Cubic Yard Calculator

About the Cubic Yard Calculator

Bulk landscaping and construction materials are delivered in volumes that are hard to picture. A dump truck of mulch, a load of topsoil, or a pile of crushed stone is sold by the cubic yard, and the price per yard can look small until you multiply by the number of yards a real project needs. The Cubic Yard Calculator turns the three measurements you can take with a tape, length, width, and depth, into the volume a supplier will quote. It is deliberately general, so it works for mulch, gravel, sand, soil, compost, fill dirt, and even concrete.

The calculation multiplies length and width in feet by depth, which is entered in inches and converted to feet, to get cubic feet. Dividing by 27 gives cubic yards, since a cubic yard is a cube three feet on each side. In metric mode you enter length and width in meters and depth in centimeters, and the tool reports liters and cubic meters. A cubic meter equals about 1.31 cubic yards, so the two systems are easy to compare once you know the factor.

Volume is only half of a purchase decision, because many suppliers sell some materials by weight. Gravel, sand, and crushed stone are often priced per ton, and the weight of a cubic yard depends on the material and its moisture. This tool deliberately stops at volume so that it works for any material, and it leaves it to you to ask the supplier for the weight per yard. Used with that figure, it is a reliable way to plan and budget a bulk delivery.

When to Use It

How to Use It, Step by Step

1. Select U.S. or metric units. In U.S. mode, length and width are in feet and depth is in inches. In metric mode, length and width are in meters and depth is in centimeters.
2. Measure Length along the longest side of the area. For irregular areas, estimate an average length, or divide the space into rectangles and calculate each one separately.
3. Measure Width at a representative point, or take the average of several widths if the area is not a clean rectangle.
4. Enter the Height / depth as the thickness of material you want to place. For mulch or topsoil this is often two to four inches, and for gravel bases it can be four to eight inches or more.
5. If your depth is in feet, multiply by 12 before entering it, because the field expects inches in U.S. mode. A depth of 2 feet should be typed as 24.
6. Click Calculate Cubic Yards. In U.S. mode you see cubic feet and cubic yards, and in metric mode you see liters and cubic meters.
7. Add an allowance for settling, spillage, and uneven ground, then round up to the next increment your supplier sells, which is often a half or whole yard.
8. Ask the supplier for the weight per cubic yard of your specific material if they price by the ton, and use it to convert the volume into a weight estimate.

Understanding Your Results

In U.S. mode the first line shows cubic feet, which is the raw multiplication of your dimensions, and the highlighted line shows cubic yards. Divide cubic feet by 27 to check the conversion yourself. In metric mode, liters and cubic meters are shown, with one cubic meter equal to 1,000 liters. A mismatch with a supplier's quote usually comes from a difference in depth, rounding, or whether the supplier included a settling allowance.

A handy way to sense-check the number is coverage per yard. One cubic yard covers about 324 square feet at a depth of one inch. Dividing 324 by the depth in inches gives the area one yard covers, so a three-inch layer of mulch covers about 108 square feet per yard, and a four-inch layer covers 81. If your area divided by that coverage does not match the calculator, recheck the depth entry.

Treat the result as a net volume. Loose materials such as mulch, topsoil, and fill compress or settle after placement, and gravel compacts when it is tamped, so you typically need to order more than the calculated figure for a given finished depth. How much more depends on the material and the method, so ask the supplier for a recommendation. If you are buying by weight, multiply by their stated density.

More Worked Examples

Tips for Better Results

• Measure the depth you want after the material settles, not the depth you plan to dump, and ask the supplier how much extra to order for compaction, which differs between mulch, soil, and stone.
• Walk the area and check the depth in several places before entering an average. A low spot at one end can hide a large amount of fill that a single measurement would miss.
• For round beds or ponds, use an equivalent rectangle by entering the diameter as the width and about 0.785 of the diameter as the length. That product equals the area of the circle.
• Compare delivered bulk prices with bagged prices by converting bags to cubic feet and dividing by 27. A bagged product of two cubic feet means about 13.5 bags per cubic yard.
• Plan where the delivery will be dropped and how you will move it, because a pile of several yards is heavy, blocks the driveway, and may require wheelbarrow trips or a skid steer.
• Keep receipts and the delivery ticket, which usually states the volume or weight delivered, so you can verify that the load matches what you ordered.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Entering the depth in feet when the field expects inches understates the volume by a factor of 12. Convert feet to inches before typing, so 1.5 feet becomes 18.
• Forgetting that loose material settles leads to a layer thinner than planned. Add an allowance based on supplier advice and the type of material.
• Assuming one cubic yard weighs the same for every material leads to wrong weight estimates. Mulch, topsoil, gravel, and concrete have very different densities, so use the supplier's figure.
• Using a single average depth on very uneven ground can mislead. Break the area into zones with different depths and add their volumes together.
• Ordering exactly the calculated amount leaves no room for spillage or measuring error. Add a margin and round up to the supplier's delivery increment.

Assumptions and Limits

• The calculator treats the area as a perfect block with uniform depth. Sloped surfaces, mounds, and excavations with angled sides need to be divided into simpler shapes and summed.
• No allowance is made for compaction, settling, spillage, or the swelling that occurs when soil is excavated, since these depend on the material and the method used.
• The tool reports volume only and does not convert to weight. Densities vary widely by material and moisture, so use your supplier's number when a quote is based on tons.
• The depth field is limited to 240 inches in U.S. mode and 600 centimeters in metric mode. For deeper excavations or large earthmoving, split the job into stages or consult a contractor or engineer.

Key Terms

Cubic yard

A volume equal to a cube measuring three feet on each side, or 27 cubic feet. It is the standard unit for bulk landscaping materials in the United States.

Cubic meter

A volume equal to a cube one meter on each side, or 1,000 liters. It equals about 1.308 cubic yards.

Compaction

The reduction in volume that happens when loose material such as soil or gravel is pressed down, which means you must order more than the finished volume.

Fill dirt

Soil used to raise or level ground that is not intended for growing plants. It is usually cheaper than topsoil.

Density

The weight of a material per unit of volume, such as pounds per cubic yard. It is needed to convert a volume into a weight.

Swell factor

The increase in volume that occurs when compacted ground is dug up, because excavated soil takes up more space than it did in the ground.