Many homeowners enjoy taking on DIY projects to cut down on costs or fill their weekends with busy work. As a fellow DIYer, I get it. It’s understandable to save on home improvement work if you feel confident in the task at hand. However, when it comes to assessing sod installation costs in Holly Springs, it’s often best left to the pros.
At Peak Sodding, we believe in providing transparency and open communication with all of our existing and prospective clients. Acting on that philosophy, we have created a buyer’s guide.
In this post, we will outline:
- The different factors that can affect your sod installation cost
- Share a glimpse into how these costs are calculated.
- Help you decide if our sod installation cost is affordable for your individual project.
Factors that Affect Sod Installation Cost in Holly Springs
When providing a sod estimate, the Peak Sodding method is not to provide a one-size-fits-all price. We understand every lawn environment is different. Because of this, we prepare our sod quotes using the following criteria:
- Amount of Prep Work
- Lawn Size
- Sod Type
- Required Materials and Equipment and
- Quantity of Materials Required
Amount of Prep Work
Prep work is essential to a successful lawn installation. While you can install sod without prep, it is often creating far more problems than solutions and can easily result in a loss of your investment. When assessing your sod installation cost, we must estimate the amount of time every job could potentially take.
Some customers have lawns with easy access (front yards, flat, fewer obstacles, etc.) which allow our team to easily move around and operate with little exhaustion or need to work around tricky obstacles. Others, however, may be much more tricky t0 access (sloped, back yards, trees, and hardscape galore, etc.) thus requiring more time. This timing is especially important as we aim to have all our sod laid within the first 48 hours of sod being cut.
Consider the specific conditions of your own lawn. Do you have many trees? Is your soil base compacted or rocky? Is your lawn sloped? Are there any roots spread throughout your lawn? Will your lawn need to be regraded to ensure effective drainage? Do you have any fenced-in areas that could prove too narrow for equipment accessibility? Do you have irrigation heads or other items that could be potentially damaged and should be avoided when clearing a lawn?
All these factors can and often will influence your total sod quote. How great of an influence may largely depend upon how severe each of the above conditions may be.
This lawn had a great sandy soil base and very little existing vegetation to clear making it an easy and quick preparation for our team.
Lawn Size
One of the first steps, when we provide a sod consultation, is to measure your lawn. We always want to ensure you get the exact amount of sod necessary to ensure every desired area of lawn is accounted for.
When you receive a sod estimate from Peak Sodding, you will notice we charge a price per square foot installed. This price covers the entire project of the sod installation. As you can imagine, the larger the size of the job, the more materials, time, and equipment will be required. That said, due to bulk pricing, time efficiency, and easier accessibility, the larger your sod job, the lower your price per square foot.
How Does Sod Type Influence Sod Installation Cost?
Successful sod installation starts with great grass. We choose high-quality sod from local farmers and inspect our sod types seasonally. Based on the type of sod you choose or one we recommend based on the unique climate in NC, costs can vary. We always offer several varieties of sod to pick from based on your lawn environment. Fescue, Zoysia, and Bermuda are the most common grass types, but even these have subcategories that will influence your sod cost even more.
In order to make these differences of sod cost make the most sense, we differentiate our sod types into categories of Economy, Standard, and High-grade varieties. While it may not seem like it, sod type is easily one of the most influential factors when determining your total sod installation cost. Visit our Sod page to see sod grass types for this season.
Premium sod installs like Zeon Zoysia can cost much more than other varieties of sod.
Required Materials and Equipment
While anyone can go into Home Depot and rent a tiller, other materials and equipment are required. And, they are not as easily accessible. Depending upon the nature of your individual sod installation, your lawn may be a small area with narrow accessibility. Equipment like a sod cutter may be the only option to clear your lawn. If sod, you can often anticipate this causing the project to take a long time depending upon how large your area may be.
If you have a larger lawn or soil that requires more aggressive tilling, we will often bring in a skid steer with special tilling attachments which allow for easy grading and preparation of the soil. This will often reduce the amount of time taken if our team were to use a sod cutter or a tiller. While the equipment cost influence may be greater, the time cost may be lesser.
How Many Materials Are Required?
Finally, we must access the amount of material is necessary for the most successful sod installation. Some lawns may require very little additional soil as the base is already rich and loose. More often than not, we aim to spread at least half an inch to an inch of rich topsoil throughout the lawn areas. Lawns that require a regrade may also require an additional compactable soil base. Since topsoil is not compactable, the additional dirt will often be clay-based to allow for an effective grade. It is also important to realize that greater amounts of material will influence the amount of time necessary in order to spread properly.
What Is My Sod Installation Cost in Holly Springs?
We understand that sod cost is one of the biggest deciding factors for homeowners. That’s why we wanted to create this easy-to-follow buyer’s guide for prospective customers.
For square foot sod installation estimates, please visit the bottom of our About Us page where we share actual price ranges and answer common Q&A we’ve received from our homeowners. If you feel that sod installation cost in Holly Springs is in your budget, reach out and chat with us. We can offer a personalized quote based on your unique lawn and the specifics of your project.