Quick answer: One cubic yard of topsoil covers about 100 sq ft at 3 inches deep and weighs roughly 1.1 tons. Enter your area and depth below for exact yards and tons.
Instantly calculate cubic yards, convert to tons, and estimate costs for grading, landscaping, and raised beds.
Whether you are leveling a sloped backyard, filling a low spot, or building raised garden beds, ordering dirt is tricky because landscape supply yards sell by the cubic yard, but dump trucks and quarries often weigh out by the ton.
Our Fill Dirt and Top Soil calculator handles the math instantly. Just enter your dimensions in feet and inches, select your material, and we will tell you exactly how many cubic yards you need, how many tons that weighs, and what it will cost.
Many DIYers use these terms interchangeably, but they are vastly different materials with different weights and uses:
The most common question we get is how to convert cubic yards to tons. Because dirt density changes based on moisture content and clay composition, there is no single perfect number. However, contractors use these industry-standard rules of thumb:
1 ton of dirt is roughly 0.6–0.75 cubic yards, depending on moisture and whether it is screened topsoil or heavier fill. Put another way, one ton spread 3 inches deep covers about 65–80 sq ft.
| Amount | Cubic yards | Coverage at 3 in deep | Wheelbarrow loads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 ton of dirt | ~0.7 | ~75 sq ft | ~15 |
| 3 tons of dirt | ~2.1 | ~225 sq ft | ~45 |
| 5 tons of dirt | ~3.5 | ~375 sq ft | ~75 |
| 10 tons of dirt | ~7.0 | ~750 sq ft | ~150 |
A cubic yard of dirt weighs about 2,000 lb (1 ton) when it is dry screened topsoil, and up to 3,000 lb (1.5 tons) as wet fill or clay-heavy material. That range matters more than it sounds: order 10 yards of wet fill and you are asking a truck to carry 15 tons, which is beyond a single tandem load.
Volume-to-weight questions come in four flavours. If this is not the one you wanted:
It depends entirely on how deep you spread it.
• At 2 inches deep, 1 cubic yard covers ~162 square feet.
• At 4 inches deep, 1 cubic yard covers ~81 square feet.
• At 6 inches deep, 1 cubic yard covers ~54 square feet.
Physically, yes, a cubic yard will fit in the bed of a standard full-size pickup truck (like an F-150 or Silverado). However, a cubic yard of wet fill dirt can weigh up to 3,000 lbs (1.5 tons). You must check your truck's "Payload Capacity" sticker on the door jamb. Overloading your suspension can cause severe damage and dangerous braking distances.
For a sloped yard, break the area down into a series of triangular or rectangular "blocks." Calculate the average depth of the slope (e.g., if it drops from 12 inches to 0 inches, the average depth is 6 inches). Enter that average depth into the calculator above to get your total cubic yardage.
Every constant this calculator uses and where it comes from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Local codes amend the model IRC and adopt different cycles — your building department governs. Manufacturers revise yields; where your product's data sheet disagrees with a default here, use the product's number. See our full methodology.