Sod pallet coverage isn't 450 square feet

The lawn's 2,000 square feet. You add five percent for cuts around the beds and the walk. 2,100.

You've seen it written that a pallet of sod covers 450 square feet. 2,100 divided by 450 is 4.7. You order five pallets and price the job on five.

The truck shows up. Your grower's pallets cover 400. Five of them is 2,000 square feet, and you need 2,100.

Sod doesn't keep. It wants to be down the day it shows up. So now you're calling for one more pallet, paying for a second delivery, and finishing the edge of the lawn tomorrow while the homeowner watches that corner.

Pallet coverage isn't a standard. It changes with the grower, the grass, whether it comes in slabs or rolls, and where you are. Slabs in the South often run around 400 to 500 square feet a pallet. Rolls up north often run 500 to 700.

Ask your grower what the pallet covers

The only number that counts is the one on your grower's ticket. Ask before you price. Then the math is easy: the lawn plus your cut allowance, divided by what their pallet really covers, rounded up. A part pallet is a whole pallet on the invoice.

At 400 a pallet, that 2,100 square foot lawn is six pallets. Price it on six.

Yardstick asks for your grower's pallet coverage and never guesses one.