How Much Sod Does It Take to Cover a Half Acre?

Diagramming the Landscape

• Unless your area is exactly a half acre and there are no features like buildings, flower beds or driveways to work around, it is helpful to draw a diagram of the site and divide the areas where you will lay sod into simple geometric shapes such as rectangles and triangles. Measure each of these simple subdivisions separately, recording their information on the diagram as you go, then calculate the area of each. Add the areas together to determine the total area to be sodded. If you calculated the area in square feet, convert it to square yards by dividing the square footage by nine.

About Pallets

• Most pallets of sod contain 50 square yards of sod. This can vary, however, with some pallets containing up to 75 square yards. Check with the specific sod supplier to find out how much each of their pallets contain. A half acre is 21,780 square feet, or 2,420 square yards. To cover exactly a half acre with sod that arrives on pallets each containing 50 square yards of sod, you will need 48 2/5 pallets of sod.

Additional Calculation Considerations

• Although it may be tempting to order exactly as much sod as needed to cover the area, it is a good idea to order about 5 to 10 percent more sod than you plan to need. This will allow ample room for handling errors, allows you to discard unhealthy pieces of sod and accommodate measuring mistakes or miscalculations.

Sod Ordering and Delivery

• Plan to have sod delivered the same day it will be installed. If sod cannot be installed promptly, remove it from the pallets and lay it flat in a single layer in the shade, watering it occasionally to keep it from drying out. If possible, have the sod deliverer scatter the pallets loaded with sod around the area to be sodded rather than leave them all in one spot to minimize the distance you must carry the sod.