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The volume of concrete required, in cubic yards.
Take this from a slab or footing calculation and add a waste allowance before converting — a part-filled form cannot wait while more bags are fetched.
80 lb bags needed
45 bags
27 ft³ per cubic yard ÷ 0.6 ft³ yield per 80 lb bag. Buy spares. A cold joint from running short is permanent; unused bags usually are not.
- Conversion factor applied
- 45 bags per yd³
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Cubic Yards to Concrete Bags Calculator: 45 bags — shown in imperial, US market. The link sets both, so the result they see is the one on your screen.
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How this was calculated
Formula source(s)
- 27 ft³ per cubic yard divided by approximately 0.6 ft³ yield per 80 lb bag
- Typical result: about 45 bags of 80 lb mix per cubic yard
Inputs used
- Concrete volume (yd³)
- 1
Intermediate steps
- Conversion factor applied
- 45 bags per yd³
Confidence note: 27 ft³ per cubic yard ÷ 0.6 ft³ yield per 80 lb bag. Buy spares. A cold joint from running short is permanent; unused bags usually are not.
What this calculation does not cover
- The 0.6 cubic feet per 80 lb bag is a yield after mixing, and it is the manufacturer's figure for their mix at their stated water content. Bags from different makers, and the same maker's fibre-reinforced or high-early mixes, do not all yield the same volume.
- About 45 bags per cubic yard is the arithmetic; the practical limit is different. A cubic yard is roughly two tonnes of material mixed by hand or in a small mixer, and past a few tenths of a yard ready-mix is cheaper, faster and more consistent. This number is most useful for deciding you should not be using bags.
- No allowance for what is lost. Bag mix spills, sticks in the mixer and is left in the barrow, and a pour started with exactly the calculated count finishes short.
- Says nothing about whether the mix suits the work. A bagged general-purpose mix is not a structural specification, and a slab, a footing and a post-set do not all want the same product.
Estimated cost — your price
This site holds no price list for this material — local prices vary too much to publish honestly. Enter your supplier's price and the result is costed with it.
Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Presented in US customary units and US trade terminology. Where a formula follows a published standard, that standard and its edition are cited beside it on this page; where none governs, the page says so. Local amendments override model codes — verify against the code in force where you build.
Sources checked 2026-08-26 · in the site-wide review of 2026-09-06 · v1.0.0
Regulatory standards & verification citations2
- 27 ft³ per cubic yard divided by approximately 0.6 ft³ yield per 80 lb bag
- Typical result: about 45 bags of 80 lb mix per cubic yard
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Your workspace
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Small pours below a supplier's delivery minimum have to be done from bags, and this converts the calculated volume into a shopping list. Around forty-five eighty-pound bags make a cubic yard. Two practical points matter more than the arithmetic. Buy more than the calculation says: running out partway through creates a cold joint where fresh concrete meets concrete that has already begun to set, and that plane stays weak for the life of the slab, whereas surplus unopened bags generally go back to the merchant. And be realistic about batching, because a yard is over a ton of material mixed a bag at a time while the first batches are already curing — the practical limit for one person is well below a full yard.