What it figures
Pick a project, measure it, and add the next one. A lawn, a patio, and a driveway can share one list, and materials that repeat, like base stone, are added together on the combined order.
| Project | What you get |
|---|---|
| Sod lawn | Sod in square feet and pallets, the topsoil under it, and the two bags of fertilizer a new sod lawn takes |
| Seeded lawn | Pounds of seed by grass type, straw, and topsoil |
| Topsoil, fill, or compost | Cubic yards at the depth you want after it settles |
| Mulch beds | Cubic yards, or bags for a small bed |
| Gravel or stone area | Cubic yards, or tons if your stone is sold by the ton, and the fabric under it |
| Paver patio or walkway | Pavers in square feet, base stone, bedding sand, edge restraint, fabric, and the soil to dig out |
| Gravel driveway | Sub-base and top course |
| Asphalt driveway | The stone base and the tons of asphalt |
| Concrete slab | Concrete to the quarter yard, bags for a small pour, and the stone base |
| Pool or hole | Fill by the shape and the depths |
| Other material | Anything spread at a depth, in cubic yards, or tons if you know the weight |
Square feet, cubic yards, or tons
The list uses the unit each material is sold in. Sod, pavers, and fabric are in square feet. Topsoil, fill, compost, mulch, gravel, base stone, sand, and concrete are in cubic yards. Asphalt is in tons, and any stone can be switched to tons if that is how your supplier sells it. Pavers are not counted unless you pick a size, because most patios mix sizes and pavers are sold by the square foot.
The math
Every bulk material starts the same way: square feet times the depth in inches, divided by 324, is cubic yards. Then the allowance. Loose soil settles as it is graded and watered, so soil gets 15 percent more. Base stone packs down under a compactor, so it gets 20 percent more. Dug soil swells about 25 percent once it is loose in the truck. Every one of those can be changed.
A paver patio is a stack: compacted base, 1 inch of bedding sand, then the pavers. The base runs past the pavers by about its own depth, so the calculator widens the footprint before it figures the stone, and the hole is as deep as all three layers together. Asphalt is figured by weight: square feet times the thickness in feet times 145 pounds per cubic foot, divided by 2,000. Concrete rounds up to the quarter yard, and a pour under one yard also shows 80 pound bags.
What our trucks carry
| Truck | Soil, mulch, compost | Stone and sand |
|---|---|---|
| Tri-axle | Up to 20 cubic yards | Up to 18 cubic yards |
| Six-wheeler | 8 cubic yards | 4 to 8 cubic yards, depending on how heavy the stone is |
| Mason dump | Up to 3 cubic yards | Up to 3 cubic yards |
Stone is heavier than soil, so the same truck carries fewer yards of it. Left on best fit, the calculator fills tri-axles first and sends the smallest truck that can carry what is left: 22 cubic yards of topsoil is one tri-axle and one mason dump, and 6 cubic yards of mulch is one six-wheeler. These are our trucks in Connecticut. Anywhere else, ask your supplier what theirs carry and type it in.
Measuring each area
Every project can be measured three ways: by typing the dimensions of simple shapes, by tracing it on the satellite map, or by drawing on a site plan, a survey, or a map screenshot and giving the drawing one real length. Subtract anything that is not part of the job. For ground measured from above, enter the slope: a bank that shows 10 feet on a map at 30 degrees is really 11.5 feet of ground, and the material has to cover all of it.
Two more calculators
For sod alone, the sod calculator gives pallets and the delivered price. For a lawn in depth, the sod and topsoil calculator adds the delivered price, the water the first two weeks will take, and what comes out if the old lawn is stripped.