Are those piece sizes the ones my supplier uses?

Probably not exactly. The slab, roll and pallet sizes here follow one common convention, and suppliers differ — turf is frequently sold in rolls of about a square metre, and pallet coverage varies with the roll size and the lifting equipment. The area is the number that transfers: take 94.5 m² to a supplier and let them convert it into their own units, which they will do correctly and which also settles how many pieces fit on a pallet their vehicle can carry. Use the piece counts here to sanity-check a quotation, not to place an order.

Is laying turf better than sowing seed?

They answer different questions. Turf gives a finished lawn on the day it is laid and costs several times what seed does for the same area; seed costs little, can be sown in a wider range of conditions, and needs weeks of watering and keeping off before it looks like anything. Turf also arrives as one variety chosen by the grower, while seed lets the mixture be matched to shade, wear and soil. Where the ground slopes enough to wash seed away, turf holds from the first day and is worth the difference; on a flat plot with time to spare, seed usually is not worth beating.

The Waste Allowance Is Free When the Pallet Is Big Enough

Published 10/12/2026 · 4 min read · Everyday calculators

Marco Bianchi — Home, DIY & motoring writer at OneKitly

Renovation · Materials

Checked against 2 sources

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In short

The area is 12 × 7.5 = 90 m², and a five per cent allowance for cutting and damage takes it to 94.5. What that costs depends entirely on the size of the unit being bought. Counted in small slabs it is eighteen more; counted in rolls it is five more; counted in pallets it is nothing at all, because 90 m² already needed three and 94.5 still needs three. That is the general shape of buying anything in indivisible units: the allowance is free whenever the rounding has already swallowed it, and expensive whenever the unit is small enough to track the number closely. Three pallets cover 125 m² for a 94.5 m² job, so a quarter of what arrives is surplus — which is the real cost here, and it is not the waste allowance.

A 12 by 7.5 metre lawn is 90 m², or 94.5 with a 5 % allowance. That allowance adds eighteen slabs, five rolls — and no pallets at all, because three cover both.

Five per cent suits a rectangle and nothing else

A rectangular lawn wastes almost nothing: the pieces run in straight courses and only the last one in each row gets cut, with the offcut usually starting the next row. Every departure from that shape costs more. A curved border means cutting a rectangular piece to a curve and binning the crescent; a tree, a path or an island bed means cutting around it on several sides; a narrow strip down the side of a house may waste more than it uses if the piece is wider than the strip. On anything other than a rectangle, ten to fifteen per cent is a better starting point, and the shape of the offcuts matters more than their total area — a hundred small crescents cannot be assembled into a usable piece.

Turf is perishable, so surplus is not a reserve

Aggregate left over sits in the corner of a yard for years. Turf does not: it is a living plant lifted from a field, and stacked on a pallet it heats and yellows within a couple of warm days. That changes what over-ordering means — the surplus is not a reserve for the next job but a loss on this one, and it also changes the sequence of work. Prepare and level the ground before the delivery arrives rather than after, and arrange for it to arrive on the morning you intend to lay it. Where a delivery has to sit, unstack the pallets in the shade and keep the pieces damp; that buys hours, not days.

For 90 m²

90 m² of lawn, with and without a 5 % allowance
Unit	For 90 m²	For 94.5 m²
Small slabs	363	381
Rolls	97	102
Pallets	3	3

Worked with our own calculator

Sod calculator

Given

Lawn shape: Rectangle
Length / diameter / base: 12 m
Width / height (rect & triangle): 7.5 m
Waste allowance (%): 5
Price per pallet (optional): $0.00

Result

Area: 94.5 m²
Slabs (2.67 sq ft): 381
Rolls (10 sq ft): 102
Pallets (450 sq ft): 3
Estimated cost: $0.00

These figures are produced by the calculator below, not typed in by hand — they are recomputed whenever the tool changes.

Run it on your own figures →

Frequently asked questions

Are those piece sizes the ones my supplier uses?: Probably not exactly. The slab, roll and pallet sizes here follow one common convention, and suppliers differ — turf is frequently sold in rolls of about a square metre, and pallet coverage varies with the roll size and the lifting equipment. The area is the number that transfers: take 94.5 m² to a supplier and let them convert it into their own units, which they will do correctly and which also settles how many pieces fit on a pallet their vehicle can carry. Use the piece counts here to sanity-check a quotation, not to place an order.
Is laying turf better than sowing seed?: They answer different questions. Turf gives a finished lawn on the day it is laid and costs several times what seed does for the same area; seed costs little, can be sown in a wider range of conditions, and needs weeks of watering and keeping off before it looks like anything. Turf also arrives as one variety chosen by the grower, while seed lets the mixture be matched to shade, wear and soil. Where the ground slopes enough to wash seed away, turf holds from the first day and is worth the difference; on a flat plot with time to spare, seed usually is not worth beating.

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