Topsoil calculator
Ver el procedimiento — con sus números
The weight is worked from the density you enter, and soil density changes a lot with moisture. Take the tonnage as an estimate for ordering, confirm the density with your supplier, and keep a little waste for settling.
Enter the area you are covering and how deep, and you get the volume in cubic yards and cubic metres plus the weight in tons or tonnes. Volume is length × width × depth; weight is that volume times the soil's density, which you can set to your supplier's figure.
Ejemplo resuelto
Topping a 30 ft × 15 ft lawn area with 4 inches of soil: 4 inches is 0.333 ft, so the volume is 30 × 15 × 0.333 = 150 cubic feet, about 5.6 yd³. At 1.1 tons per yard that is roughly 6.1 tons. Add 10% for settling and order about 6.2 yd³ — near enough to 6.8 tons.
In metric: 9 m × 4.5 m at 10 cm is 9 × 4.5 × 0.1 = 4.05 m³, about 5.3 tonnes at 1.3 t/m³. With 10% for settling the order line says 4.5 m³ — about 5.8 tonnes.
En la obra
Grading a new lawn after the builder left. The back yard is 50 ft × 40 ft and the grade is 3 inches low against the walk on average — you measured it in six places and the readings ran from 1 to 5 inches. Use the average: 2,000 ft² × 0.25 = 500 ft³ = 18.5 yd³ of soil, 20.4 tons at 1.1 t/yd³. With 10% for settling that is 20.4 yd³ — a tri-axle and a bit. Put the deep spots in first and let the skid-steer find the average. In metric: 15 m × 12 m at an average 75 mm is 13.5 m³, about 17.6 tonnes at 1.3 t/m³.
Raised beds fill faster than you think. Four beds, each 8 ft × 4 ft × 12 in deep: 4 × 32 ft² × 1 ft = 128 ft³ = 4.7 yd³. That is a small truck, not "a few bags" — a 1 ft³ bag at the store means 128 bags. Run each bed depth honestly; a 12-inch bed on 4 inches of soil is a 4-inch bed. Four 2.4 m × 1.2 m beds 300 mm deep are 3.46 m³ — about 115 bags of 30 L.
Wet load, short pile. A tonne of soaked loam is a lot less soil than a tonne of dry screened topsoil. If the yard weighs you out by the ton, type their wet density here and the yards will come out honest — or order by the yard and let the scale be their problem.
What went wrong?
Quick referencefor soil
- A cubic yard
- 27 ft³ — 27 bags at 1 ft³
- Depth as feet
- 2 in = 0.167 · 3 in = 0.25 · 4 in = 0.333 · 6 in = 0.5 · 12 in = 1
- Yards from an area, at 2 in
- ft² ÷ 162
- Yards from an area, at 4 in
- ft² ÷ 81
- Yards from an area, at 6 in
- ft² ÷ 54
- Toneladas cortas
- yards × the yard's density (1.1 t/yd³ dry is only the default)
- Métrico
- 1 m³ = 1.31 yd³ · 1 tonne = 1.10 short tons
- m³ from an area
- m² × depth in m — at 50 mm ÷ 20 · at 100 mm ÷ 10 · at 150 mm × 0.15
- Toneladas métricas
- m³ × the yard's density (1.3 t/m³ dry is only the metric default)
Waste & overagewhat to add, and why
- Landscapers order 10–15% over for topsoil — it settles as it dries and after the first rain, so a 3 in spread is 2½ in by the time the sod goes on. Type it in the waste field.
- Bulk soil is priced per yard or per ton with a truck minimum; ask what a load holds and round the order to it.
Mistakes to catchbefore you order
- Typing the depth in inches while the tool is set to centimetres — a 3 in spread is 7.6 cm, not 3 cm.
- Buying by the ton off a dry density when the pile has been rained on; wet soil can weigh 30% more per yard.
- Measuring the whole lot when only the beds are getting soil.
La fórmula
weight = length × width × depth × density
Convert the depth from inches to feet, multiply out the cubic feet, divide by 27 for cubic yards, then multiply by the density in tons per yard. Metric uses metres and tonnes per cubic metre throughout.
What this tool assumes
Depth, waste and density are all editable. The default density is a screened topsoil on the drier side; wet or clay-heavy soil weighs more, so override it whenever you can get a real figure from the yard.
Preguntas
- How much does a yard of topsoil weigh?
- Screened, fairly dry topsoil is around 1.1 short tons per cubic yard, but wet soil or a heavy loam with clay runs noticeably more — a soaked yard can push past 1.5 tons. Because moisture swings it so much, the density is an editable field; use your supplier’s figure when you have it. In metric, dry screened topsoil is around 1.3 tonnes per cubic metre.
- How deep should new topsoil go?
- For a new lawn, a few inches of good soil over the grade is common; for beds you may want more. You enter the depth — the tool fills it. It works out how much soil covers the depth you choose and does not prescribe a depth, because that depends on what you are growing.
- Do I buy topsoil by weight or by volume?
- Yards (or cubic metres) is what fills your space; tons or tonnes is often how it is sold and trucked. This tool shows both from the same measurement, so you can match your supplier’s pricing and check the load that turns up against what you ordered.
- Should I account for settling?
- A little. Freshly spread soil compacts as it is walked, watered and rained on, so ordering exactly the calculated volume can leave you slightly low once it settles. The waste factor covers this — 10% is a sensible starting point for loose soil.
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