StashGrade for synthetic turf
Revenue per square foot. Base prep cost per job. See what each install type keeps.
Residential, commercial, sports fields. The turf price per square foot looks similar. The base preparation cost does not — and that's where most of the margin variation lives. StashGrade reads it from your books.
Where synthetic turf companys leak money
Base preparation scope underestimated
Bids assume level, drained ground. Customer sites with drainage problems, settling, or existing hardscape require grading, French drain installation, or compaction work before turf can go down. Base prep overruns of 25-40% are common and rarely captured as change orders. That overrun comes directly out of job margin.
Turf grade changed mid-project without price adjustment
A residential bid specified standard turf at $10/SF. The customer sees premium turf at the showroom and wants to upgrade mid-project. Material cost goes up $3-4/SF across the full job. If a change order isn't issued before the material ships, the entire upgrade is absorbed.
Infill cost not locked to bid price
Silica sand and rubber infill prices move with supply and timing. A bid quoted at assumed material cost can land 15-20% higher on actual infill cost depending on when material ships. On a 2,000 SF job, that's $400-800 in untracked margin loss that shows up as higher COGS without a visible cause.
Sports field jobs priced like residential installs
Sports-grade turf has 2-3x the material cost of residential turf. Athletic fields require specialized infill, higher-grade backing, performance testing, and more precise installation. If sports field revenue and residential revenue are priced off the same per-SF model, the sports segment likely runs below 35% margin even when it looks comparable on a top-line basis.
What the readout looks like
Margin by install type on a sample synthetic turf P&L:
| Segment | Gross margin | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Infill top-up / maintenance | 74% | recurring, material-only |
| Turf removal & disposal | 62% | |
| Residential standard install | 46% | |
| Commercial / dog park | 40% | |
| Sports field (athletic grade) | 34% | specialized material compresses margin |
Sample data from a seeded demo company.