The lawn
Start from a common job, then replace every figure with your takeoff. Changing turf type never overwrites a rate you already typed. This is not a lawn-care calculator (mowing living grass) and not a paver or concrete patio calculator (hardscape).
Your crew rates
A $32/h hand loaded at 30% is $41.60. Quoting the raw wage on a published $8-a-square-foot special is how an 800-square-foot pet yard that looked fine turns into a two-day loss after the first odor callback.
Your bid
- Type and lawn
- Waste, base, extras
- Turf to buy
- Base / sod tons
- Infill bags
- Crew hours
- Loaded labor
- Turf, base, infill, extras
- Travel + equipment
- Overhead
- Total cost
- Profit at this price
- Price per square foot
- Effective hourly rate
- Walk-away price
A bid link carries your own rates — wage, burden, overhead, and target margin — so the page reopens exactly as you left it. Send it to yourself or your crew. The numbers ride after the #, which is never sent to a server, so copying a link uploads nothing. The customer should get the price, not the link.
Same lawn, three turf types
Where the hours go
Where the cost goes
Transparent arithmetic from your own inputs. Starting hours and turf rates are common ballpark figures, not an industry standard, a landscaping specification, or a drainage design — replace them with your own takeoff.
Hand the customer a proposal
The price above is for you. This is the page you print or save as a PDF and give to the customer — your details, their details, the scope, the deposit split, and a line for them to sign. Your business details are saved on this device so you only type them once; the customer’s details are never saved.
Everything on the printed page is text you typed or a number this calculator worked out. It contains no warranty, lien, or cancellation wording — those depend on your jurisdiction and your contract, and this tool is not the place to invent them.
Common questions
What does this turf estimate include?
The price adds up turf material for the lawn area plus roll waste, a crushed-rock base by depth, sod demo and dump weight when selected, infill bags, geotextile fabric when selected, seam tape and perimeter nails, tree wells, a permit line, travel and equipment, overhead, and your target margin — all from the turf type, area, and rates you enter, not a flat price list.
Why does landscape, pet, and putting-green turf price differently for the same lawn?
Each turf type starts from its own suggested hours and material rates — pet turf adds drainage hours and drainage material that landscape and putting-green turf skip, on top of a heavier turf and infill weight. The “Same lawn, three turf types” comparison prices your same takeoff under each type’s starting kit so you can see where a cheap landscape rate would lose money on a pet yard.
Why is the turf I buy bigger than the lawn I measured?
Turf ships in rolls that are typically 15 feet wide, so seams and cuts leave scrap on almost every job. The waste percent you enter is applied to the lawn area to get the turf you actually buy, and every line that scales with turf rather than lawn area — install labor among them — uses that larger number.
Is my data uploaded anywhere?
No account and no network requests — the calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your bid is saved in this browser’s local storage between visits, and a bid link you copy carries those same numbers in the page’s URL hash rather than sending anything to a server.
What’s the difference between the bid price and the walk-away price?
The bid price already includes your target margin on top of labor, materials, and overhead. The walk-away price is the total cost underneath it — labor, turf, base, infill, seams, and every other line item — the point below which the job stops being profitable at all.
Does this check drainage, code, or engineering requirements?
No. Hours and material rates are ballpark shop figures you can edit, not a landscaping specification, drainage design, or engineering stamp. Sod demo, geotextile fabric, and pet-turf drainage are exactly the extra costs a flat per-square-foot special leaves out, but whether a specific yard needs them is still a judgment call for the site walk.