How much compost to top-dress a lawn
Lawn area × depth gives the volume, 10% covers spill, and the order is that volume in bags or in cubic yards. A lawn 50 feet by 60 feet top-dressed ¼ inch deep takes 50 × 60 × 0.25/12 = 62.5 cubic feet; with 10% that is 68.75 cubic feet, or 2.55 cubic yards. That is 2.75 cubic yards delivered, ordered in the quarter yards a landscape yard sells, or 69 bags of 1 cubic foot — at the reference prices the delivered load costs less than half the bags.
How thick
Thin. Virginia Tech's Extension says to top-dress an existing lawn with up to ¼ inch of compost once or twice a year, together with core aeration; Washington State says a thin layer, no more than ½ inch, over the grass. The page opens at ¼ inch and warns past ½ inch: a thicker layer smothers the grass instead of feeding the soil under it.
| Lawn | ¼ in | ½ in |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 ft² | 0.85 yd³ · 23 bags of 1 ft³ | 1.7 yd³ · 46 bags |
| 2,500 ft² | 2.12 yd³ · 58 bags | 4.24 yd³ · 115 bags |
| 5,000 ft² | 4.24 yd³ · 115 bags | 8.49 yd³ · 230 bags |
The table includes the 10% the waste box starts at. Every row of it is what this page prints for that lawn; type the area and the depth to see the bags, the weight and the cost for yours.
Compost or soil
Compost is what both Extension guides name for top-dressing. Some people level low spots with screened topsoil or a sand and soil mix instead; the Material select switches the page to topsoil and keeps the lawn's ½ inch limit, which is about the grass, not about what is spread on it. Fill a hollow deeper than that a little at a time, letting the grass grow through between layers.
A whole lawn, less the beds
Add the lawn as one area and take the beds, the patio and the path out as areas of their own set to subtract. The breakdown shows each, so a bed typed in feet where inches were meant shows up at once. The prices are estimates; type your yard's price per cubic yard and its delivery fee in the comparison under the shopping list. We are not connected with any store or supplier.