Cubic Yards Calculator

A cubic yard is the unit nearly every bulk material is sold in. Concrete, topsoil, gravel, sand, mulch, and compost are all priced by the yard, so turning your space into cubic yards is the first step in any order. One cubic yard is a block three feet on every side, which equals 27 cubic feet. That 27 is the figure people forget, because area feels intuitive but the jump to volume does not.

The method is simple if you keep the units straight. Measure length and width in feet, then the depth, which you almost always enter in inches because material is spread only a few inches thick. Divide the depth by 12 to convert it to feet, multiply length by width by depth for cubic feet, then divide by 27 for cubic yards. The depth step is where most mistakes happen: a 4-inch layer is 0.33 feet, not 4, and missing that inflates the result twelvefold.

Order a little more than the math says. Ground is never perfectly level, you lose some to spillage and compaction, and most yards sell in quarter- or half-yard increments anyway, so a 10 percent cushion is the norm.

One more thing worth knowing: a cubic yard is a volume, not a weight. Soil and gravel are often sold by the ton too, and how many tons a yard weighs depends entirely on the material and how wet it is. A yard of mulch and a yard of wet gravel do not weigh anything alike.