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Work out exactly how much concrete, gravel, mulch, topsoil or sand your project needs. Enter your area in feet and the depth in inches — mixed units are handled automatically — and get cubic yards, tons, bags, truckloads and cost, with a live 3D view of the volume you're ordering.
Everything updates live — no button needed.
Estimate from your inputs. Confirm with your supplier before ordering — materials settle and compact.
To calculate cubic yards, multiply length × width × depth in feet, then divide by 27 (there are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard). If your depth is in inches, divide it by 12 first. For example, a 10 × 10 ft slab at 4 in deep is 10 × 10 × 0.333 = 33.3 ft³ ÷ 27 = 1.23 cubic yards. Add 5–10% for waste before ordering.
Five steps. Mixed units are handled for you — enter the area in feet and the depth in inches, exactly how you measured it.
Rectangle, circle, triangle, trapezoid, or enter a known area directly. The dimension fields change to match.
Type the length and width (or diameter, base and height) in whatever unit you measured — inches through meters.
Depth has its own unit selector because it is almost always measured in inches while the area is in feet. Tap a preset for common depths.
Select concrete, gravel, mulch, topsoil and more to get accurate weight, or enter a custom density. Add 5–10% waste for most jobs.
Get cubic yards, tons, bags, truckloads and cost. Then copy, share, print, export CSV, or save the project to compare.
Every cubic yard calculation is area × depth, converted into yards. The only differences between shapes are how you find the area.
Why 27? A yard is 3 feet, so a cubic yard is 3×3×3 = 27 cubic feet. This single number is where most mistakes happen — people divide by 3 or by 9 instead of 27, and end up ordering a third of the material they need.
Example — a 10 × 10 ft concrete slab, 4 in thick: depth = 4 ÷ 12 = 0.333 ft. Volume = 10 × 10 × 0.333 = 33.3 ft³. Cubic yards = 33.3 ÷ 27 = 1.23 yd³. At about 4,050 lb per yard that is roughly 2.5 tons, or 56 bags of 80 lb mix. Add 10% waste and order 1.36 yd³.
Common projects with the material volume and weight, calculated with the same formulas as the tool above. Figures are base volume before waste.
| # | Project | Material | Area | Depth | Volume | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Concrete slab (10×10) | Concrete | 10×10 ft | 4 in | 1.23 yd³ | 2.50 t |
| 2 | Concrete slab (12×12) | Concrete | 12×12 ft | 4 in | 1.78 yd³ | 3.60 t |
| 3 | Garage floor (20×20) | Concrete | 20×20 ft | 6 in | 7.41 yd³ | 14.98 t |
| 4 | Driveway (12×40) | Concrete | 12×40 ft | 5 in | 7.41 yd³ | 14.98 t |
| 5 | Sidewalk (3×50) | Concrete | 3×50 ft | 4 in | 1.85 yd³ | 3.75 t |
| 6 | Patio (16×20) | Concrete | 16×20 ft | 4 in | 3.95 yd³ | 7.99 t |
| 7 | Shed base (10×12) | Concrete | 10×12 ft | 4 in | 1.48 yd³ | 3.00 t |
| 8 | Footing trench (2×60) | Concrete | 2×60 ft | 12 in | 4.44 yd³ | 8.99 t |
| 9 | Foundation wall pour | Concrete | 1.5×80 ft | 36 in | 13.33 yd³ | 26.97 t |
| 10 | Basketball pad (20×25) | Concrete | 20×25 ft | 5 in | 7.72 yd³ | 15.61 t |
| 11 | Gravel driveway (12×50) | Gravel | 12×50 ft | 4 in | 7.41 yd³ | 10.49 t |
| 12 | Gravel parking (30×40) | Gravel | 30×40 ft | 6 in | 22.22 yd³ | 31.46 t |
| 13 | Gravel path (4×60) | Gravel | 4×60 ft | 3 in | 2.22 yd³ | 3.15 t |
| 14 | French drain (2×40) | Crushed stone | 2×40 ft | 12 in | 2.96 yd³ | 4.00 t |
| 15 | Paver base (16×20) | Crushed stone | 16×20 ft | 6 in | 5.93 yd³ | 7.99 t |
| 16 | Sand base under pavers | Sand | 16×20 ft | 1 in | 0.99 yd³ | 1.33 t |
| 17 | Play sand box (8×8) | Sand | 8×8 ft | 12 in | 2.37 yd³ | 3.20 t |
| 18 | Pool base (18×36) | Sand | 18×36 ft | 2 in | 4.00 yd³ | 5.39 t |
| 19 | Volleyball court sand | Sand | 30×60 ft | 12 in | 66.67 yd³ | 89.90 t |
| 20 | Garden mulch bed | Mulch | 20×30 ft | 3 in | 5.56 yd³ | 2.25 t |
| 21 | Mulch around trees | Mulch | 10×10 ft | 4 in | 1.23 yd³ | 0.50 t |
| 22 | Playground mulch | Mulch | 30×40 ft | 9 in | 33.33 yd³ | 13.48 t |
| 23 | Topsoil lawn (50×60) | Topsoil | 50×60 ft | 2 in | 18.52 yd³ | 19.04 t |
| 24 | Raised garden bed (4×8) | Topsoil | 4×8 ft | 12 in | 1.19 yd³ | 1.22 t |
| 25 | Compost top-dress | Compost | 40×50 ft | 1 in | 6.17 yd³ | 3.33 t |
| 26 | Fill dirt (low spot) | Fill dirt | 20×25 ft | 8 in | 12.35 yd³ | 13.01 t |
| 27 | Asphalt driveway | Asphalt | 12×50 ft | 3 in | 5.56 yd³ | 10.86 t |
| 28 | Decorative rock bed | Decorative rock | 12×25 ft | 3 in | 2.78 yd³ | 3.93 t |
| 29 | Concrete slab (metric) | Concrete | 5×6 m | 100 mm | 3.92 yd³ | 7.94 t |
| 30 | Topsoil bed (metric) | Topsoil | 10×15 m | 50 mm | 9.81 yd³ | 10.09 t |
Weights are US short tons using typical densities and will vary with moisture and compaction. Add your waste allowance before ordering.
What the numbers mean when you pick up the phone to order.
Bulk materials are sold by the cubic yard almost everywhere in the US. This is the number your supplier needs. Most will only deliver in half- or quarter-yard increments.
Some suppliers sell by the ton instead of the yard, especially gravel and stone. Weight also tells you whether your driveway or trailer can take the load.
Included in the headline figure. Materials settle, spread unevenly, and subgrades are never perfectly flat. Running short mid-pour is far more expensive than a little surplus.
Tells you how many trips your order needs. If you land just over a truckload, it is often cheaper to trim the depth slightly than to pay for a second delivery.
A cubic yard is an abstract number until you picture it. Both graphics redraw live from your project.
Each cube is one cubic yard — a block 3 ft × 3 ft × 3 ft. The part-filled cube is your remainder.
How your order fills the delivery vehicle you selected.
Depth drives volume more than anything else, and material choice drives weight and cost. Both charts use your current area.
Cubic yards needed for your area at common depths. Your current depth is highlighted.
What your volume weighs in each material — mulch is a fraction of concrete.
Most real jobs are several areas at once — a patio, a path and a bed. Add each rectangle here to get one combined order in cubic yards.
Density is what turns volume into weight. These typical values are built into the calculator; use a custom density for anything unusual.
| Material | lb per ft³ | lb per yd³ | Tons per yd³ | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mulch (wood) | 30 | 810 | 0.40 | Garden beds, playgrounds |
| Compost | 40 | 1,080 | 0.54 | Soil amendment, top-dressing |
| Topsoil (screened) | 76 | 2,056 | 1.03 | Lawns, raised beds |
| Fill dirt | 78 | 2,107 | 1.05 | Grading, backfill |
| Sand | 100 | 2,697 | 1.35 | Paver base, sandboxes |
| Crushed stone | 100 | 2,697 | 1.35 | Drainage, sub-base |
| Gravel | 105 | 2,832 | 1.42 | Driveways, paths |
| Decorative rock | 105 | 2,832 | 1.42 | Landscape beds |
| Asphalt | 145 | 3,911 | 1.96 | Driveways, paving |
| Concrete | 150 | 4,045 | 2.02 | Slabs, footings, foundations |
Densities vary with moisture, compaction and aggregate size — wet material can weigh 10–25% more than the dry figures shown. Check with your supplier when weight matters for transport.
A cubic yard is the volume of a cube measuring one yard — three feet — on every side. Because three times three times three is twenty-seven, a single cubic yard contains 27 cubic feet. It is the standard unit for selling bulk construction and landscaping materials across the United States: concrete, gravel, sand, topsoil, mulch and fill dirt are all quoted and delivered by the yard. In metric countries the equivalent unit is the cubic meter, which is about 1.31 cubic yards.
The unit exists because it suits the scale of the work. A cubic yard of soil fills roughly nine wheelbarrows, weighs about a ton, and covers a 10 × 10 ft area to a depth of just over three inches. It is big enough to be a meaningful delivery quantity and small enough to be a practical ordering increment.
Every calculation follows the same shape: work out the area, multiply by the depth to get a volume, then convert that volume into cubic yards. For a rectangular area the arithmetic is length × width × depth, all in feet, divided by 27. Circles use π times the radius squared, triangles use half the base times the height, and trapezoids average the two parallel sides before multiplying by the height between them.
The step that trips people up is the depth. Almost nobody measures depth in feet — a slab is four inches, a mulch bed is three inches, a gravel base is six. Those inches must be divided by twelve before they enter the formula. Four inches is 0.333 ft, not 4. The calculator above handles this by giving depth its own unit selector, so you enter the numbers exactly as you measured them.
The conversions worth memorising are short. One cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, 0.7646 cubic meters, 46,656 cubic inches, or about 765 liters. Going the other way, one cubic meter is 1.308 cubic yards or 35.31 cubic feet. If a supplier quotes you in tons rather than yards, you need the material's density to convert — which is the next section.
Density is the bridge between volume and weight. Concrete is the heaviest common material at roughly 150 lb per cubic foot, or about 4,050 lb — just over two tons — per cubic yard. Gravel runs around 2,800 lb per yard, topsoil about 2,050, and mulch as little as 800. That range matters enormously: a single yard of mulch is a manageable pickup load, while a yard of concrete is more than most half-ton pickups should carry.
Moisture changes everything. Wet sand, saturated topsoil and rain-soaked gravel can weigh 10 to 25 percent more than the dry figures in any reference table, which is why suppliers who sell by the ton will often weigh loads at the yard rather than quote a fixed conversion. If you are close to a vehicle's weight limit, assume the heavier figure.
Concrete is the most common reason people reach for a cubic yard calculator, and the one where accuracy matters most, because a partially poured slab cannot wait while you fetch more. Standard slab thicknesses are four inches for patios, walkways and shed bases, five to six inches for driveways and garage floors, and more for structural work. Footings are usually calculated as a separate rectangular volume and added to the slab.
The bagged-versus-delivered decision usually resolves itself around half a cubic yard. A yard of concrete takes 45 bags of 80 lb mix — more than most people want to mix by hand. Ready-mix suppliers typically have a one-yard minimum and charge a short-load fee below their truck minimum, so for small pours it is worth pricing both routes. Always order slightly over: subgrades are rarely perfectly level, and the low spots absorb more than you expect.
Gravel is sold by the yard or the ton and is used for driveways, paths, drainage and as a sub-base under pavers and slabs. Typical depths are two to three inches for a decorative path, four inches for a residential driveway surface layer, and six to eight inches of compacted base under a driveway that will carry vehicles. Crushed stone with angular faces locks together and compacts better than rounded river gravel, which is why it is preferred for structural bases.
Compaction is the key adjustment. Loose gravel typically loses 10 to 20 percent of its volume once it is rolled or driven on, so ordering the exact calculated figure leaves you short of the finished depth. For any compacted base, add 15 to 20 percent rather than the usual 10.
Mulch is applied two to four inches deep — deep enough to suppress weeds and hold moisture, but not so deep that it smothers roots or piles against stems. One cubic yard covers roughly 108 square feet at three inches, or 162 square feet at two inches, which makes it easy to estimate a bed by area. Because mulch is so light, a yard is comfortably within a small trailer or pickup's capacity, though it will be a heaped load.
Bagged mulch is usually sold in two or three cubic foot bags, so a cubic yard is roughly nine to thirteen bags. Buying by the yard is almost always cheaper if you need more than about half a yard and can take a delivery.
Topsoil is the screened, organic-rich layer used for lawns, garden beds and levelling; fill dirt is the cheaper subsoil used for bulk grading where nothing needs to grow. For a new lawn, four to six inches of topsoil is a good target; for top-dressing an existing lawn, a quarter to half an inch is plenty. Raised beds are simply a rectangular volume — a 4 × 8 ft bed at 12 inches deep needs about 1.2 cubic yards.
Soil settles noticeably. Freshly delivered topsoil is loose and will drop several percent as it is watered in and compacts naturally, so order a margin above the finished depth you want.
Sand appears as a one-inch bedding layer under pavers, as the fill in sandboxes and volleyball courts, and as a levelling course over compacted stone. Bedding sand should be coarse and angular rather than soft play sand, which shifts under load. The volumes are usually small — a one-inch layer over a 16 × 20 ft patio is only about one cubic yard — but the depth accuracy matters because an uneven bedding course telegraphs through the finished surface.
Knowing what fits on a truck helps you plan and price a delivery. A half-ton pickup can carry roughly one cubic yard of mulch but should not carry a full yard of wet gravel or concrete, which would exceed its payload. A small dump truck handles about five cubic yards, a standard dump truck ten to twelve, and a tri-axle around sixteen. Ready-mix concrete trucks typically deliver up to nine or ten cubic yards per load.
Delivery is usually charged per trip, so an order that spills a small amount into a second load is disproportionately expensive. If you land just over a truckload, look at whether a slightly shallower depth — or splitting the job into phases — saves a whole delivery charge.
Three separate effects mean the amount you order should exceed the amount you calculate. Waste covers spillage, uneven subgrade and material left in the truck or barrow — typically 5 to 10 percent. Compaction applies to aggregates and soils that will be mechanically compacted, and can consume 10 to 20 percent of loose volume. Settling affects organic materials like mulch and compost that decompose and slump over a season. Choose the waste percentage that matches your material and method rather than applying ten percent to everything.
Measure twice, and measure the actual excavated or finished dimensions rather than the plan dimensions. Break irregular sites into simple rectangles and circles and add them up — the multiple-area tool above does exactly this. Round up to the increment your supplier sells in, which is often a quarter or half yard. Tell the supplier what the material is for, since they will often recommend a different grade or gradation than you asked for. And confirm access: a ten-yard truck needs room to tip, and the drop location determines how far you will be barrowing.
The questions people ask most about cubic yards. Tap any question to expand.