Estimate dirt, topsoil, or garden soil volume and weight, plus a compaction-aware overage recommendation for landscaping or fill work.
Quick answer: Multiply length × width × depth in feet and divide by 27. A 10 × 10 ft area filled 6 inches deep needs (10 × 10 × 0.5) / 27 = 1.85 cubic yards. Add 10 to 15 percent extra for compaction, since fill dirt settles after placement.
Every soil quote and delivery ticket talks about cubic yards, but there are two different yards hiding inside that word — and ordering the wrong one is how people end up a yard short. A loose yard is the volume soil occupies in the truck: screened, loaded, and full of air. A compacted yard is the volume the same soil occupies in the ground after gravity, rain, and watering (or a plate compactor) collapse those air pockets and pack the particles together. Your project needs compacted yards; the supplier sells loose ones.
The gap between them is the fluff factor, and it is bigger than most people expect. Topsoil delivered loose settles 10–20% — a 6-inch layer is about 5 inches deep after a few waterings. Fill dirtsettles 10–15%, faster in wet weather. Sand barely settles at all, around 5%, because its particles are already dense. That is why the calculator above defaults to a ×1.10 settlement buffer on the order quantity, and why screened topsoil jobs usually want ×1.15 or ×1.25 from the buffer selector — the buffer converts your compacted-yard math into the loose-yard quantity the truck actually delivers.
Two practical rules fall out of this. First, order the loose volume, not the finished depth: if your design calls for 4 inches of compacted crusher run under pavers, you need roughly 4.6–4.8 inches of loose material to get there. Second, never try to “save” the buffer — a second one-yard delivery with its minimum delivery fee almost always costs more than the extra yard would have on day one. Read our full settlement guide for buffer tables by material and project type.
Ballpark, not gospel. Densities change with moisture, compaction, and screening — confirm weights and delivery minimums with your supplier before ordering.
Straight answers, no fluff. Then run your own numbers above.
Measure length and width in feet, multiply by depth in feet, then divide by 27. Use inches for depth if you are filling a shallow area.
No. Fill dirt is usually used for grading and backfill, while topsoil is screened for lawns and planting areas.
Fill dirt is often about 2,200 lbs per cubic yard (1.1 tons). Topsoil is commonly about 2,400 lbs per cubic yard (1.2 tons).
New grass usually needs 4 to 6 inches of good topsoil. Thin lawn repairs may need 1 to 2 inches.
Multiply bed length by width by soil depth in feet, then divide by 27. A 4x8 bed filled 12 inches deep needs about 1.19 cubic yards.
Yes. Topsoil settles 10 to 20 percent and fill dirt 10 to 15 percent once placed, watered, and tamped, while sand settles only about 5 percent. Order the buffer up front and expect to top off low spots after the first heavy rain.
Pair it with the mulch calculator for beds, or the square-feet converter when you only know the area.