Which Direction to Lay Turf Rolls

Published April 30, 2025

When ordering multiple rolls of turf, you or your installer will have to decide which way to lay the rolls of turf.   As most areas are rectangular, there are 4 choices:

North to South

South to North

East to West

West to East

Choosing to run the rolls North to South vs East to West can have several implications.   

First, You may be purchasing more turf than necessary with a larger remnant roll leftover at the end, by running one way and not the other.  This depends entirely on your dimensions.    

Use the ATXTurf Advanced 3D Turf Calculator to enter your dimensions and check the “Change Roll Direction” Checkbox, and it will automatically calculate the total square footage, cost and remnant sizes of both directions.   See areas highlighted in Red below and the calculated roll size information section for remnant totals below that.

If you have a 48’ x 70’ area for example, you can run 4, 15’ x 70’s North to South (the Long lWay), covering 60’ x 70’, or 4,200 sq ft  with a 12’ x 70’ or (840sqft) leftover as depicted in the animation below.

Alternatively, you could purchase 5, 15’ x 48’ rolls and run them East to West, covering 75’ x 48’ 3,600 sq ft with  5’ x 48’ (240sqft) remnant roll leftover.   This is a less expensive way as you won’t be purchasing as many square feet of turf.  See Video Below.

However, you will have 4, 48’ seams running across the area as opposed to 3, 70’ seams running the length of the area. 

If you are planning to do speed and agility and pushing sleds the length of the area, this can be an issue, as continuous sled wear across the seams can result in accelerated seam wear and separation.  

Similarly, in batting cages, the nets often fall over or near the seam when run the long way, at 70′ in this case, which works out well as the seams get very little wear in these cases.  

So think about your actual dimensions and which way is best to lay our turf based on your high traffic areas.  By turning the rolls the other way, you might save some money and get better performance out of your turf over time.

Feel free to call a rep at ATXTurf or reach out through our chat support in the lower right hand corner of this web page.  We’re here to help.