For some areas the math is easy and you won’t have much, if any excess turf. If your area is 15′ wide, it’s simple. No seams or excess turf. You will still have to cut off the factory edges.  If your area is 30′, 45′ or 60′ ft, 15′ rolls will fit perfectly without having to buy excess turf.

But what if your area is 40′ x 70′?  Or, 50′ x 80′?  Or any size that is not easily divisible by 15 on one side. Well, you’ve got a couple decisions to make.

Let’s take 40′ x 70′, or 2,800, sq ft for example:

See Image 1, above. You can purchase three (3), 15′ x 70’s, which is 3,150 sq ft and covers 45′ x 70′.  And you will have 5′ x 70′, or 350 sq ft leftover. If you are buying turf for $1.69 sq ft, that’s $591.50 more in turf than you need.

OR, you can go the other way, and buy five (5), 15′ x 40′ foot rolls, which covers 40′ x 75′, or 3,000 sq ft, with only a 5′ x 40′ leftover, or 200 sq ft more than you need. See Image 2, below.

This is 150 sq ft less of turf, or $253.5 @ $1.69 sq ft, you can save by turning the turf the other way.

While you might save, $253.50 in cost, your seams will be running across the area, much like a football field and may get more wear. But in Batting Cages, the net often falls on the turf every 14′ to 15′ feet, and if the seam goes vertically 70′ every 15′ under the net, the seam actually gets very little wear over time, and you may not ever have to worry about seams coming apart. In retractable cages, they will get more wear, of course, when the nets are open.

On the other hand, the advantage in purchasing five (5), 15’x 40’s is that these rolls are easier to unload from freight trucks and move around.  15′ x 40s will weigh about 300 lbs (unless it’s padded turf), while the 15′ x 70’s will weigh about 550 lbs which is sometimes the difference between needing a forklift or a lot more people to unload and place the turf.

The other variable to consider is that three (3), 15′ x 70’s will give you two (2), 70ft seams or 140 ft total seam.  Whereas, five (5), 15′ x 40’s will be 160′ ft of seam, as 4 seams x 40′ equals 160 ft, which is 20′ more seam.  For turf installers, the general rule is to lay the turf whichever way has the least amount of seams, but you have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages to each, for your own facility. Seam variables are less of a concern for batting cages than they are for higher traffic soccer and football cases.

Pro Tip: If you choose the five (5), 15′ x 40′ rolls for your batting cage, consider putting the partial roll at the opposite end of the cages from where the batters stand, otherwise you might have a seam going right through the highest traffic area, as it will only be 10′ in as opposed to 15′ in.

One, 5 gallon bucket of glue covers roughly 180 ft of seam, so in these 2 cases, there is no cost difference between having 140 or 160 ft of seam, because you will need 1 bucket, one way or the other.

But what if your area is 60′ x 70′? Then you have three (3), 70′ foot seams which is 210′ feet of seam. More than one (1), 5 gallon bucket of turf glue.  You’ll need to buy more glue and tape.

In summary, you can save money on the front end by flipping your length and width of turf rolls to reduce the amount of excess turf you are purchasing, but it’s important to visualize where your seams are going to be in your area, in addition to your ability to unload 550 lbs from a freight truck, and decide for yourself whether the cost savings are worth it.

Do you have an area 40′ x 70′ or 50′ x 80′ that you need to turf? Give ATXTurf a call to discuss the options.  866-428-2809