Calculator + chartEnter your measurements below and it works the answer out.
A cubic yard of topsoil covers 81 sq ft at 4 in deep. Enter your area and depth for the volume, the weight range, with 5% waste added.
| Depth | Square feet covered | Square feet per cubic foot |
|---|---|---|
| 1 in | 324 sq ft | 12 sq ft |
| 2 in | 162 sq ft | 6 sq ft |
| 3 in | 108 sq ft | 4 sq ft |
| 4 in | 81 sq ft | 3 sq ft |
| 5 in | 64.8 sq ft | 2.4 sq ft |
| 6 in | 54 sq ft | 2 sq ft |
| 8 in | 40.5 sq ft | 1.5 sq ft |
| 12 in | 27 sq ft | 1 sq ft |
Every figure here is 324 ÷ depth in inches, because a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet and one square foot at D inches deep is D/12 of a cubic foot. Nothing on this site uses a coverage number that does not come out of that line.
The rule. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet. Spread D inches deep it covers 324 ÷ D square feet — so a cubic yard of topsoil 2 in deep covers 162 sq ft, 4 in deep covers 81 sq ft, 6 in deep covers 54 sq ft. Multiply your area by the depth in feet, divide by 27, and that is your order in cubic yards. Everything else on this page is that line with the units changed.
Depth is the decision, not the area. Two inches is a top dressing over an existing lawn. Four inches is a new planting bed. Six inches or more is what a new lawn wants if the ground under it is builder’s subsoil rather than soil.
How it is sold. Topsoil is sold by the cubic yard in bulk and in 0.75 or 1 cubic foot bags. Screened soil is lighter and easier to spread than unscreened; both are sold by the same volume.
Weight is a range, and deliberately so. Topsoil runs about 1.0 to 1.3 tons per cubic yard. That is a real spread, not sloppiness: bulk material weighs more wet than dry, and more when it is fine than when it is coarse. Order by volume, and use the tonnage only to check that a delivery ticket is in the right country.
Waste. This calculator adds 5%. Ground is never as flat as a tape says it is, edges are never square, and running out halfway through means a second delivery charge for a fraction of a load. 5% is the allowance that stops that without leaving a pile you have to get rid of.
Multiply the area in square feet by the depth in feet, then divide by 27 for cubic yards. A 10 by 12 ft area at 4 in is 1.48 cubic yards before waste. The calculator above does it and adds the 5% allowance.
At 2 in it covers 162 sq ft. At 4 in it covers 81 sq ft. At 6 in it covers 54 sq ft. The figure is always 324 divided by the depth in inches.
About 1.0 to 1.3 tons per cubic yard. The range is real — moisture and grading move it — so treat the middle of it as an estimate and never as a delivery spec.
Roughly 1.0 to 1.3 tons dry, and noticeably more after rain. That matters for the trailer more than the garden: a single yard of wet soil can exceed what a half-ton pickup should legally carry.
Four to six inches of decent soil over the subgrade. Grass will start in less, but a lawn on two inches of soil dries out in the first hot week and never fully recovers.
By the yard wherever the supplier allows it. Volume is what your project consumes; weight is what the truck carries, and the same yard weighs differently in July and in November. Where a yard only sells by weight, use the range above to convert and round up.