Landscaping calculator
Topsoil calculator
Enter the area and the depth of soil you are placing, and get the order in cubic yards, tons and bags — plus what a delivered load should cost.
Your project
4-6" for new lawn, 8-12" for planting beds, 0.25-0.5" for topdressing.
Crews typically order 5-10% extra to cover compaction, spillage and uneven subgrade.
Topsoil needed
6.22
cubic yards · includes 5% waste
- Area
- 480 sq ft
- Volume (cubic feet)
- 168 cu ft
- Weight
- 6.72 US tons
- Weight in pounds
- 13,440 lb
- 1.5 cu ft bags
- 112 bags
- Density used
- 80 lb per cu ft
- Estimated delivered cost
- $218
Screened topsoil is sold damp and settles 10-20% once it is spread, watered and rolled. Order the settled depth you want plus the waste allowance, not the loose depth.
The shareable link reopens this calculator with your exact inputs.
How much topsoil do I need?
Take the area in square feet, multiply by the finished depth in feet, and divide by 27. A 1,000 sq ft lawn getting 4 inches of topsoil needs 333 cubic feet, which is 12.3 cubic yards — a full tandem load.
Topsoil is quoted by the cubic yard but weighed on the truck, so it helps to know both. Screened topsoil runs about 80 lb per cubic foot damp, or roughly 1.1 US tons per cubic yard. Heavier clay loam is closer to 1.35 tons.
Depth is what people get wrong, not area. Four inches is a working minimum for turf, six is better, and anything you are planting shrubs into wants eight to twelve. Topdressing an existing lawn is a completely different scale: a quarter inch across 1,000 sq ft is only three quarters of a yard.
Topsoil, garden soil and fill dirt are not the same product
Topsoil is the screened upper horizon — organic matter, structure, biology. It is what you grow in. Fill dirt is the subsoil beneath it: cheap, dense, largely sterile, and correct for raising grade or filling a hole because it compacts and stays put.
Garden or planting soil is topsoil already blended with compost and sometimes sand, sold at a premium because the amendment is done for you. If you are filling more than a couple of yards, buying screened topsoil and a separate yard of compost is usually cheaper than the pre-blend.
Use fill dirt for the bottom of a deep raise and cap it with topsoil for the last six inches. Filling a two-foot hole with topsoil is expensive and settles more than fill would.
Buying and having it delivered
Most yards sell a one-yard minimum and charge delivery per load rather than per yard, so a two-yard order and a nine-yard order often carry the same haul fee. Work out the whole season's needs before you book the truck.
A standard single-axle dump body holds about 10 cubic yards of soil but may be weight-limited to 6 or 7 on wet product. Ask for the weight, not just the volume, if you are near a driveway load limit.
Check what the screen size is. Half-inch screened topsoil is clean enough for seed beds; unscreened or one-inch screened soil will have stones and root wads you will be picking out by hand.
Topsoil needed by depth
Cubic yards required per 1,000 square feet, before settling.
| Depth | Cu ft per 1,000 sq ft | Cubic yards | Approx. tons |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.25" | 21 | 0.77 | 0.83 |
| 0.5" | 42 | 1.54 | 1.67 |
| 1" | 83 | 3.09 | 3.33 |
| 2" | 167 | 6.17 | 6.67 |
| 3" | 250 | 9.26 | 10 |
| 4" | 333 | 12.35 | 13.33 |
| 6" | 500 | 18.52 | 20 |
| 12" | 1,000 | 37.04 | 40 |
Soil product weight and price
Typical delivered density and bulk price per cubic yard.
| Product | lb / cu ft | Tons / cu yd | $ / cu yd | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screened topsoil | 80 | 1.08 | $35 | lawn repair, regrading and bed building |
| Garden / planting soil blend | 70 | 0.95 | $45 | planting beds and shrub backfill |
| Raised bed mix (soil, compost, aeration) | 55 | 0.74 | $60 | raised beds and vegetable boxes |
| Finished compost | 45 | 0.61 | $45 | top dressing and amending existing soil |
| Potting mix (peat / bark based) | 30 | 0.41 | $95 | containers and planters |
| Fill dirt (unscreened subsoil) | 95 | 1.28 | $18 | raising grade, filling holes and building pads |
| Clay loam / native soil | 100 | 1.35 | $22 | structural backfill and pond liners |
| Sandy loam | 85 | 1.15 | $32 | turf topdressing and drainage-friendly beds |
Frequently asked questions
+How many cubic yards of topsoil do I need?
Area in square feet times depth in inches, divided by 324. That single number gives cubic yards directly — 1,000 sq ft at 4 inches is 1,000 x 4 / 324 = 12.3 cubic yards.
+How much does a yard of topsoil weigh?
About 2,000-2,200 lb for screened topsoil at normal moisture, so roughly one US ton per cubic yard. Wet clay soil can reach 2,700 lb, which matters more for the truck than for your order.
+How many bags of topsoil in a cubic yard?
Eighteen bags at the common 1.5 cubic foot size, or 27 at 1 cubic foot. Bagged soil costs three to five times as much per yard as bulk, so bags only make sense under about half a yard.
+How deep should topsoil be for a new lawn?
Four inches minimum over a prepared subgrade, six inches if you want the lawn to survive dry summers without daily irrigation. Grass roots go far deeper than most people expect when the soil lets them.
+How much topsoil do I need to level my yard?
Measure the average depth of fill, not the deepest point. Sag areas usually average one to two inches across the low zone; multiply that average by the area, not by the worst dip, or you will double your order.
+How much does topsoil cost delivered?
Screened topsoil runs $20 – $55 per cubic yard plus $60 – $150 for the load. Unscreened fill is roughly half that.