Instantly convert your measurements into cubic yards and exact tons. Select your material to account for real-world density differences!
When ordering dirt, gravel, or mulch from a landscape supply yard, they don't sell by the square foot—they sell by the cubic yard. A cubic yard is a 3D measurement (Length × Width × Depth). The most common mistake DIYers make is forgetting to convert their depth from inches to feet before doing the math, resulting in ordering way too much or way too little material.
Our calculator above does the heavy lifting. Simply enter your dimensions in feet and inches, and it will instantly tell you exactly how many cubic yards you need to order.
Many quarries and landscape suppliers sell heavy materials like gravel and stone by the ton rather than the cubic yard. This confuses a lot of homeowners because a cubic yard of mulch weighs drastically less than a cubic yard of river rock.
To convert cubic yards to tons, you must multiply your cubic yardage by the material's density factor. Here are the industry-standard weights we use in our calculator:
This is one of the most searched landscaping math questions on the internet. There are exactly 27 cubic feet in 1 cubic yard.
Why 27? Because a yard is 3 feet long, 3 feet wide, and 3 feet deep. If you multiply 3 × 3 × 3, you get 27. If you are buying bagged mulch or soil from a big box store (which usually comes in 1-cubic-foot or 2-cubic-foot bags), simply take your total cubic yards and multiply by 27 to know how many bags you need to throw in your cart.
A standard cubic yard of crushed gravel weighs approximately 2,700 pounds, which is exactly 1.35 US Tons. However, if the gravel is wet from rain, it can weigh up to 1.5 tons per yard.
It depends entirely on how deep you spread it!
• At 2 inches deep, 1 cubic yard covers ~162 square feet.
• At 3 inches deep, 1 cubic yard covers ~108 square feet.
• At 4 inches deep, 1 cubic yard covers ~81 square feet.
Yes, physically it will fit in the bed of a standard full-size pickup truck (like an F-150 or Silverado). However, a cubic yard of topsoil weighs about 2,000 lbs (1 ton). You must check your truck's "Payload Capacity" to ensure you don't damage your suspension. A half-ton truck should only carry about 0.5 to 0.75 cubic yards of heavy dirt or gravel.