Quick Summary
One pallet of sod covers approximately 450 to 500 square feet, so a typical New Orleans front yard of around 1,000 square feet needs two pallets plus a partial. Measure the area in feet, multiply length by width, then add five to ten percent for cuts and waste around beds, walks and irregular edges. Order by area rather than by pallet count, because coverage per pallet varies between farms and grass varieties. Big Easy Sod delivers full and partial pallets across Greater New Orleans and confirms the right order size before anything is cut, which matters because sod is harvested to order and cannot be returned.
Last Updated: August 2026
On this page
- How much does one pallet of sod actually cover?
- How do you measure a yard that is not a neat rectangle?
- How much extra should you order for cuts and waste?
- How many pallets does your yard need?
- How heavy is a pallet of sod, and can you haul it yourself?
- Can you buy a partial pallet instead of a full one?
- How fast do you have to lay sod after delivery?
- Frequently Asked Questions
Ordering sod is one of the few home projects where guessing costs money in both directions. Order short and the job stops with bare soil showing while a second delivery is arranged, by which point the first pallets have been sitting in Louisiana heat. Order long and you have paid for grass that will be dead within two days, because sod is cut fresh and cannot be sent back. Big Easy Sod cuts and delivers across the New Orleans area, and the sizing conversation happens before the harvest rather than after.
The arithmetic is simple. What trips people up is measuring an irregular lot, forgetting the waste factor, and underestimating what a pallet weighs when it arrives.
How much does one pallet of sod actually cover?
One pallet covers approximately 450 to 500 square feet, which is the figure Big Easy Sod quotes. Coverage is set by the producer, because farms cut different piece sizes, stack different quantities and vary soil thickness by variety and season. Order by square footage rather than pallet count.
The practical consequence is that a pallet is not a fixed unit the way a bag of concrete is. Two suppliers can both sell you “a pallet” and deliver noticeably different coverage. If you plan a job around 500 square feet per pallet and the pallets that arrive carry 450, a 2,000 square foot yard finishes about 200 square feet short, which is most of a small front lawn.
Tell the supplier your measured area and let them work out the pallets. That is the version of the conversation that cannot go wrong, and it is how the delivery side of the business quotes a coverage estimate rather than asking a homeowner to do the conversion.
How do you measure a yard that is not a neat rectangle?
Break the yard into rectangles, measure each one, and add them together. Almost no New Orleans lot is a clean rectangle, and the classic narrow deep lot with a side servitude, a walkway and a raised porch is really four or five small areas rather than one big one. Measure each in feet, multiply length by width, then total.
Work through it in this order:
- Sketch the yard roughly on paper, marking the house, driveway, walks, beds and anything else that will not be grassed.
- Divide the remaining green space into rectangles and triangles. Odd corners can be squared off, the waste factor absorbs the difference.
- Measure each shape in feet. For a rectangle multiply length by width. For a triangle multiply base by height and halve it.
- Add the areas together, then subtract anything inside the boundary that stays uncovered, such as a tree ring or a patio.
- Round up to the nearest ten square feet, then apply the waste factor described below.
Curved beds are where people lose accuracy. Rather than trying to calculate a curve, measure the rectangle that contains it and accept that you have slightly over-ordered, because a few extra pieces are far cheaper than a second delivery.
How much extra should you order for cuts and waste?
Add five to ten percent. Every piece cut to fit a curve, a walkway edge, a tree ring or a bed line leaves an offcut that usually cannot be used anywhere else. On a simple open rectangle five percent is enough. On a yard with beds, curves, a walk and a driveway apron, take the full ten.
Go higher than ten percent in two situations. The first is a yard with many small separated areas, such as a front lawn split by a walk and a drive, because each area carries its own edge losses. The second is a slope, where pieces are trimmed to sit flat and joints need more overlap.
Waste is also affected by how well the ground was prepared. A properly graded, debris-free bed takes pieces cleanly, while an uneven surface means more trimming and more discarded material, which is one of several reasons getting the ground ready before delivery day changes the economics of the whole job.
How many pallets does your yard need?
Take your measured area, add ten percent, then divide by 450 to be safe. The table below does that arithmetic for common yard sizes. Because coverage varies between 450 and 500 square feet per pallet, each row shows a range, and the sensible order is the higher figure when the difference is a partial pallet.
| Measured area | Plus 10 percent | Pallets needed | Typical yard |
|---|---|---|---|
| 500 sq ft | 550 | 1 full plus a partial | Small courtyard or side yard |
| 1,000 sq ft | 1,100 | 2 full plus a partial | Typical front lawn |
| 1,500 sq ft | 1,650 | 3 full plus a partial | Front and one side |
| 2,000 sq ft | 2,200 | 4 to 5 | Modest back yard |
| 3,000 sq ft | 3,300 | 7 to 8 | Full residential lot |
| 5,000 sq ft | 5,500 | 11 to 13 | Large lot or small commercial |
Treat these as planning numbers for budgeting and access, not as an order. The supplier confirms the real figure against the variety being cut.
How heavy is a pallet of sod, and can you haul it yourself?
A pallet of sod weighs well over a ton, and no, it does not go in a car or a light trailer. Published figures across the industry range from roughly 1,500 to 3,000 pounds and higher, and the spread is real rather than sloppy reporting, because weight depends on soil thickness, piece size and above all moisture.
Rain is the variable that catches people out. Sod cut after a wet spell can weigh substantially more than the same pallet cut in dry conditions, and in a climate that averages around 62 inches of rain a year, the wet version is not the exception. Three things follow from that:
- Delivery needs a truck that can set the pallet down, which usually means a forklift or a boom. Curbside drops are common where a truck cannot get onto the property.
- Access matters more here than in most markets. Narrow streets, no driveway, a raised house or a rear yard reached only through a side gate all change where the pallet can physically be placed.
- Once it is down, moving it is manual. Every piece gets carried or barrowed from wherever the pallet was set, so placement is worth thinking about before the truck arrives rather than after.
Say up front what the access looks like. A photograph of the street frontage answers more questions than a description does, and it prevents the situation where a truck arrives and cannot unload.
Can you buy a partial pallet instead of a full one?
Yes. Partial pallets are standard for small repairs and for the leftover area on a larger job, and they are the reason the table above reads “plus a partial” rather than rounding everyone up to a full pallet. Paying for 450 square feet to patch 120 square feet makes no sense for anybody.
Partial orders matter most on repair work, where the area is defined and small. Replacing a failed section rather than a whole yard is usually the cheaper and better decision when the surrounding grass is healthy, and it is worth pricing a full replacement against patching only the dead area before committing either way.
One caveat. Grass varies slightly between harvests in color and blade width, so a partial pallet laid next to established lawn can look marginally different for the first few weeks. It blends as the new grass matures.
How fast do you have to lay sod after delivery?
Lay it the day it arrives. Sod is a living crop harvested to order, and stacked on a pallet it begins heating from the inside almost immediately. In New Orleans summer conditions the usable window is short, and grass left stacked through a hot weekend can arrive green and be dead by Monday.
This is the single most common way a well-planned job goes wrong, and it is why order sizing and scheduling belong in the same conversation. Book the delivery for a day the ground is already prepared and there are enough hands to lay it, not for the day that happens to be convenient. Timing at the seasonal level matters too, and the windows in the year when new sod roots fastest here affect how much margin for error you have.
If the job is larger than the household can lay in a day, that is the point to bring in a crew. The team handles measuring, delivery and installation as one job across Orleans and Jefferson parishes and the Northshore, which removes both the sizing risk and the clock.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many square feet is a pallet of sod?
Approximately 450 to 500 square feet, varying by farm and grass variety. Order by your measured square footage rather than by pallet count so the difference cannot leave you short.
How much sod do I need for 1,000 square feet?
Around 1,100 square feet once you add ten percent for cuts and waste, which works out to two full pallets plus a partial. A supplier who sells partial pallets will size that last piece to the actual area.
Can I return sod I did not use?
No. Sod is harvested to order and starts declining as soon as it is cut, so suppliers cannot restock it. That is why the waste factor is five to ten percent rather than fifty.
Will a pallet of sod fit in a pickup truck?
A full pallet exceeds the payload rating of most half ton pickups once moisture is accounted for, and it still has to be unloaded by hand at the other end. Delivery is the practical route for anything beyond a few pieces.
Does a pallet of sod cost less than buying pieces individually?
Per square foot, full pallets are the cheaper unit, which is why the sizing question matters. Buying a full pallet to cover a small patch is still poor value even at the better rate.
How much does sod installation cost in New Orleans?
Cost depends on area, grass variety, site access and how much ground preparation the yard needs, so it is quoted per job rather than published as a flat rate.
Who delivers sod in the New Orleans area?
Big Easy Sod delivers full and partial pallets across New Orleans, Metairie, Kenner, Gretna, Slidell, Mandeville and Covington, typically same-day or next-day depending on the variety and quantity ordered.
Get the square footage confirmed before you order
Measuring is the part worth getting right, because everything downstream is arithmetic. Call Big Easy Sod at (504) 608-3321 with your measurements and the team will convert them into an order and a delivery slot, or send the yard dimensions through for a written quote if you would rather have it in writing first. Where the timeline matters, it is worth knowing how long a job of your size usually takes on the ground, and how quickly a new lawn needs watering once it is down.
