference between finishing the last section and standing in a bare corner waiting on a second delivery.
What a calculator cannot see
A quantity is not a quote. The number above tells you how much turf the ground needs; it says nothing about what the work costs, because cost lives almost entirely in what happens before the first roll goes down.
A calculator cannot tell whether a gate is too narrow for a machine, whether there is builder’s rubble under the grass, whether a downspout is emptying into the corner that dies every spring, or whether the yard needs grading before anything is laid on it. Two lawns with identical square footage can be very different jobs.
If you want the price side of this, what sod installation costs sets out our published rates and what moves them, and our guide to sod estimates walks through how to read a quote and what should be itemised in it. When you are ready for a real number, we measure on site — never off a satellite image.
Sod calculator questions
How much sod do I need for a 1,000 square foot lawn?
Order for about 1,100 square feet. The extra ten percent covers the cuts around beds, trees and borders. At the common 2 ft × 5 ft roll that is 110 rolls. A simple open rectangle with almost nothing to cut around can come down to five percent.
What size is a roll of sod?
Most sod grown for Ontario lawns is cut in slabs of 2 feet by 5 feet, so one roll covers 10 square feet. It is not a universal standard, though, and roll sizes do vary between farms and garden centres. Confirm it with whoever is supplying the turf before you place the order — the calculator assumes 10 square feet a roll, so if theirs are a different size, divide the square footage it shows, allowance included, by what one of their rolls covers.
Can I measure my lawn from a satellite image?
For a rough idea, yes, and it is a reasonable way to sanity-check a tape measure. For an order, no. Overhead imagery is often a season or two out of date, tree canopy hides the lawn underneath it, and it flattens slopes that add real area. We measure on the ground before anything is cut.
Does this calculator include installation?
No. It is a quantity tool, so it gives you square footage and a roll count and stops there. Tear-out, disposal, grading, topsoil and access are what actually move an installed price, and none of them can be read off a measurement — see sod installation cost for the rates, or our installation services for what a job includes.
Which direction should I lay the sod?
Along the longest straight run of the lawn, with the seams staggered like brickwork so no end lines up with one in the next row. Long rows mean fewer cuts, and staggered joints knit together instead of forming one continuous seam that can dry out and open up. On a slope, run the rows across it, not up and down. On flat ground, a walkway or a curved bed can mean the other direction leaves fewer short pieces. When the layout is awkward, sketch it both ways and count the short pieces each one leaves.
Can I use the small offcuts to finish the edges?
No. Small scraps dry out faster than full pieces, shift when they are stepped on or watered, and have a harder time rooting. The edges are the worst place for them, because the rows along a driveway or walk are usually the first part of a new lawn to dry out. Finish each edge with a clean, larger cut piece instead, and keep the small scraps out of the outer rows.
How do I subtract a garden bed or tree ring from my measurement?
The calculator only adds areas, so take the bed out by hand and enter what is left. Measure the whole section and the bed, then subtract: a section 20 by 30 feet is 600 square feet, and a 40 square foot bed inside it leaves 560. Enter that as a rectangle of 20 by 28, which is the same 560, and the calculator adds it to your other areas. A round tree ring comes out the same way, using its radius multiplied by itself and then by 3.14. For a half or quarter circle, work out the full circle and divide by two or four.
Should I order more if I am laying the sod myself?
No more than the calculator's figure, but do not trim it either: keep the full ten percent rather than cutting toward five percent, which suits only simple open lots. A first-time installer makes more cuts that do not quite fit, and running out with half the lawn already down and drying is exactly what the allowance is there to prevent. An experienced crew that has planned the roll direction and seams before starting can often order tighter, because more of each cut gets reused. Either way, measure every section first, so the allowance covers cuts and not a measuring mistake.
Is the calculator's allowance enough for a yard with curves and trees?
Usually. The calculator adds ten percent, the top of the usual five to ten percent range, which is meant for yards with beds, trees and curved borders. It can run short on an unusual layout: many small islands, several tight circular beds, or a run of narrow strips. A strip narrower than a roll means every length gets trimmed, and the leftover is often too thin to use. Resist adding a big round number for the whole yard, which buys expensive leftovers. On a layout that detailed, a measure on site is worth more than a bigger guess.
How should I round my sod order?
Up, to whatever the supplier actually sells. The calculator already rounds up to whole rolls, so its count is the smallest number that covers the measured ground plus the allowance. What it cannot know is how your supplier sells: by the roll, by the pallet, or with a minimum order. Ask before you order. If they sell only whole pallets, ask whether they will split one before you round up to a full pallet, because leftover sod does not keep. Never round down to a neater number; that eats into the allowance meant for the cuts.
Now have someone measure it properly
Your own number is the right way to start a conversation. Before any sod is cut we measure the yard, look at the access and the soil, and put the scope in writing. Tell us about the lawn and you will hear back within 24 hours.