SettingsSettings for this calculationUS
The volume of sand required, in cubic yards.
About 1.35 short tons per cubic yard for dry building sand; damp sand is heavier and bulks up in volume.
Approximate weight
13.5 short tons
About 1.35 short tons per cubic yard for dry building sand; damp sand is heavier and bulks up in volume. This is a planning figure, not a specification. Confirm the density with your supplier before ordering by weight.
- Conversion factor applied
- 1.35 short tons per yd³
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Sand Cubic Yards to Tons Calculator: 13.5 short tons — shown in imperial, US market. The link sets both, so the result they see is the one on your screen.
Show calculation logicHide calculation logic
How this was calculated
Formula source(s)
- Typical bulk density used here: approximately 1.35 short tons per cubic yard
- Bulk density varies with moisture, compaction and grading — the supplier's weighbridge ticket governs
Inputs used
- Sand volume (yd³)
- 10
Intermediate steps
- Conversion factor applied
- 1.35 short tons per yd³
Confidence note: About 1.35 short tons per cubic yard for dry building sand; damp sand is heavier and bulks up in volume. This is a planning figure, not a specification. Confirm the density with your supplier before ordering by weight.
What this calculation does not cover
- Weight is the honest unit for sand, with one qualification: part of what a weighbridge records is water. Sand kept in the open carries whatever it has taken up, so a tonnage bought after a wet spell is less sand than the same tonnage bought dry, and nothing on the ticket separates the two.
- The density is for loose-tipped sand, not for sand in the ground. Undisturbed sandy ground is usually packed tighter than the heap it makes once it is dug, so a volume measured in the excavation converts to more tons than this returns. Do not borrow the correction from an earthworks take-off — sand loosens far less on digging than clay or mixed soil, and a swell factor lifted off those overstates it.
- A tonnage is what the sand weighs, not a check on what is carrying it. The sand for one small area already runs to tons, which is enough to matter on a trailer, on a scaffold or a suspended floor, and at the edge of an open excavation where the heap surcharges the face. Those limits come from the vehicle's rating, the structure's design or the excavation's support, not from this figure.
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
- Typical bulk density used here: approximately 1.35 short tons per cubic yard
- Bulk density varies with moisture, compaction and grading — the supplier's weighbridge ticket governs
Cite this page
Your workspace
Most jobs need more than one number. Add the calculators you need next and they open right here, underneath this one — your figures stay on screen and nothing is lost to a page change.
Sand is bought by the yard for bedding and screeding and sold by the ton at most aggregate yards, so this conversion sits between the take-off and the order. Sand has a peculiarity the other aggregates do not share: damp sand bulks, occupying noticeably more volume than the same sand dry or fully saturated, because surface water holds the grains apart. That means a volume measured from a damp stockpile overstates what is actually there, while the weight does not lie. Where accuracy matters, buy by weight and convert, rather than trusting a measured heap.