Sod is sold by the pallet, and how much a pallet covers depends on where you live. Northern cool-season sod comes in 2 by 5 foot rolls, about 50 to 60 of them per pallet for 500 to 600 square feet. Southern warm-season sod comes in 16 by 24 inch slabs, 150 to 170 per pallet, covering closer to 400 square feet.
Order by the square foot, not the pallet
Because pallet coverage differs by farm and by grass type, the number that actually matters is your square footage. Give the supplier that figure and let them tell you how many pallets it works out to.
Ask two questions when you call: how many square feet is a pallet, and how many pieces. Some farms cut short to keep pallet weight down in summer.
Weight is the real constraint
A pallet of cool-season sod weighs around 1,500 pounds wet. Warm-season slabs are denser — a soaked pallet can approach two tons.
This rules out hauling it yourself in most cases. It also means the delivery truck needs somewhere firm to set the pallet, and that a pallet sitting on a lawn for two days will kill the grass underneath it.
It has to go down immediately
Sod is a living product with no roots attached to anything. Stacked on a pallet it begins to compost — the middle of the stack heats up, and in summer it can be yellow in 24 hours and dead in 48.
Prepare the ground completely before the delivery: grade it, add topsoil if needed, rake it smooth and water it lightly. Then take the day off and lay the whole pallet.
Add for cuts, not for luck
Eight percent extra covers normal cutting waste around beds, trees and curved edges. A perfectly rectangular yard needs less than that; a yard full of island beds needs 12 to 15 percent.
Lay pieces in a staggered brick pattern with tight seams and no overlaps. Gaps dry out and turn into weed lines within a month.
Preparing the ground first
Sod laid on unprepared ground roots poorly and shows every bump underneath. The ground wants to be tilled or loosened, graded smooth, and raked to a fine surface with the level set about an inch below any hard edges so the sod finishes flush.
This is also the only opportunity to amend the soil, since you will not get at it again. A starter fertiliser worked into the top inch before laying makes a visible difference in the first month.
Water the prepared soil lightly before laying. Sod placed on dry dust dries from underneath.
The first two weeks decide it
New sod needs water every day, sometimes twice a day in heat, for the first ten days to two weeks — enough that the soil beneath the sod stays damp, not just the grass on top.
The test is to lift a corner. If the soil underneath is dry, the watering is not reaching it.
Stay off it as much as possible during that period, and do not mow until it has rooted enough that a gentle tug will not lift it — usually around two weeks. The first mow should take off no more than a third of the blade.