Find a tool

Topsoil Calculator

Any bed, any depth — the bags of soil or the yards to order.

Material only — soil weight depends on how wet it is.

40' · 480 in · 40 ft · 12.192 m

25' · 300 in · 25 ft · 7.62 m

3" · 3 in · 0.25 ft · 0.0762 m

250 ft³

Check thisThe link gave a slab no thickness, so its box starts at the usual one. Check it.

10% covers what spills, what settles in the first weeks and what the edges take. It is added once, to the bags and to the yards.

This page recalculates as you type. There is no Calculate button.

Answer

Save imageExcel

Order

10.25 yd³

275 ft³ with 10% waste · about 24,037 lb to haul

Bags 367 × 0.75 ft³ bags
Cubic yards, with 10% waste 10.19 yd³
Cubic yards, before waste 9.259 yd³
Cubic feet, before waste 250 ft³
Delivered, in quarter-yard steps 10.25 yd³
Weight to haul 24,037 lb
Ticked items cost $443.75
DrawingThe project drawn to scale. Bed 1: 40' × 25'.40'25'Bed 1

Buying note24,037 lb is about 17 trips in a full-size pickup at ~1,500 lb a load. Your truck's payload is on the driver's door-jamb sticker; type it under Assumptions.

Breakdown

Bed Measurements Qty Volume Share
Bed 1 40' × 25' × 3" Add ×1 250 ft³

What to buy

Buying note24,037 lb is about 17 trips in a full-size pickup at ~1,500 lb a load. Your truck's payload is on the driver's door-jamb sticker; type it under Assumptions.

Ways to buy the bags

Every bag size is worked out, each rounded up to whole bags; pick the one you will buy.

182 × 1.5 ft³ bags + 2 × 1 ft³ bags Bags 184 Left over 0 ft³ Weight 24,037 lb Cost $1,098.32
183 × 1.5 ft³ bags + 1 × 0.75 ft³ bags Bags 184 Left over 0.25 ft³ Weight 24,059 lb Cost $1,098.32
184 × 1.5 ft³ bags Bags 184 Left over 1 ft³ Weight 24,124 lb Cost $1,100.32 Reference price $5.98. Type your store's.
275 × 1 ft³ bags Bags 275 Left over 0 ft³ Weight 24,037 lb Cost $1,369.50 Reference price $4.98. Type your store's.
367 × 0.75 ft³ bags Bags 367 Left over 0.25 ft³ Weight 24,059 lb Cost $1,460.66 Reference price $3.98. Type your store's.

Shopping list

10.25 yd³ $443.75
Ticked items $443.75

Untick what you already have. A delivered load's price includes the delivery fee you type below.

Save imageExcel

Bags or a delivered load

Bags $1,460.66
Delivered $443.75 order 10.25 yd³

The delivered load is $1,016.91 cheaper.

From 1.25 yd³ up, a delivered load costs less than bags.

Reference price $35.00. Type your store's. Reference price $85.00. Type your store's.

Every supplier rounds, sets a minimum and charges for small loads its own way. Ask before you order.

How this was worked out

Every number below is yours. Each constant links to the row where you can change it.

Bed 1 40' × 25' × 3" 250 ft³
All beds 250 ft³ ÷ 27 9.259 yd³
Plus waste 250 ft³ × (1 + 10%) 275 ft³ = 10.185 yd³
Bags 275 ft³ ÷ 0.75 ft³ a bag 367 × 0.75 ft³ bags · 0.25 ft³ left over

Change:Yield, 0.75 ft³ bag

Delivered 10.185 yd³ → quarter-yard 10.25 yd³
Cost 10.25 yd³ × $35.00 + $85.00 $443.75

Assumptions

Every one of these is editable. Change one and the answer changes with it.

Assumption Value Confidence
Topsoil, weight a yardNRCS Soil Quality Indicators, Bulk Density: loam under 1.40 g/cm³ is ideal, about 2,360 lb/yd³, measured dry in place. Loose bagged soil may weigh less and wet soil more; the bag's own label is better than either. ~ lb/yd³ Derived or single-supplier
Yield, 1.5 ft³ bagThe volume printed on a 1.5 ft³ bag of soil (Miracle-Gro). ft³/bag From a data sheet or an agency document
Yield, 1 ft³ bagThe volume printed on a 1 ft³ bag of soil (Ace Hardware). ft³/bag From a data sheet or an agency document
Yield, 0.75 ft³ bagThe volume printed on a 0.75 ft³ bag of topsoil (Scotts at Lowe's). ft³/bag From a data sheet or an agency document
Where a delivered load starts to payHome Depot's calculator suggests buying soil in bulk from 135 ft³, 5 yd³. ≈ yd³ Trade convention
Your truck's payloadFull-size (1500-series) pickups advertise 2,260-2,440 lb of payload (2026), and ordinary trims carry 600-700 lb less; this is the low end. Your truck's figure is on the driver's door-jamb placard. ~ lb Derived or single-supplier

How much topsoil you need

Area × depth gives the volume, 10% covers spill and the settling soil does after its first watering, and the bags are that volume over what one bag holds, rounded up. A patch 10 feet by 10 feet, 3 inches deep, is 10 × 10 × 3/12 = 25 cubic feet; with 10% that is 27.5 cubic feet, or 1.02 cubic yards. Soil is sold in smaller bags than mulch: that is 37 bags of 0.75 cubic feet, 28 of 1 cubic foot, or 19 of 1.5.

A popular soil calculator gives 34 bags of 0.75 cubic feet for the same patch. That is the right answer with nothing spilled and nothing settled — the calculator adds no waste — and it is three bags short of what goes down. The waste here is one box, 10% to start, and it is added once: to the bags and to the yards alike.

Bags per cubic yard

Bag Bags per cubic yard Seen at
0.75 ft³36Scotts topsoil, Lowe's
1 ft³27Ace Hardware
1.5 ft³18Miracle-Gro

Every size is worked out on its own row in the bag table, each rounded up to whole bags, with what is left over. Pick the one your store has; the shopping list and the weight follow the row you pick.

A raised bed

A raised bed 4 by 8 feet and 12 inches deep holds 32 cubic feet. With 10% for settling that is 35.2 cubic feet: 47 bags of 0.75 cubic feet, or 24 of 1.5. Filled to the top it will sink an inch or two as it is watered; the waste box is where to allow for that. Several beds are several areas on this page, and the breakdown shows what each one takes.

What a yard of soil weighs

Far more than mulch. NRCS gives the bulk density of healthy soil in the ground: loam under 1.40 g/cm³, about 2,360 lb a cubic yard, sand under 1.60 and clay under 1.10. The page uses the loam figure to say how much you will be hauling, and the 1,500 lb payload we assume for a full-size pickup to say how many trips. Those are figures for dry soil in place: bagged soil is looser, wet soil is heavier, and the bag's own label is better than either. The weight is a box under Assumptions; type your own.

Bags or a delivered load

Home Depot's calculator suggests buying soil in bulk from about 135 cubic feet, which is 5 cubic yards, and this page uses that as the point where it starts buying the load for you. A lawn patch 20 by 30 feet at 4 inches is 8.1 cubic yards with waste, about 19,000 lb — a dump truck, not a pickup. Type the yard's price per cubic yard and its delivery fee, and your store's bag price, in the comparison under the shopping list to see which costs less. The prices start at dated reference estimates, not quotes: type your store's and your yard's.

How deep

The depth is yours: a new bed, a low spot, a raised bed each want something different, and we found no Extension figure for topsoil we could cite the way we cite the mulch depths. If you are topping the soil with mulch, the next link carries the same bed to the mulch calculator, where Illinois Extension's 2 to 4 inches applies. We are not connected with any store or supplier named here.