Before shopping for fertilizer or other lawn care products, you need to have an estimate of the square footage of the area to be treated. The majority of lawn products are sold based upon the size of the lawn.   The square footage of your lawn can be calculated one of two ways:  calculate the entire lot and subtract non-lawn areas, or break the lawn down into sections and calculate the area of each, then add them together.

 

If everyone had a nice square lawn, calculating the square footage (length  x width) would be easy, but the vast majority of lawns are not that simple. By using the information listed below, an estimate of the square footage of your lawn can be calculated.  Keep in mind this is an estimate, which is all that is needed.

 

Acreage

If you know the acreage of your land, conversions for acreage to square footage are listed below. For simplicity, and because this is an estimate, thinking in 10,000 square foot increments is usually close enough. For example:  10,000 (1/4 acre), 20,000 (1/2 acre), etc.

One acre = 43,560 square feet

½ acre = 21,780 square feet

¼ acre = 10,890 square feet

Calculate: _____ acres x 43,560 = ______square footage

 

Rectangular

If you know the dimensions of your land, the calculation consists of length x width.  If you do not know the dimension, you can step it off. Estimate each step as three feet.  For example if it takes 30 steps to walk the width of your lawn, it is 90 feet wide.

Calculate: ______ length (feet) x ______ width (feet) = ________ square footage

 

Other Shapes

If your lawn is odd shaped, some formulas to help you calculate the square footage are listed below.  Many lawns contain different shapes, so use as many formulas as you need.

 

For a circular area: 

                                               

 (The radius is half the distance across the circle.)  Calculate:  3.14 (p) x _____ radius (feet) x ______ radius (feet) again = ______ square footage

 

For a triangular area:                         

                                               

  ______ base (feet) x _______ height (feet) / 2 = ______ square footage

 

For a four-sided area that is not square:  use the width x length calculation, finding the dimensions from the middle of the area. 

                                               

Calculate: ______ width (feet) ______x length (feet) = ________ square footage

 

Non-Lawn Areas

To determine the square footage of the non-lawn areas, the formulas listed below contain generalities. If you know the exact dimension, use those, if not use the formulas listed below to estimate the area to be subtracted from the area of your lawn.

 For your home:  Calculate:  ______ total square footage of your home / _____ number of stories of your home = _________ square footage of land 

For your garage:  Calculate:  _______ # of cars your garage was built for x 335 (average square footage of a single car garage) = __________ square footage of garage

 

For your driveway:  Calculate:  ________ length of your property (feet) / 2  x  12  average width of a driveway = __________ square footage of the driveway

 

Any other structures:  Calculate:  ________ length (feet) x ________ width (feet) = ________ square footage

 

No more guessing as you read those crazy looking product labels.  Now you’re armed with the information you need to make the lawn care product purchases you will need for this season.