Artificial Turf Calculator for Home Depot Shoppers

Measure your yard's raw area — length × width for a rectangle, or π × (diameter ÷ 2)² for a circle — then add a cut/seam allowance, because you never order exactly the raw square footage. A simple rectangular yard that matches a single 12 ft or 15 ft roll width only needs about 5% extra; a yard with curves, borders or a lot of obstacles typically needs 10%, and a circular lawn or one needing many seams needs 15%. Enter your dimensions above to get an exact order-ready figure.

Home Depot's own published guidance puts a typical professional installation (materials and labor together) at $8 to $15 per square foot, rising above $20 per square foot for premium turf or a complex site, with an average project cost of roughly $5,000 (Home Depot, "Cost to Install Artificial Grass," checked 2026-08-06). Buying turf yourself and installing it as a DIY project is usually far cheaper — this calculator's Mid-range default is $4.75 per square foot for material alone.

DIY is typically cheaper on a pure dollar basis: materials-only turf costs in this calculator run roughly $2.50–$8.00 per square foot depending on grade, against $8–$20+ per square foot for Home Depot's own installed service and $16.08–$19.74 per square foot for the broader market (Homewyse, May 2026). The trade-off is labor, base preparation and your own time — professional installers include site prep, disposal of the old lawn and a warranty that a DIY project has to handle separately.

These are the three common artificial turf fiber types, and they set the grade tiers in this calculator. Polypropylene (Economy) is the least expensive at roughly $1.50–$3.50 per square foot but is the least heat- and wear-resistant, better suited to shaded or low-traffic areas. Polyethylene (Mid-range) costs roughly $3.50–$6.00 per square foot, looks more natural, and is the most common residential choice. Nylon or nylon blends (Premium) run roughly $6.00–$10.00 per square foot and hold up best under heavy foot traffic, pets, and heat, but cost the most.

Artificial turf is manufactured in continuous rolls, most commonly 12 ft or 15 ft wide, cut to whatever length your order needs — a 15 ft wide roll cut to 20 ft long covers 300 sq ft. Buying the widest roll that fits your yard minimizes the number of seams you need to join, which is one reason larger, simpler-shaped yards get a lower cut/seam allowance in this calculator.

Most artificial turf benefits from infill — usually silica sand — which weighs the blades down, helps them stand upright, improves drainage, and adds cushioning underfoot. Typical application rates run about 1 lb per square foot for light landscape use, 1.5 lb per square foot as a standard rate, and up to 2 lb per square foot for heavy foot-traffic or pet areas (turf-infill industry guides, checked 2026-08-06). Some short-pile or putting-green-style turf is sold infill-free; check your product's specification.

Silica sand infill typically runs about $0.30 to $0.50 per lb at retail — a 50 lb bag commonly costs $15 to $25, and a 100 lb bag $30 to $50 (turf supply retailer listings, checked 2026-08-06). For a 300 sq ft lawn at the standard 1.5 lb per square foot rate, that is 450 lb of infill, or roughly nine 50 lb bags.

Turf is manufactured in flat rectangular strips. Fitting those strips around a curve means cutting each piece to shape, and the offcuts are usually too small or oddly shaped to reuse elsewhere in the layout — so more of what you buy ends up as waste. That is why this calculator automatically applies the top 15% allowance to circular lawns and disables the manual selector for that shape.

Home Depot's own published $8–$15 per square foot typical range (up to $20+/sq ft) is described as covering materials and labor for a standard installation. It is worth confirming directly with any installer — Home Depot's or otherwise — whether the quote also covers removing the existing lawn, base material (crushed rock or decomposed granite), drainage grading, and edging, since those can be quoted separately on more complex sites.

The area, cost and infill math works the same way for any artificial turf application. Putting greens and heavy pet-traffic areas typically call for the Heavy traffic infill level (2 lb per square foot) and often a higher grade turf for durability — this calculator does not model putting-green specific factors like nap direction or cup placement, which are specialized enough to need a dedicated supplier consultation.

No. Base preparation — excavating the old lawn, laying and compacting a crushed-rock or decomposed-granite base, and adding a weed membrane — is a real and often significant cost for a DIY artificial turf project, and it is usually included inside a professional installer's per-square-foot rate rather than broken out separately. See Method and Limits for the full list of what this tool does not price.

No. This is an independent, third-party calculator built to help shoppers size and cost an artificial turf project before or alongside comparing Home Depot's own published installation pricing. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a product of The Home Depot, Inc.

The 5% / 10% / 15% tiers are general planning allowances based on common turf-buying guidance, not a precise roll-layout calculation for your exact yard shape. A professional installer measuring your specific site with roll widths in mind may get a tighter (or occasionally looser) figure — treat this calculator's order-area output as a solid planning number to take to a supplier, not a final cut list.

No regular watering is needed to keep artificial turf alive, unlike natural sod. Occasional rinsing helps settle infill and clear dust or debris, and in areas with pets, a periodic rinse or enzyme cleaner helps with odor control. This is one of the practical trade-offs against natural turf that this calculator does not price directly, since it depends heavily on climate and use.

Most manufacturers back residential artificial turf with an 8–15 year warranty, and well-installed turf in moderate climates commonly performs well beyond that with routine brushing and rinsing. Heavy UV exposure, very high heat, and heavy pet or foot traffic all shorten realistic lifespan compared to the warranty figure — ask any installer or product listing for the specific warranty terms before you buy.