Cubic Yard Calculator

One formula, and why it ends in 27

A cubic yard is a cube three feet on a side, so it holds 3 × 3 × 3 = 27 cubic feet, or 36 × 36 × 36 = 46,656 cubic inches. Measure the length and width in feet, turn the depth into feet by dividing the inches by 12, multiply the three, and divide by 27. The sheet opens on 12 by 10 feet at 4 inches: 120 × 4 ÷ 12 = 40 cubic feet, and 40 ÷ 27 = 1.48 cubic yards. The material never enters that line: gravel, dirt and sand fill the same space.

Most wrong answers are unit slips. Multiply 20 × 15 × 6 with the depth still in inches and you get 1,800, which divided by 27 reads as 66.67 cubic yards; the same pad is really 5.56. The sheet takes each depth in inches or feet and converts before it multiplies, so the twelve-fold error cannot happen.

Metric needs no 27. A 6 by 4.5 m area at 15 cm is 6 × 4.5 × 0.15 = 4.05 cubic meters, printed alongside as 5.3 cubic yards, because a yard is 0.9144 m and its cube is exactly 0.764554857984 m³. Switch units and every length you typed converts with the sheet.

Several areas, three shapes, one total

Each of the four areas takes its own shape and its own depth, and the total is the sum of every area times its own depth — not the total area times an average. Rectangle: length × width. Circle: π × diameter² ÷ 4, measured straight across. Triangle: base × height ÷ 2, with the height taken square to the base, not along the sloping side.

With the sheet’s own figures: a 20 by 15 ft pad at 6 in is 150 cubic feet, 5.56 cubic yards; a 10 ft circle at 6 in is 78.54 sq ft and 1.45 cubic yards; a triangle with a 20 ft base and a 12 ft height at 4 in is 120 sq ft and 1.48 cubic yards. Entered as areas 1 to 3 they make 498.54 sq ft of plan, 55.39 sq yd, and 5.56 + 1.45 + 1.48 = 8.49 cubic yards, ordered as 8.5. The result lists each area on its own line so you can see which one drives the total, and the plan redraws them side by side to scale.

An area with a size but no depth is skipped with a warning, never given area 1’s depth. An L-shaped patio is two rectangles.

The reverse question: what a cubic yard covers

Six of the twenty People Also Ask questions we collected for this search run the other way: the volume is already in the driveway and the question is the area. One cubic yard is 27 cubic feet; spread 1 inch deep, every square foot takes a twelfth of a cubic foot, so it covers 27 × 12 = 324 square feet. At any other depth, divide 324 by the inches. The sheet answers it under the areas, in square feet and square yards.

More yards multiply the row: four cubic yards cover 648 sq ft at 2 in and 324 at 4 in. Calculatorsoup prints the same 324 ÷ depth rule. Elmwoodbark, a bark and stone yard in Connecticut, writes that one yard covers approximately a 10'x10' area 3" deep: 100 sq ft, where the division gives 108.

Dug is not delivered: the swell

Soil dug out of a hole takes more room in the truck than it did in the ground. FHWA Federal Lands Highway’s earthwork manual prints both weights of the same cubic yard, in place and loose, and the in-place weight divided by the loose one is the swell. Tick dug out of the ground, not delivered, pick the row, and the sheet multiplies by that factor and prints the division beside the answer.

The 20 by 15 ft pad dug 6 in in damp loam is 5.56 cubic yards in the ground and 5.56 × 1.43 = 7.94 loose, ordered as 8: 2.39 cubic yards more to haul than the hole measured. Wet loam weighs the same both ways, factor 1.00, so the pad hauls as 5.56. Topsoil swells most; with a 10 % allowance typed too, the swell goes first and your percentage second: 5.56 × 1.5 = 8.33, × 1.10 = 9.17, ordered as 9.25.

The exhibit says its values The values shown in Exhibit 5.1 A may be used for estimating purposes prior to obtaining the project specific information from the Geotechnical Unit. and its footnote reads Factors subject to ±33% variation. That is why the swell stays off until you ask for it, and why the factor always prints as a division you can check. Read the exhibit. None of the six pages we read mentions swell, bank or in-place volume. For the weight of that dirt and what it rebuilds as compacted fill, the fill dirt calculator carries the whole exhibit.

Bags, truck trips and cost, from your own sizes

A bag count needs the volume printed on the bag, and bags come in several sizes, so the field has no default. Type 2 cubic feet and the pad becomes 5.56 × 27 ÷ 2 = 75 bags, rounded up from the unrounded volume so the quarter-yard step never buys an extra bag.

A trip count needs your hauler’s capacity, which also has no default: a tandem, a triaxle and a trailer carry different loads. At 10 cubic yards the pad is 1 trip. A 60 by 40 ft area a foot deep is 88.89 cubic yards; at 12 per trip that is 7.41, so 8 trips, the last one partly empty. Type a price and the sheet multiplies the same unrounded volume: 5.56 × $45 = $250.00. An allowance works the same way, and only when you type it: 10 % takes the pad to 6.11, ordered as 6.25.

The order line rounds up to the next quarter yard: 1.48 becomes 1.5, 5.56 becomes 5.75. That is this sheet’s rounding, not a supplier rule. Missouladirt, a Montana dirt delivery page in the same results, states we only deliver material in full cubic yards.

• Is the price per cubic yard loose in the truck, or measured in place?
• What is the smallest step you sell, and is there a minimum load?
• How many cubic yards does the truck you will send carry per trip?
• What volume is printed on the bag, and is it sold by weight or by volume?

From cubic yards to tons: the material pages

This sheet stops at volume: each material weighs a different amount per cubic yard, from its own source. Carry the yards to its page.

• Gravel Calculator: stone and gravel, cited density, compaction conversion.
• Fill Dirt Calculator: dirt in or out, on the same FHWA exhibit.
• Topsoil Calculator: topsoil by job, soil already there subtracted.
• Sand Calculator: sand, dry to wet rows.
• Concrete Calculator: slab concrete, bags and truck loads.

What the six pages ranking for this search do

We read the six results Google showed in the US for cubic yard calculator. Calculatorsoup handles eight shapes plus a known area, one area at a time. Subcontractorhub adds areas together, rectangles only, and prints a second total with 10 % waste added. Omnicalculator covers nine shapes and solids, one at a time. Centralhomesupply takes one rectangle and answers in cubic yards only. Elmwoodbark and missouladirt are supply-yard pages whose calculator did not appear in the copy we read.

Counted across the six: none sums areas of different shapes, none mentions swell, bank or in-place volume, none computes bags or trips from the volume typed (two print static tables), and none exports the result. This sheet does all four, CSV export included.

Area      A  =  L x W                rectangle
             =  pi x D^2 / 4          circle
             =  b x h / 2             triangle
Volume    V  =  sum of A x d / 12     (sq ft, in -> cu ft)
Yards     Y  =  V / 27                m3 = Y x 0.764554857984
Order     Yo =  Y x swell x (1 + a / 100)   each only if set
Rounded      =  Yo up to the next 0.25
Bags      B  =  ceil( Yo x 27 / bag )
Trips     N  =  ceil( Yo / capacity )
Covers    S  =  have x 324 / d        (d in inches)

Frequently asked

How do you calculate cubic yards?

Length × width × depth, all in feet, divided by 27. A 20 by 15 ft area 6 in deep is 20 × 15 × 0.5 = 150 cubic feet, and 150 ÷ 27 = 5.56 cubic yards.

How much area does 1 cubic yard cover?

324 square feet one inch deep (27 × 12), which is 36 square yards. Divide by the depth in inches for anything else: 108 sq ft at 3 in, 54 at 6 in.

How big is 1 cubic yard in feet?

A cube 3 ft on each side: 3 × 3 × 3 = 27 cubic feet, or 36 × 36 × 36 = 46,656 cubic inches, or 0.7646 m³.

How do I convert cubic yards to square feet?

Only with a depth, because a volume has no area of its own. Square feet = cubic yards × 324 ÷ depth in inches. 4 cubic yards at 2 in: 4 × 324 ÷ 2 = 648 sq ft, or 72 sq yd.

How much will 4 yards of dirt cover?

648 sq ft at 2 in and 324 sq ft at 4 in, spread as delivered. If those yards were measured in the hole rather than in the truck, tick the swell box first: dug damp loam comes out 1.43 times bigger.

How many 40 lb bags of soil are in a cubic yard?

On the FHWA exhibit's loose topsoil row, 1,620 lb per cubic yard, 1,620 ÷ 40 = 40.5 bags. Bagged soil is a blend sold by weight, so the bag's printed volume is the better figure: type it in the bag field and the sheet counts from your volume.

Limits of this sheet

G-101 weighs nothing, compacts nothing, and knows three flat shapes: split anything else into them.

Sheet G-101 prepared by TakeoffMetric Editorial; no author, credential or field measurement is claimed.