What is a cubic yard?
A cube 3 ft long, 3 ft wide and 3 ft high: 27 cubic feet, or 0.76 cubic metres. It is the unit soil, gravel, mulch, sand and ready-mixed concrete are delivered in, and the one a supplier quotes a price for. Bags are marked in cubic feet, so a job worked out in yards is turned into bags by the 27 cubic feet in each yard.
From feet and inches to yards
Multiply the area in square feet by the depth in feet, and divide by 27. The depth is where slips happen: 6 in is 0.5 ft, 3 in is 0.25 ft, 4 in is a third of a foot.
Worked example. A bed 12 × 10 ft, filled 6 in deep.
- Area: 12 ft × 10 ft = 120 sq ft
- Volume: 120 sq ft × 0.5 ft = 60 cu ft
- In cubic yards: 60 ÷ 27 = 2.22 cubic yards (1.70 m³)
- To order: bulk goes by the quarter yard, so 2.25 cubic yards.
The calculator reads each field in whatever unit you write: 12, 12 ft, 4 yd, 150 in or 3.6 m in a side, 6, 6 in or 15 cm in the depth. You can mix them. What it understood is echoed beside the field.
A volume you already have in cubic feet divides by 27 the same way: 100 cu ft is 3.7 cubic yards.
Shapes that are not rectangles are worked out from their own area. A circle 8 ft across and 1 ft deep is 50.27 cu ft, or 1.86 cubic yards. Anything else splits into pieces: press “Add another area” and the pieces are added up before anything is rounded. A cut-out takes an area away.
How far a yard goes
The thinner the layer, the further a yard goes:
| Depth | One cubic yard covers |
|---|---|
| 1 in | 324 sq ft |
| 2 in | 162 sq ft |
| 3 in | 108 sq ft |
| 4 in | 81 sq ft |
| 6 in | 54 sq ft |
The rule behind the table: square feet = cubic yards × 324 ÷ depth in inches. Under “Options”, type a number of yards and the calculator says what area it covers at the depth you entered: 1 cubic yard at 3 in covers 108 sq ft.
Yards to tons
A cubic yard is a volume, and suppliers of stone and soil often sell by weight. Pick a material and the calculator multiplies by what a yard of it weighs: the 2.22 cubic yards above are 2.44 tons of topsoil at 1.1 tons a yard. Mulch has no such line: it is sold by volume, and its weight only tells you what a truck can carry.
These weights are suppliers’ own, with a range, and yours has theirs: press “Use my own figure” to type it. The link under the result opens the calculator of that material with your figures, for its bags, its usual depths and your shopping list.
Questions about cubic yards
How many cubic feet in a cubic yard?
27: three feet each way. A cubic yard is also 0.76 cubic metres.
How many square feet does a yard cover?
108 sq ft at 3 in deep, 162 sq ft at 2 in and 81 sq ft at 4 in.
How do I work out cubic yards for a circle?
Choose the circle, enter the distance across its middle and the depth. The area is 3.1416 × the diameter squared ÷ 4: 8 ft across and 1 ft deep is 1.86 cubic yards.
How many bags are in a cubic yard?
Divide 27 by the cubic feet printed on the bag: 54 bags of 0.5 cu ft, 36 of 0.75 cu ft, 13.5 of 2 cu ft.
Sources
- Earthstone Rock, Cubic Yards vs. Tons for Landscape Rock. Landscape rock about 2,800 lb per cubic yard; river rock about 2,900 lb; sand about 3,000 lb; decomposed granite, landscape gravel and pea gravel about 2,700 lb; most rock between 1.3 and 1.5 tons per cubic yard. Read on .
- Sands & Soils, Wash Rock. A cubic yard of #57 wash rock weighs approximately 2,500 lb. Read on .
- Sands & Soils, Topsoil. A cubic yard of topsoil weighs approximately 2,200 lb. Read on .
- Topsoil.com, Cubic Yard of Topsoil Weight. Dry topsoil 1,500 to 2,200 lb per cubic yard (about 2,000 on average), moist 2,200 to 2,600 lb, saturated 2,600 to 3,000 lb. A half-ton pickup has a payload of roughly 1,500 to 2,200 lb. Read on .
- Sands & Soils, Triple Shredded Hardwood Mulch. A cubic yard of triple shredded hardwood mulch weighs approximately 500 to 600 lb. Read on .
- Sands & Soils, White Coarse Sand. A cubic yard of coarse sand weighs approximately 2,600 lb. Used for concrete, for playboxes and as a leveling agent for pavers. Read on .
- Stone Centers, Landscape Rock Calculator. River rock about 1.4 to 1.75 tons per cubic yard; lava rock about 1.2 to 1.4; sand 1.10 to 1.25. Read on .
Updated . How we calculate. Found a mistake? Tell us.