Topsoil Calculator
Yards for the truck, bags for the car — screened topsoil for new lawn, raised beds, and fixing the grade the builder left you, settling allowance included.
Bag count uses the standard 1.5 cu ft bag (the common 40 lb topsoil bag). The waste default covers settling — fresh topsoil fluffs in the truck and packs down on the ground.
How the math works
Length × width × depth = cubic feet, ÷ 27 = cubic yards. Depth is the settled depth you want to end with: 3–4 inches under new sod or seed, 6–8 in a raised bed (they settle hard), an inch to top-dress an existing lawn. The default 15% settling factor exists because fresh screened topsoil is mostly air — it fluffs in the truck and packs down the first time it rains. Bags are figured at the standard 1.5 cu ft bag (the common 40 lb bag), and tons at about 1.10 per yard loose.
The coverage shortcut: one cubic yard covers 324 sq ft at 1 inch, 108 at 3 inches, 81 at 4 inches. If your number is far off those, re-measure before you order.
A worked example
A 20 ft × 20 ft lawn area at 3 inches: 400 × 0.25 = 100 cubic feet = 3.70 yards exact. With 15% for settling: 4.26 yards — or 77 of the 1.5 cu ft bags, which is the calculator’s polite way of saying rent the truck. Run it above with your own lawn size.
Questions from the field
How many bags of topsoil equal a yard? At the standard 1.5 cu ft bag: 27 ÷ 1.5 = 18 bags per cubic yard. Buying more than 2 yards in bags is hauling money away.
How deep should topsoil be for a new lawn? 3–4 inches of decent topsoil over loosened subgrade is the working standard; sod laid on 1 inch of soil over hardpan is a lawn that dies in August.
How much does a yard of topsoil weigh? About 1.0–1.2 tons loose and dry-ish — roughly 2,200 lb at the planning figure. Rain-soaked screened soil is heavier; your half-ton pickup cares about the difference.
Topsoil or fill dirt first? Fill dirt builds the grade, topsoil grows the lawn. Anything deeper than 4–6 inches that nothing roots in should be fill — it is a third of the price. The fill dirt calculator is one page over.
The other field calculators
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