Basic sodding questions, I've decided it's time to kill, till, fill, and sod the backyard. Trying to get basic questions answered before I attack.

Houston Garden Centers has an add for 16" x 24" sod pieces at $.88 each. Wondering how many of these would be on a pallet, and if it's a good deal. Thanks!

Oh yeah, how much fill dirt is "a yard"?

Should be 100 and that doesn't sound like a bad deal to me. I think we paid $85 a pallet a few years ago when I resodded my back yard. I needed 10 the other day and paid a buck each for them.

I call a cubic yard "a yard of dirt". I think we paid a little more for Delmar than Palmetto with Raleigh being the cheapest.

Delmar works great in shade.

The 3 types I've found are Texas Native St. Aug, Palmetto St. Aug, and Raleigh St. Aug.

Any other differences in these besides the shade tolerance described above?

Do you think I could do 800-900 sq. ft in a weekend?

I could kill a week in advance, till and fill on a saturday, lay the sod on a Sunday, does this seem like a reasonable job for 1 man?

I found a couple more dealers...

www.murffturf.com
www.grasslandhouston.com

I'd probably be better off buying from these people who only deal in grass than Houston garden centers. Murffturf will deliver too.

A pallet of grass covers approx 400 sqft. it normally runs between $90-$120 installed...

1) I would deal with a true turf farm as well, but you have to take into consideration delivery minimums and such. Go to turfgrassamerica.com and find someone in your area.

2) While not personally familiar with Palmetto, I've heard great things about it. One thing to make sure to ask about is it's SAD (St. Augustine Decline) resistance. Raleigh is VERY SAD resistant and one reason why it's used so extensively.

3) A pallet of St. Augustine will cover approx. 450 sq. ft. so you'll need two pallets. If you're the only one laying the sod, it's doable in one day, but it's a lot more work than most people think.

GOOD LUCK!!!




Now the thing that I call livin' is just bein' satisfied with knowin' I got no one else to blame





[This message has been edited by Dough (edited 3/27/2007 11:15a).]

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runs between $90-$120 installed...

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Huh?

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Yeah, maybe 15 years ago, but no way nowadays.



Now the thing that I call livin' is just bein' satisfied with knowin' I got no one else to blame

Delivered yes, installed nowhere even close.

I just bought 9 pallets of St Aug and it was trucked to my yard and I paid $85 per pallet.

Sounds about right for 9 palets.

2 pallets by yourself on fresh dirt is easy. The trick when you patch sod is leveling the new sod with the old so you don't have a hump in your yard....this means digging out the old stuff.

Get your yard prepped good first so when you lay the sod it's easy.

Expect to pay anywhere from 85-100 bucks a pallet for grass (a pallet covers 450s.f. typically), and a 50-75 dollar delivery charge. Some places will charge you a $5 pallet deposit.

I'd use Raleigh variety....we use almost exclusively it when people want St. Augustine.

If you are in sandy/neutral or acid soil, Raleigh is good stuff. Otherwise, I am a fan of Flortam.

I'll probably end up with Raleigh St. Augustine. I'm going to have to spread a good amount of Top Soil to make my soil more favorable for growth, it's a pretty hard pack that returns to a hard pack even after being tilled.

I love the "huh" when people quote different prices. Face it, you people in the big cities are gonna get jacked up prices compared to people in less populated areas and those who know where to look to get a better bargain.

If you cannot negotiate $90-$120 installed, you need to give me the grass farm phone number. Sure, if you go to home depot and buy it, yeah, I would concur that that price would be cheap...BTW I and two others laid 22 pallets in 2 days...