Soil Calculator - Volume, Weight, and Cost

A soil calculator turns a tape measure and a soil depth into the cubic yards, weight, and bulk cost you need to order, so a lawn patch, raised bed, or new garden bed never comes up short or over budget.

• • New lawn topsoil: Size a 4 to 6 inch layer of screened topsoil for a new lawn.
• • Raised bed fill: Estimate the cubic yards of garden loam or compost blend needed to fill one or several raised beds.
• • Garden amendment: Plan a 1 to 2 inch compost top-dressing or a 2 to 4 inch incorporated amendment.
• • Low spot repair: Calculate the soil needed to fill a low area, sunken trench, or worn path back to grade.

Suppliers quote by the cubic yard, the US ton, or the bag, and most beginners over-buy because they use area alone and forget depth. The tool multiplies your plot area by depth, applies an optional cushion, and returns volume in cubic yards, weight in pounds and tons, and bulk cost from your price-per-yard and price-per-ton entries.

Whether you are starting a lawn, refilling a raised bed, or top-dressing an existing garden, the first step is always the same: measure the area, pick the soil depth, then let the math handle the rest.

When the project is an amendment rather than a fill, compost calculator returns the cubic yards and bag count for compost blended into the top few inches of an existing bed.

The calculator uses three steps: compute the plot area, multiply by depth to get volume, then multiply by the material density to get weight. Cost is volume times price-per-yard plus weight times price-per-ton.

• Shape: Rectangle (length x width), circle (diameter), or direct area in ft^2.
• Depth: Thickness of the soil layer in inches. Extension guidance runs from 1 inch for top-dressing to 6 to 12 inches for new beds.
• Material and density: Soil preset fills the bulk density field (lb/ft^3); custom lets you override with a supplier number.
• Compaction cushion: Extra percentage to cover settling. Ten percent is a planning default.
• Prices: Optional bulk price per cubic yard and price per short ton. Both contribute to the total cost when above zero.

Linear inputs arrive in feet, area in square feet, and depth in inches. The calculator divides depth by 12 first, so a 6 inch layer becomes 0.5 ft in the formula. Volume is divided by 27 to reach cubic yards, the unit most US soil suppliers use, and multiplied by the loose bulk density to get pounds. Dividing by 2,000 converts pounds to the US short ton.

According to Omni Calculator: Soil Calculator, soil volume equals area multiplied by depth, weight equals volume times density (about 100 lb/ft^3 for topsoil), and cost equals volume times the per-unit price plus weight times the per-ton price

After the soil is in place, plants calculator turns the same bed area and a plant spacing into the seedling count, so the bed plan stays internally consistent.

Three formulas, one unit chain, and one compaction cushion cover every garden, lawn, and bed.

These four ideas cover any soil job: measure, convert depth to feet, multiply, then apply density and pricing.

If you keep hitting the same numbers for similar projects, save them as a custom density.

Once the bed is filled, fertilizer calculator sizes the nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium application so the new soil feeds the crop rather than starving it.

Measure once, set the depth, choose a material, then read the cubic yards, weight, and cost in one pass.

1. 1 Pick the plot shape: Choose rectangle for lawns and beds, circle for round planters, or direct area when you already measured the square footage.
2. 2 Enter the dimensions: Type length and width, the diameter, or the area in the matching fields.
3. 3 Set the soil depth: Use 1 inch for a top-dressing, 2 to 4 inches for a garden amendment, 4 to 6 inches for new lawn topsoil, and 6 to 12 inches for a raised bed.
4. 4 Choose a soil material: Select the preset (topsoil, loam, compost, sand, gravel). Switch to custom to enter the supplier's density.
5. 5 Add prices and cushion: Enter bulk price per cubic yard, price per ton, or both. Keep the cushion at 10 percent unless the spread will be tight.
6. 6 Read the results: Use cubic yards for bulk ordering, tons for truck weight, and the cost row to compare per-yard versus per-ton quotes.

Refilling a 4 ft x 8 ft raised bed at 10 inches deep with compost blend: pick rectangle, enter 4 ft and 8 ft, set depth to 10 in, prices blank. The calculator returns about 0.89 yd^3 and 715 lb of compost, which matches one bulk bag plus a 1 cu ft top-up.

For row crops or market gardens, plant population calculator uses the same area to return seeds or transplants per acre at a target spacing.

The tool turns a tape measure and a rough sketch into a single shopping number that holds up at the supplier.

• • Match the bag, the yard, or the ton: Outputs cubic yards, pounds, US tons, and a cost line so the same answer fits bulk delivery, bagged pickup, and by-ton truck quotes.
• • Compare per-yard and per-ton pricing: Enter both prices to see the combined cost and pick the better supplier quote for your project size.
• • Handle irregular plots: The direct area entry skips shape math when you have a survey number or a sketch divided into rectangles.
• • Plan around depth guidance: Picking a depth from extension guidance and reading the matching volume makes the order easy to justify.
• • Build in a compaction cushion: A 5 to 15 percent cushion absorbs the soil that settles and the soil on the wheelbarrow path.
• • Reuse the same density: Switching the material preset to custom saves the supplier's density for the next project.

For a lawn-only project with no compost blend, topsoil page returns a leaner volume focused on topsoil depth and bag counts in cubic yards.

Volume math is exact, but real soil is not. Plan for these factors before ordering.

• • The calculator assumes a flat, level plot. Sloped areas need a topographic adjustment because a slope can add 10 to 25 percent to the soil needed.
• • The compaction cushion is a planning default. Soils with very high organic matter can settle more than 15 percent, and mineral sands less than 5 percent. Watch the first month.

These factors are why a cushion of 5 to 15 percent is worth keeping on by default. When in doubt, take the calculator's volume and round to the next half-yard for delivery or whole bag for pickup.

According to Engineering ToolBox: Dirt and Mud Densities, dry sand is about 97 lb/ft^3, dry gravel about 105 lb/ft^3, loam about 80 lb/ft^3, and wet clay can climb above 110 lb/ft^3

According to NIST SP 811: Guide for the Use of the SI, one yard equals three feet, one cubic yard equals 27 cubic feet, one pound equals 0.45359237 kilograms, one cubic foot equals 0.028316846592 cubic meters, and the US short ton equals 2,000 pounds

If the soil is going into pots or planters instead of a bed, potting soil calculator uses container dimensions to return a per-pot and total volume instead of an area-based number.