MEASURE. ESTIMATE. BUILD.
Enter your bed or container dimensions to find how much soil you need in cubic yards, cubic feet, and bags.
Change any measurement to update your estimate.
Garden soil weighs roughly 80 lb/ft³, so one cubic yard is about 1.08 tons.
Why order extra? The headline number is the exact material your project needs. When you actually order, add about 5–10% on top — the “with 5% waste” figure in the result is a safe starting point. That margin covers what you lose to compaction, cuts around edges and corners, and ordinary spillage during handling. It is cheaper to have a little left over than to stop mid-job and wait on a second delivery.
Raised beds need more soil than people guess because you're filling a volume, not covering an area — a 4×8 bed a foot deep is 32 cubic feet, roughly 21 bags. Order 10% over for settling, and top up after the first heavy watering when the mix compacts. Blend in compost as you fill rather than layering it; roots don't like a hard interface between mixes.
The math behind the tool:
cubic feet = length ft × width ft × depth ft
bags = cubic feet ÷ bag size| Material | Density | Per cubic yard |
|---|---|---|
| Garden soil | 80 lb/ft³ | 1.08 tons |
Sources: Oregon State University Extension (soil and compost volume guidance).
Multiply the bed length × width × depth in feet to get cubic feet. A 4×8 ft bed filled 10 inches deep needs about 26.7 cubic feet, or roughly 18 bags of 1.5 cubic feet.
A cubic yard equals 27 cubic feet, so it takes 18 bags of 1.5 cubic-foot soil or about 13.5 bags of 2 cubic-foot soil to fill one cubic yard.
Bed area in square feet × fill depth in feet ÷ 27. Garden soil runs about 80 lb per cubic foot, so a cubic yard weighs roughly 2,160 lb. Bulk soil is cheaper per yard than bags past about 1 cubic yard — that is roughly 27 of the 1 ft³ bags.
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<p style="font-size:12px"><a href="https://buildcalculator.app/soil/">Soil Calculator by BuildCalculator</a></p>