Landscape Material Calculators: Cubic Yards, Tons and Which One You Order In

Choose your material

The decision people bring to a landscape material calculator is rarely how big the patio is. It is which number to put in the order: yards or tons. Those are not two ways of saying the same thing, and getting the wrong one is how a drive ends up with half the base it needed.

Two piles the same size, one twice the weight of the other

A cubic yard is a cube three feet on a side, and it stays the same cube whatever is in it. What changes is the weight. Shredded mulch runs about 600 lb per cubic yard on this site's own figures; crusher run runs about 3,000 lb. Same volume, five times the load. That is why a general aggregate calculator is a poor substitute for one that knows the material.

It is not, however, why there are fourteen tools. Nine published weights cover those fourteen, so several of them convert identically and the tools that share a figure are chosen on something other than weight.

Soil and mulch by the yard, base rock and cobble by the ton

Follow the unit printed on the product page. Soils and mulch here are sold by the yard, while stone, gravel and base materials are sold by the ton. Every calculator returns cubic yards, tons and cubic feet together, so you do not have to convert anything by hand. Keep each layer of a job separate, because a drive base and its surface course will not share a depth or a weight.

Picking the landscape material calculator that matches the job

• Carrying load. Road base and crusher run under a drive or pad, and paver base under flatwork. All three convert at 1.50 tons a cubic yard, so what separates them is the depth they are run at and what goes on top.
• The surface underfoot. Gravel for drives, paths and pads, stone for the graded and washed sizes, pea gravel for paths and play areas. A second shared figure, 1.40, across all three.
• Bedding, mixes and loose cover. Paver sand for the setting course, sand for mason and washed sand, river rock for decorative beds. These three sit at 1.35.
• Holding a slope. Rip rap, the one tool that works in layer thickness rather than a spread depth, at 1.55.
• Growing ground. Topsoil, soil, dirt and mulch, which are the four with genuinely separate weights.

Comparing two materials for one path? Run the same dimensions through both. The volume will match, and where the two share a figure the tonnage will match as well; at that point the decision is about stone size, drainage and finished depth.

Shapes, a depth in inches, and the 5 percent box

Each tool starts with a shape: Rectangle takes a length and a width in feet, Circle takes a diameter, and Multiple areas adds up to five pieces, which suits the irregular footprints left behind when a lawn comes out. Depth goes in as inches, anywhere from 0.25 to 24, and it should be the finished compacted thickness for a base rather than the loose depth. Then choose the material and decide on the option that adds 5 percent for compaction and spillage. A written quote can be emailed to you.

The weights behind the numbers

Driveway and walkway gravel, crushed stone at #57 and 3/4 inch, and pea gravel are each published at about 2,800 lb a cubic yard, which is 1.40 tons. Crusher run, road base and paver base come in at about 3,000 lb, or 1.50. River rock and both mason and washed sand sit at about 2,700 lb, or 1.35. Screened topsoil is about 2,200 lb and blended garden soil about 2,000. RipRap and armor stone are the heaviest at about 3,100 lb, or 1.55, and are laid in thick layers rather than a thin spread. Whichever of them you pick, a cubic yard covers about 108 square feet at 3 inches.

An extra inch of depth across a large pad is a surprising amount of rock, and on clay or an uneven subgrade the real quantity can drift by ten to fifteen percent either way. When the figures are settled, pick the amount and a date on the product page and enter the delivery ZIP at checkout. How a load is dropped is worth reading before you decide where it goes.

Common questions