Cubic yard calculator

Measure the area, set the depth. The ticket shows the volume in every unit you might be asked for.

A cubic yard is a cube three feet on a side — twenty-seven cubic feet, and rather more than it sounds. Almost everything bought loose is sold in them: concrete, stone, soil, mulch. Measure the space, set the depth, and the ticket gives you the volume in yards, feet and metres, then what that same hole weighs filled with each material.

Add an area

Depth

The finished depth of the material, not the hole.

Extra allowance

Leave at zero for a straight conversion. Add waste when you are ordering.

How the number is worked out

Length times width gives the area, times the depth gives cubic feet, divided by twenty-seven gives cubic yards. The division is the whole trick, and depth is where it goes wrong: four inches is a third of a foot, not four.

length (ft) × width (ft) × depth (ft) ÷ 27 = cubic yards

How big a cubic yard actually is

Three feet each way. It will not fit in a half-ton pickup — a yard of damp topsoil weighs about 2,400 pounds and a yard of wet concrete over 4,000. Spread one inch deep it covers 324 square feet; at four inches, 81.

Depth	One cubic yard covers
1 in	324 ft²
2 in	162 ft²
3 in	108 ft²
4 in	81 ft²
6 in	54 ft²
12 in	27 ft²

Yards, feet, metres

One cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, or 0.7646 cubic metres. Going the other way, a cubic metre is 1.308 cubic yards — which is why a European spec sheet and an American quote never quite line up until someone does the sum.

Questions

How many cubic feet in a cubic yard?

Twenty-seven. A cubic yard is three feet by three by three, and 3 × 3 × 3 = 27.

How much does a cubic yard weigh?

It depends entirely on what is in it: about 800 pounds of bark mulch, 2,200 of dry topsoil, 2,800 of crushed stone, 4,000 of wet concrete. The ticket lists them as you type.

Will a cubic yard fit in my truck?

A half-ton pickup legally carries about half a yard of soil or a third of a yard of stone. Two yards of mulch will fit by volume and still be under the limit; two yards of gravel will not.

Why do suppliers sell some things by the ton instead?

Because they load by weight. Stone and asphalt go over a scale; soil and mulch are usually sold by volume from a bucket. The ticket gives you both so you can answer either question.

Other calculators

The same ticket, the same assumptions on screen, for whatever else the job needs.

Concrete slabs, footings, columns and steps Gravel driveways, bases and drainage stone River rock beds, borders and dry creeks, by stone size Mulch beds and trees, by the yard or the bag Asphalt hot mix by the ton Topsoil beds, lawns and levelling Fill dirt holes, grades and backfill, with settling Compost lawn top-dressing and bed amending Sand paver bedding, play sand and fill Rebar bars, sticks, laps and weight