← Artificial turf bid calculator
A published $8-a-square-foot special treats 600 square feet of landscape turf on a prepared pad as the same job as 800 square feet of pet turf with sod demo, a 4-inch crushed-rock base, zeolite infill, and two tree wells. It is not. Lawn-care calculators price a recurring mow on living grass. Paver and concrete calculators price hardscape. Installing synthetic turf is a type, a waste factor, and the extra work you have to do before the first roll goes down. Quoting all of that from a per-square-foot special is how the first odor callback eats the field margin.
Turf you buy is larger than the lawn because rolls are 15 feet wide. On the sample rates a 600-square-foot landscape job with 10% waste, a 3-inch base, and sod demo prices about $5,468 ($9.11 per square foot, 22.2 crew-hours, 660 sq ft of turf to buy, walk-away $3,828). The same shop’s 800-square-foot pet yard with a 4-inch base and two tree wells prices about $11,124 ($13.90 per square foot, 36.5 hours, 896 sq ft to buy). About a third of that pet bid is extra work — thicker base, zeolite, drainage, and the wells. Matching the landscape job’s $9.11-a-square-foot number on the pet yard is how that job becomes a loss.
Landscaping a pet yard is a callback, not a savings. On the same 800-square-foot lawn the sample rates price landscape turf at about $7,225 — $3,899 less than pet. That gap is drainage and odor-grade infill, not profit. Putting-green of that run prices about $12,639. Landscape is still the right bid on a 600-square-foot refresh that only needed a 3-inch base: pet on that refresh prices higher because you would be buying zeolite for a yard that only needed sand. Treating every lawn as one per-square-foot number is how the type that looked cheapest on paper is not the one that keeps the margin.
A 400-square-foot putting green with 15% waste and 80 feet of seam is not a 600-square-foot landscape job minus 200 square feet. On the sample rates that putting green prices about $7,107 ($17.77 per square foot, 26.1 crew-hours, 460 sq ft to buy). Extra seams and a 4.5-inch base are their own tickets. A 1,200-square-foot landscape job on a new pad (no sod) prices about $9,621 ($8.02 per square foot). Neither number lives in an $8-a-square-foot special.
A $32/h hand loaded at 30% payroll burden is $41.60. Margin is a share of the price you send, not a markup on cost. The walk-away price is total cost — below that the job makes nothing before you take a dollar home. An $8-a-square-foot quote on the 800-square-foot pet yard is $6,400 against a $7,787 walk-away. Replace every rate with your invoices before you send either number.
This is arithmetic on the rates you type. It is not a landscaping specification, a drainage design, a permit, an engineering stamp, or a recommendation of landscape versus pet turf. Base condition, drainage, and what the homeowner will accept still decide the type. Verify every figure against your own takeoff.
No warranty. This free page is not landscaping, construction, legal, tax, or financial advice. You are responsible for reviewing and verifying its output before relying on it. It is hosted best-effort with no SLA: it may be slow, broken, moved, or taken offline without notice. Open the bid calculator to price a specific lawn.
Charge from the turf type (landscape, pet, or putting-green), the lawn square footage, roll waste, crushed-rock base depth, sod demo, infill, seams, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 600-square-foot landscape job with 10% waste, a 3-inch base, and sod demo at the sample rates in this calculator prices around $5,468 — about $9.11 per square foot.
When the yard needs zeolite or antimicrobial infill, extra drainage, a thicker base, and sod demo. On the sample rates an 800-square-foot pet yard with two tree wells prices around $11,124. Landscaping that same yard prices around $7,225. The per-square-foot special never sees the drainage or the odor-grade infill.
A putting green is not landscape turf with a tighter cut. On the sample rates a 400-square-foot putting green on a prepared pad with 15% waste and 80 feet of seam prices around $7,107 ($17.77 per square foot, 26.1 crew-hours, 460 sq ft of turf to buy). Extra seams and a thicker base are their own tickets.