How much does it weigh?

How do I calculate the weight of gravel, sand or soil?

Find the volume — length × width × depth — and multiply by the material's weight per cubic yard. A 10 by 10 ft area 4 inches deep is 33.3 cubic feet, or 1.23 cubic yards; crushed stone at about 1.35 tons per cubic yard weighs about 1.67 tons.

How much does a cubic yard of dirt weigh?

Loose topsoil is about 1.2 tons, or 2,400 pounds, per cubic yard — the EPA figure for loose sandy loam. Fill dirt has no published figure of its own; 1.3 tons is an example. Wet soil can weigh a good deal more — the same EPA table puts wet, clay-bearing earth at 100 to 110 lb a cubic foot, about 1.35 to 1.5 tons a yard — and compost only about half a ton, since it is mostly organic matter and air.

Why does the weight matter?

Trucks, trailers and dumpsters are limited by weight, not just volume. A half-ton pickup often carries well under one cubic yard of gravel, and a dumpster rated for 2 tons fills its weight limit long before its volume with stone or concrete.

How much does water weigh?

62.4 pounds per cubic foot, or 8.34 pounds per gallon. A cubic yard of water weighs about 1,685 pounds — which is why a filled pond liner or hot tub needs a solid base.

Are these weights exact?

No. They are loose weights from state DOT, EPA and university extension tables, and fill dirt is only an example; the stone, moisture and how tightly the material is packed move them. Your quarry or supplier can give the figure for their material.

What is the difference between a ton and a tonne?

In U.S. material sales a ton is the short ton, 2,000 pounds. A metric tonne is 1,000 kilograms, about 2,205 pounds, roughly 10% more. A supplier outside the U.S. may quote tonnes.

Should I order by weight or by volume?

Ask the supplier how they sell. Quarries usually price stone and sand by the ton; mulch, topsoil and compost are often sold by the cubic yard. Convert with the density, but remember that the density changes with moisture.

How the weight is calculated

Weight = volume in cubic yards × the density in tons per cubic yard. Length, width and depth are multiplied (in feet, with depth converted from inches) and divided by 27 to get cubic yards. The density table is for loose material, as delivered. Compacting a base layer squeezes the same weight into a smaller volume, so a compacted layer needs more material than the plain volume suggests.

Worked example: a 20 by 12 ft area, 4 inches deep

Volume = 20 × 12 × (4 ÷ 12) = 80 cubic feet = 2.96 cubic yards. Crushed stone (1.35 tons per cubic yard) weighs 4.00 tons. Dry sand (1.35) weighs 4.00 tons, while the same volume of wet sand (1.6) weighs 4.74 tons. Topsoil weighs 3.56 tons, and concrete 5.80 tons. The same volume of different materials can differ by a factor of two.

Mistakes to avoid

Entering depth in feet when the box expects inches overstates the weight twelvefold. Using a dry density for wet material underestimates the load, as the sand figures above show. Mixing short tons with tonnes is the third error. Finally, a heap is not a slab: the average depth of a pile is lower than its peak, so measure an average, not the tallest point.

Related tools: gravel calculator, sand calculator, topsoil calculator, cubic yard calculator, concrete calculator.

Sources: Minnesota DOT, Grading and Base Manual, 5-692.430; WSDOT Design Manual M 22-01, Exhibits 620-1 and 620-2; Caltrans Maintenance Manual, Vol. 1, Appendix; U.S. EPA, Standard Volume-to-Weight Conversion Factors; TxDOT Standard Specifications (2014), Item 341; Oregon State University Extension, Interpreting Compost Analyses (EM 9217); FHWA, Lightweight Concrete Bridge Design Primer (normal-weight concrete, 0.145 kcf). How we check our calculators.