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Sod Pallet Calculator

A pallet is a count of pieces — how many your lawn takes, and whether the last one is worth buying whole.

Pallet counts vary by farm — type the count on your farm's ticket under Assumptions.

20' · 240 in · 20 ft · 6.096 m

20' · 240 in · 20 ft · 6.096 m

400 ft²

Purdue Extension advises ordering about 10% extra, for the pieces cut at corners and edges, which is where this starts; a lawn of curves can want up to 20%. It is added once, to the sod — the soil under it is the size of the ground.

This page recalculates as you type. There is no Calculate button.

Answer

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Whole pallets

1 pallets of 170 slabs

440 ft² with 10% waste · 165 slabs · about 2,901 lb on the truck

Buy 1 × pallet (16 × 24 in slabs)
Pieces, with waste 165 slabs
Lawn to cover 400 ft²
With the 10% for cuts 440 ft²
Weight on the truck 2,901 lb
Soil to work in 2.5 yd³
Ticked items cost $230.00
DrawingThe project drawn to scale. Area 1: 20' × 20'.20'20'Area 1

Buying noteLay it the day it arrives: Purdue Extension wants sod down within 24 hours of being cut. Book the delivery for that day.
Buying note2,901 lb is about 2 pickup loads at ~1,500 lb a load, and one pallet is more than a load: have it delivered. Your truck's payload goes under Assumptions.

Breakdown

Area Measurements Qty Area Share
Area 1 20' × 20' Add ×1 400 ft²

What to buy

Buying noteLay it the day it arrives: Purdue Extension wants sod down within 24 hours of being cut. Book the delivery for that day.
Buying note2,901 lb is about 2 pickup loads at ~1,500 lb a load, and one pallet is more than a load: have it delivered. Your truck's payload goes under Assumptions.

Pallets or loose pieces

A pallet is a count of pieces, set under Assumptions. Each way is priced; pick the one you will buy.

1 × pallet (16 × 24 in slabs) Pieces 170 Left over 5 slabs Weight 2,901 lb Cost $230.00 Reference price $230.00. Type your store's.
165 × loose 16 × 24 in slab Pieces 165 Left over 0 slabs Weight 2,816 lb Cost $491.70 Reference price $2.98. Type your store's.

Shopping list

1 1 × pallet (16 × 24 in slabs) $230.00
2.5 yd³ $172.50 Reference price $35.00. Type your store's. Reference price $85.00. Type your store's.
Ticked items $230.00

Untick what you already have. The sod is priced in the table above, the soil and the staples beside their own rows. The soil starts unticked: work it in where your soil test asks for it.

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How this was worked out

Every number below is yours. Each constant links to the row where you can change it.

Area 1 20' × 20' 400 ft²
With the waste for cuts 400 ft² × (1 + 10%) 440 ft²
One piece 16 in × 24 in ÷ 144 in²/ft² 2.6667 ft²
Pieces 440 ft² ÷ 2.6667 ft² 165 slabs
Pallets 165 slabs ÷ 170 slabs a pallet 0.97 → 1 pallets

Change:Slabs a pallet, 16 × 24 in

Weight of what you buy 453.33 ft² × 6.4 lb/ft² 2,901 lb

Change:Weight of sod

Soil under the lawn 400 ft² × 2 in ÷ 12 in/ft ÷ 27 ft³/yd³ 2.47 yd³ → 2.5 yd³

Change:Soil worked in under the sod

What it comes to 1 × $230.00 $230.00

Assumptions

Every one of these is editable. Change one and the answer changes with it.

Assumption Value Confidence
Slabs a pallet, 16 × 24 inThe Grass Outlet ships slab pallets of 399, 452 or 503 ft²; 452 ft² is 170 slabs of 16 × 24 in (2.667 ft² each). Purdue AY-28-W: a pallet holds about 50 yd², 450 ft². The count is our division; your farm's ticket says its own. ~ slabs/pallet Derived or single-supplier
Weight of sodThe Grass Outlet: a 450 ft² pallet weighs 2,800-3,000 lb, a piece 15-20 lb - about 6.2-6.7 lb/ft² for Southern slabs. Purdue AY-28-W gives 35-40 lb a square yard (3.9-4.4 lb/ft²) for thin-cut sod. The heavier figure, because it sizes the haul; wet sod weighs more. ~ lb/ft² Derived or single-supplier
Soil worked in under the sodPenn State Extension, Lawn Establishment: a 1 to 2 in layer of compost or peat worked 4 to 6 in into the soil before sodding. The top of that range; your soil test may ask for less. Purdue AY-28-W: compost at 1-3 yd³ per 1,000 ft², mixed 6-8 in deep. ≈ in Trade convention
Your truck's payloadFull-size (1500-series) pickups advertise 2,260-2,440 lb of payload (2026), and ordinary trims carry 600-700 lb less; this is the low end. Your truck's figure is on the driver's door-jamb placard. ~ lb Derived or single-supplier

How many pallets of sod you need

Count the pieces first, then the pallets. A lawn 40 by 25 feet is 1,000 square feet; with 10% for the cuts it is 1,100, and at 2.667 square feet a 16 by 24 inch slab that is 413 slabs. A pallet holds 170 of them, so the lawn is 2.43 pallets: three whole pallets, with 97 slabs left over.

Or two pallets and 73 loose slabs. At the reference prices — $230.00 a pallet, $2.98 a loose slab — that mix is $677.54 against $690.00 for three pallets: $12.46 cheaper, under 2%. The page still picks the three pallets for you, because one item at the counter is worth 2%, and the third pallet's 97 spare slabs are worth more than $12.46 the first time a dog digs a hole. Both ways sit in the table on the page, priced; type your farm's prices and the choice can turn over.

What a pallet holds

A sod farm stacks a pallet by count, and the square feet on the ticket are that count times the piece. Purdue Extension puts a pallet at about 50 square yards, 450 square feet; The Grass Outlet ships slab pallets of 399, 452 or 503 square feet. The counts below are those figures divided by the piece — the division is ours, and the count on your farm's ticket goes in the box under Assumptions.

Cut One piece Pieces a pallet A pallet covers Pieces for this lawn
Slab, 16 × 24 in2.667 ft²170453 ft²413
Slab, 18 × 24 in3 ft²150450 ft²367
Roll, 18 × 40 in5 ft²90450 ft²220
Roll, 18 in × 6 ft9 ft²50450 ft²123
Roll, 2 × 5 ft10 ft²45450 ft²110

The Grass Outlet's own article says a 450 square foot pallet holds about 165 pieces, because it counts a 16 by 24 inch slab as 2.75 square feet. It is 2.667: 16 × 24 ÷ 144. Square feet divided by the wrong piece is how a pallet count comes out five slabs short.

When loose pieces pay

A loose piece costs more than one off a pallet, so a part pallet is worth buying whole unless most of it would be left over. On this lawn in 2 by 5 foot rolls the answer flips: 110 rolls is two pallets of 45 and 20 loose rolls, and at the reference prices that is $659.60 against $690.00 for three pallets, so the page picks the mix. A small patch is the other end: 100 square feet is 42 slabs, $125.16 loose against $230.00 for a pallet you would mostly throw away.

Before the truck comes

Three pallets weigh about 8,700 pounds. That is a delivery, not a pickup load: ask what the farm charges, and where its truck can set the pallets down. Lay the sod the day it comes — Purdue wants it down within 24 hours of being cut. We are not connected with any farm, store or supplier named here.