Sod Installation Cost: Pricing a Lawn Job in 2026

Sod installation cost starts with the square foot

Measure the net area you will actually cover.

Then round up to a full pallet, because that is the unit the farm loads. Super-Sod publishes its pallet as 50 rolls of 10 square feet, so 500 square feet.

SimplyWise Cost Estimator turns a photo of the yard into an itemized estimate in about 6 seconds.

What the grass costs, by variety

Super-Sod lists a price per square foot for each variety at each branch that carries it. It states outright that the price varies by location. We read all of them on September 14, 2026.

Those are list prices. Super-Sod drops the rate per square foot at 500, 1,000, 3,500 and 6,000 square feet, so read them as ceilings.

Read the spread inside one variety before you read the gap between varieties. TifTuf Bermuda swings 70 cents a square foot across one company’s own yards. That beats the gap between Bermuda and fescue.

A second farm, and why roll size matters

Siouxland Sod in Omaha publishes its own order online list. A small hand roll covering 7 square feet is $12. A large roll covering 400 square feet is $150.

That is $1.71 a square foot in hand rolls. It is 38 cents in large rolls, same farm, same day. Roll size sets that difference, not grass.

What we will not price

We wanted published prices for bulk topsoil and starter fertilizer. The national retailers that list them by name price them at the branch and show no figure.

So this page does not carry a topsoil or fertilizer number. Price those off your own supplier ticket rather than a borrowed range.

The prep line that actually moves the ticket

Grass is the predictable half. The variable half is what happens before a roll touches dirt, and it is all crew hours and haul fees.

Kill off the old lawn, strip it, haul it. Till, then grade to fall away from the foundation. Screen in topsoil where the grade came up short, and broadcast a starter feed. Any one of those can double a small job.

What the labor side pays

The federal occupation is Landscaping and Groundskeeping Workers, code 37-3011. In the May 2025 national table it covers 952,640 jobs.

The hourly mean is $20.33 and the median is $18.82. The spread is the useful part: $17.40 at the 25th percentile, $22.52 at the 75th, and $27.28 at the 90th.

Those are wages an employer pays an employee. The federal survey does not cover the self employed, so none of these is a billed rate. Yours carries burden, equipment, and margin on top.

A worked example of sod installation cost

Take a 3,200 square foot lawn in TifTuf Bermuda. Seven pallets covers it, which is 3,500 square feet, with 300 square feet of overage.

At the Benton price of $1.00 the grass is $3,500. At the Bryan Farm price of $1.70 the same grass is $5,950. Same variety, same pallet count. Both are list-tier ceilings before the pallet discount.

Three people for one day is 24 crew hours. At the 75th percentile wage of $22.52 that is $540.48 in wages before any burden or margin.

This is a worked illustration off the stated inputs, not a quote.

Price a sod job in four steps

1. Measure the net area

   Take out beds, walks, and the dry shade under mature trees. Sod laid where it will not hold is a callback.

2. Round up to full pallets

   Divide by the farm’s stated pallet coverage and round up. Confirm that coverage with your farm, because cut size differs.

3. Price the grass at your branch

   Use the price at the yard you will actually load from. One company’s own branches vary by more than one variety differs from another.

4. Bid prep as its own line

   Kill off, strip, haul, till, grade, topsoil, starter feed. Separate lines, with the haul off called out on its own.