How Many Square Metres of Turf for a 5-a-side Pitch?

Inside the fence, the square metres of turf for a 5-a-side pitch come to 540, 760 and 924 m². Those three areas belong to cages marked at 25 × 18 m, 36 × 18 m and 40 × 20 m. In 5 m rolls laid across the short side they take 6, 8 and 9 rolls.

Those figures are bigger than the 450, 648 and 800 m² drawn on the plan, because a plan measures the marked rectangle and turf runs to the fence. We work from the fence line, so a cage order starts with one measurement rather than two.

How Many Square Metres a 5-a-Side Cage Takes

Each figure assumes the fence stands 1 m outside the line on every side. Widen that gap and the area climbs at once: 2 m takes the same three cages to 638, 880 and 1,056 m².

The marked areas behind those numbers are 450, 648 and 800 m². None of them is an order quantity. The square metres of turf for a 5-a-side pitch are set by the rectangle inside the netting, and netting rarely sits on the paint.

Adult commercial cages have no single published size, so the quotes we see cluster on four footprints. They are 25 × 18 m, 30 × 20 m, 36 × 18 m and 40 × 20 m. One cage contractor lists the first as standard and the second as premium, a cage structure supplier describes the third, and a pitch contractor works to the fourth.

• Compact tier: 25 × 18 m marked, 27 × 20 m inside a 1 m fence gap, 540 m².
• Mainstream tier: 36 × 18 m marked, 38 × 20 m inside the fence, 760 m².
• Large tier: 40 × 20 m marked, 42 × 22 m inside the fence, 924 m².

Measure fence to fence before anything else. That pair of numbers decides the turf area, the roll plan and the seam count.

Our habit is to ask for the fence line first, then measure. Cages that arrive as a marked plan only are the ones that come back for a second roll.

Cage Sizes That Cover Most 5-a-Side Builds

Three footprints cover most builds, and the table below carries four areas for each. The square metres of turf for a 5-a-side pitch shift twice: with the footprint you pick, and with the gap between line and fence.

Marked pitch	Marked area	1 m gap	2 m gap	3 m gap
25 × 18 m	450 m²	27 × 20 m, 540 m²	29 × 22 m, 638 m²	31 × 24 m, 744 m²
36 × 18 m	648 m²	38 × 20 m, 760 m²	40 × 22 m, 880 m²	42 × 24 m, 1,008 m²
40 × 20 m	800 m²	42 × 22 m, 924 m²	44 × 24 m, 1,056 m²	46 × 26 m, 1,196 m²

The 36 × 18 m row is the one that arrives most often, because it fits a school or club footprint and still leaves a service strip.

The premium 30 × 20 m option quoted by some cage contractors sits between the first two rows and is not repeated here. A cage is not a scaled-down eleven-a-side pitch, and treating it that way produces the wrong area; football field dimensions start from a much larger grid.

Areas here are turf areas and ignore the few centimetres a fence post takes at the kerb. The 1 m, 2 m and 3 m columns measure from the line to the fence, so one cage can appear three times with three different answers.

Marked Pitch or Fence Line: Which Area You Buy

Turf runs to the fence, so the order takes the fence-line rectangle. On a 40 × 20 m cage with a 1 m gap, that is 924 m² against the 800 m² drawn, which is 124 m² more, or 15.5%.

Push the gap to 2 m and the same cage needs 1,056 m²; at 3 m it needs 1,196 m². The square metres of turf for a 5-a-side pitch move with the fence, not with the paint.