Cubic Yard Calculator
Every bulk material in America is sold by a unit nobody measures in: the cubic yard. Your tape measures feet and inches; the yard sells yards. This tool is the translator. Enter length, width, and depth, in the units you actually measured, and you'll get cubic yards on the spot, plus cubic feet, cubic meters, and, if you pick a material, what that volume weighs. It also works in reverse: keep the depth at 12 inches and length times width in feet divided by 27 is your answer.
The unit every yard sells and nobody measures
A cubic yard is a 3 by 3 by 3 foot cube: 27 cubic feet. Everything bulk in American construction prices against it, yet every tape measure reads feet and inches, and that gap is where orders go wrong. This tool is the bridge. Measure like a human, in feet and inches, and read the answer like a supplier, in yards, with cubic feet and cubic meters alongside for the times a spec sheet speaks metric.
Quick conversions worth memorizing
| This | Equals |
|---|---|
| 1 cubic yard | 27 cubic feet |
| 100 sq ft at 3 in deep | 0.93 cubic yards (call it 1) |
| 100 sq ft at 4 in deep | 1.23 cubic yards |
| 1 cubic yard spread 1 in thick | 324 sq ft |
| 1 cubic yard | 0.76 cubic meters |
| Standard wheelbarrow (6 cu ft) | 4.5 loads per yard |
The 324 rule is the one contractors actually use: one yard covers 324 square feet at an inch. Divide 324 by your depth in inches and you have coverage per yard without a calculator, though the one above is faster.
What a yard weighs, by material
Volume is half the story; your truck's springs care about the other half.
| Material | Per cubic yard | In a half-ton pickup? |
|---|---|---|
| Mulch | ~700 lb | Yes, about a yard |
| Topsoil | ~2,400 lb | Half a yard, max |
| Sand | ~2,700 lb | Under half a yard |
| Gravel | ~2,800 lb | Under half a yard |
| Concrete | ~4,050 lb | No |
Pick the material in the tool and the weight cell does this lookup live. The full conversion story is in the tons per yard guide.
The classic mistakes
- Forgetting the divide-by-12. A "3 inch" depth entered as 3 feet produces an order twelve times too big, and yes, it happens.
- Square yards aren't cubic yards. Carpet is square; dirt is cubic. A "10 yard" carpet quote and a "10 yard" soil quote describe different universes.
- Measuring the pile, not the space. Suppliers' loader buckets are calibrated; your eyeball on the pile isn't. Measure the hole it has to fill.
- Skipping waste on real jobs. This tool gives the pure geometric answer. When ordering material against it, add 5 to 10%, or use the material's own calculator which builds waste in.
Quick answers
How many cubic yards in a 10x10 area? Depends entirely on depth: 0.31 yards at 1 inch, 1.23 at 4 inches, 3.7 at a full foot. Area without depth is only half a question.
How do I convert cubic feet to cubic yards? Divide by 27. A 100-cubic-foot order is 3.7 yards; going the other way, multiply yards by 27.
How many cubic yards in a concrete truck or dump truck? Ten yards for a full mixer, 10 to 14 for a tandem dump. The dump truck guide breaks down every truck size.
What does a cubic yard look like? A washing machine is about 0.15 of one; a standard 6-foot pickup bed holds about 1.5 heaped. Once you can picture 3 feet cubed, supplier quotes stop being abstract.
Common questions
Multiply length by width by depth, all in feet, then divide by 27. A 12 by 9 area 6 inches deep: 12 x 9 x 0.5 = 54 cubic feet, divided by 27 is exactly 2 cubic yards.
27. Three feet cubed. That's also why bag math works the way it does: a 2-cubic-foot mulch bag means 13.5 bags per yard, and an 80-lb concrete bag at 0.6 cubic feet means 45 per yard.
Depends what's in it: mulch about 700 pounds, topsoil 2,400, sand 2,700, gravel 2,800, concrete just over 4,000. The material dropdown applies these so you can check your truck's payload before hauling.
Yes. When a supplier says 'a yard' they mean a cubic yard, 27 cubic feet. Square yards measure flat area and only apply to things like carpet, not bulk material.
Estimates for planning. Verify against your supplier's units and your local building codes before ordering or building. For anything structural, follow your engineer or local code.