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Fill Dirt Tons to Cubic Yards Calculator

Convert a fill dirt tonnage into cubic yards to check coverage and storage space.

Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Figures are presented for United States against IRC 2024, and every formula is cited under regulatory standards below.

Last verified 2026-08-26 · v1.0.0

Market
Imperial · sales tax

Approximate volume

8 cu yd

High confidence

About 1.25 short tons per cubic yard for typical fill; heavily variable with clay content and moisture. The inverse of the volume-to-weight figure. Compare against your compacted or settled requirement rather than the loose delivered figure.

Conversion factor applied
0.8 cu yd per short tons

Converting a fill tonnage to volume answers whether a load will bring an area up to level, but the answer needs a compaction allowance applied to it. Fill placed in thin layers and compacted properly occupies considerably less space than the loose delivered material, which is exactly what you want structurally and exactly what catches people out on quantity. The other question worth asking a supplier is what the fill actually is: clay-heavy material behaves very differently from granular fill, holding water and shrinking and swelling with the seasons.

Add the equipment this sizes

This result is a specification — 8 cu yd — not a quantity. Put the thing it sizes into your project: how many, what you call it, and your supplier’s price.

Preliminary estimate, not certified engineering. This tool produces an indicative quantity calculation for planning purposes only — it is not a certified structural analysis, a guaranteed material takeoff, or a substitute for building department approval. Always verify measurements on-site and have a licensed contractor or structural engineer review any load-bearing, code-sensitive, or safety-critical work before purchasing materials or starting construction. Spotted an arithmetic or standards error? Report it to contact@craftquantities.com with your inputs — confirmed fixes become pinned regression tests.

[Schema Verified] Computed in alignment with American Concrete Institute (ACI 318-19) formulas and International Residential Code (IRC 2024) spatial boundaries.

Regulatory standards & verification citations

  • Inverse of approximately 1.25 short tons per cubic yard
  • 1 short ton = 2,000 lb; a metric tonne is about 10% heavier

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Frequently asked questions

Will this fill bring my site to level?
Convert to volume, then reduce it by a compaction allowance before comparing against the space to be filled. The loose delivered figure will overstate what you actually gain in finished level.
Should fill contain organic material?
No. Organic content decomposes and the ground settles as it does. Topsoil belongs on top as a growing medium; structural fill should be free of it.
Why is fill cheaper than topsoil?
Because it is a by-product of excavation elsewhere and needs no screening or improvement. It is priced as material somebody wanted to get rid of, which is also why its quality varies so much.