Which grass do you want?
Start with the sun. Count the hours of direct sunlight the lawn gets in June, not what it looks like at 8 a.m. Six or more hours and you are in Bermuda country: the toughest, cheapest, most drought-tolerant grass we sell, the one on every new build from Alliance to Mansfield. Four hours or less under pecans and live oaks and you want St. Augustine, Raleigh in filtered shade and Palmetto in the dark corners; it is the only grass that holds under a Lakewood or Ridglea canopy. In between, or when you want the lawn people stop to look at, Zoysia: slow-growing, dense, soft underfoot, and the default in Plano and Preston Hollow front yards.
Then think about how the yard gets used. Dogs and kids favor Bermuda. A formal front yard favors Zoysia. A shaded side yard nobody walks on is happy as St. Augustine. Plenty of DFW yards run two grasses with a straight cut at the seam, and there is nothing wrong with that. The full comparison is in Bermuda vs. St. Augustine vs. Zoysia. If you are still weighing sod against seed, note that none of these three can be seeded in the form you actually want: sod vs. seed lays out why.
How much sod do you need?
Measure the ground you actually want grass on, not the lot. Subtract beds, the driveway, and the patio. Divide by 450, which is one pallet, add 5 percent for trimming around curves and edges, and round up to whole pallets. A typical DFW front yard is two to four pallets; a full new-build lot in Mansfield can be ten. If the tape measure is not your thing, draw the lawn on our satellite map and it does the math. The long version with worked examples is How much sod do I need?
Prep the ground, or the sod will not root
Most of Dallas-Fort Worth sits on Blackland Prairie clay, the Houston Black that swells when wet and cracks in August. Sod laid straight onto compacted clay, or onto the builder fill under a new house, sits on top of the ground instead of growing into it, and it thins out by the second summer. The prep that works is simple: kill or remove the old turf, grade so water runs away from the house, spread two inches of topsoil, rake it smooth, and check that the sprinklers hit every corner. When we install, that prep is on the same ticket. When you install yourself, do not skip it. The five steps, with the topsoil math, are in how to prep clay soil before sod, and the laying itself is in how to lay sod yourself.
When to lay sod in North Texas
Sod can go down any month the ground is not frozen. Bermuda and Zoysia root fastest from April through September when the soil is warm; laid in December they sit dormant and green up in March, which is fine, as long as they get watered. St. Augustine prefers spring through early fall. The real timing rule is about water and rain: do not lay sod into a saturated yard after a storm, and do not lay it into a July heat wave without a sprinkler plan that runs twice a day. Order by Wednesday for a Friday cut and a weekend install. The month-by-month version is in when to lay sod in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Delivery: what 48 hours really means
Sod is a living crop. It is cut the morning after you order, stacked on pallets, and driven to your driveway within 48 hours, weather permitting. Rain at the farm can push a cut by a day; heat means it needs to go down the day it arrives. A pallet weighs about a ton, so the forklift sets it on the driveway or the street, and nobody has to be home. The honest version, with the rain and heat caveats, is on How sod works.
Watering new sod
Water within 30 minutes of the last piece going down, soaking until the soil under the sod is wet. Then every day for ten days, twice a day in July and August, every other day in week two, and one or two deep soaks a week once the sod resists a gentle tug. Watering rules differ by city and by drought stage. All five cities we cover ban sprinklers between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. year round, but day-of-week limits and new-lawn variances are not the same in any two of them, so check your city’s current schedule before the first soak. Each city page links to that city’s own water conservation rules. The day-by-day schedule and the warning signs are in How do you water new sod in Texas heat?
Mowing, feeding, and the first year
Do not mow until the sod resists a gentle tug, which is usually two to three weeks. Then mow on the high side of the range for your grass, Bermuda at 1 to 2 inches, Zoysia at 1 to 2.5, St. Augustine at 2.5 to 4 and taller under trees, and never take more than a third of the blade at once. Hold the fertilizer for three to four weeks after install, then use a balanced starter. Keep pre-emergent off the lawn until it has been mowed three or four times, because the chemistry that stops weed seeds rooting stops sod rooting too.
Pests and diseases that hit DFW lawns
Brown patch shows up as circular tan rings on St. Augustine in cool wet weather, and evening watering is usually the cause, so water at dawn instead. Chinch bugs make dry, yellowing patches in hot St. Augustine near driveways and sidewalks. Armyworms strip Bermuda in a couple of days in late summer, so watch for moths and chewed blades. Grubs make turf lift away like a rug. Catch any of these early and the lawn recovers; catch them late and you are re-sodding.
Winter dormancy
All three grasses go tan from roughly November through March. That is dormancy, not death. Water lightly through dry winter spells and expect green-up in April once the soil warms. Do not fertilize a dormant lawn and do not decide in January that the sod failed.
The full month-by-month version, including seams, dogs, shade, and sprinkler coverage, is in our sod care guide.
What sod costs in DFW
Delivered pallets run from the mid two hundreds for Tifway 419 Bermuda to the low four hundreds for Emerald Zoysia; every price is on the sod page. Installed, with prep, the typical ranges are $800-1,000 / pallet for Bermuda, $800-1,000 / pallet for Zoysia, and $800-1,000 / pallet for St. Augustine, and the spread inside each range is mostly prep: a yard that needs the old turf hauled off and topsoil brought in costs more than one that is graded and bare. Whether to take delivery only or the whole job is its own decision; we laid it out in Delivery vs. installation vs. DIY.
Who this is for
Before you order, the pre-purchase questions we get most, on cost, prep, quantity, lead time, and what happens if it does not take, are collected in what to know before you buy sod.
Homeowners replacing a lawn that died, new-build owners staring at fill dirt, landlords turning a rental, and anyone in Fort Worth, Dallas, Arlington, Plano, or Mansfield who wants a finished lawn this month instead of a seeded one next year. If you are not sure which of those you are, ask a real person or ask Rolly, and we will point you at the right grass and the right amount of it.
Questions people ask
How long does sod take to root in North Texas?
Two to three weeks in warm soil, longer in winter. Tug a corner: when it resists, it has rooted, and that is the signal to start the first mow and to taper the watering.
Is sod better than seed in Dallas-Fort Worth?
For a finished lawn this season, yes. St. Augustine is only sold as sod, Zoysia from seed is slow and patchy, and Bermuda seed needs a weed-free bed and a summer of babysitting. Seed wins only on price for a large, sunny, patient yard.
Can I lay sod on top of my old grass?
No. Sod laid over living turf or thatch sits on top of the ground instead of rooting into it. Kill or strip the old lawn, grade, add topsoil, then sod.
