Landscape Material Calculators, Weighted for the Material You Order

Choose your material

Most people reach this page part way through a job: the lane is measured, the stone is picked, and the only thing still missing is the number that goes in the quantity box. That is what a landscape material calculator is for. Each of the fourteen here carries the published weight of its own material, so the tons figure is that material's weight and not an average across the catalogue.

A yard of mulch and a yard of rip rap are not the same load

One cubic yard is a cube three feet on every side. Fill it with Shredded Mulch and it weighs about 600 lb. Fill the same cube with RipRap and it weighs about 3,100 lb. Identical volume, roughly five times the weight, and a truck loaded to one figure carrying the other is the reason a general-purpose tool gets tonnage wrong.

Between those two extremes the published figures repeat. Nine of them cover the fourteen tools: gravel, pea gravel and stone all convert at 1.40 tons a yard, road base, crusher run and paver base all convert at 1.50, and the two sands and river rock all convert at 1.35. Two tools from the same group return the same tonnage for the same hole, so the choice between them is a question of what the layer is doing and how deep it has to be, not of weight. Stone, gravel and sand are bought by the ton; soil and mulch are bought by the yard. The calculators return both from one set of measurements, so the unit on the product page is the one you can order in.

Which calculator is weighted for the load you are buying

For drives, pads and lanes: the gravel, crusher run and road base calculators. For graded stone by number, screenings and ballast: the stone calculator. For paver work, run the two layers separately through paver base and paver sand, and use the sand calculator for mason and washed sand elsewhere. For beds and decorative work: river rock, pea gravel and mulch. For ground rather than stone: topsoil for lawns and finish grading, soil for beds and planters, and dirt for making up grade. For a washing ditch or a cut bank, the rip rap calculator works in layers.

Feet, inches and a shape: filling the boxes in

Pick a shape first: rectangle, circle, or multiple areas, which holds up to five pieces and adds them together. That last one is the one to use on a lane that changes width, or a bed that wraps a corner.

Rectangles take length and width in feet. Circles take a diameter in feet. Depth goes in as inches and accepts anything from 0.25 to 24. Then choose the material from the list, and leave the optional 5 percent ticked if you want an allowance for compaction and spillage. The result comes back as cubic yards, tons and cubic feet, and it can be emailed as a set quote.

The arithmetic, if you would rather check it on paper

Multiply length by width for square feet. Divide the depth in inches by 12 to get feet, multiply through, and you have cubic feet. Divide by 27 for cubic yards, then multiply by the material density for tons.

Take a hypothetical 40 ft by 10 ft farm lane at 4 inches of 2A modified. That is 400 sq ft, depth 4 divided by 12 = 0.333 ft, so 400 x 0.333 = 133.3 cu ft. Divide by 27 and you have 4.94 cubic yards. At 1.50 tons per yard for road base, 4.94 x 1.50 = 7.4 tons. With the 5 percent box ticked it comes out at 5.19 yards and about 7.8 tons.

From a tonnage to a quantity and a date

Each calculator links through to the product page for the material it is weighted for, and the full catalogue is the way in if you have not settled on a material yet. Quantity and delivery date are set there, and delivery is arranged from the ZIP code you enter at checkout; what the truck needs on the day is worth reading before you choose a drop spot. Doing a base layer and a surface layer means two runs of the tool and two lines on the order. If the measurements are awkward or the ground is soft, send them through Contact rather than guessing at a figure.

Common questions