SettingsSettings for this calculationUS
The tonnage quoted, ordered or delivered.
About 1.35 short tons per cubic yard for dry building sand; damp sand is heavier and bulks up in volume.
Approximate volume
7.407 yd³
About 1.35 short tons per cubic yard for dry building sand; damp sand is heavier and bulks up in volume. The inverse of the volume-to-weight figure. Compare the resulting volume against your compacted or settled requirement, not the loose figure.
- Conversion factor applied
- 0.74 yd³ per short ton
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Sand Tons to Cubic Yards Calculator: 7.41 yd³ — 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)
- Inverse of approximately 1.35 short tons per cubic yard
- 1 short ton = 2,000 lb; a metric tonne is about 10% heavier
Inputs used
- Sand weight (short tons)
- 10
Intermediate steps
- Conversion factor applied
- 0.74 yd³ per short ton
Confidence note: About 1.35 short tons per cubic yard for dry building sand; damp sand is heavier and bulks up in volume. The inverse of the volume-to-weight figure. Compare the resulting volume against your compacted or settled requirement, not the loose figure.
What this calculation does not cover
- A clean sand is cohesionless: nothing binds the grains, so they keep only the arrangement they were last worked into. The depth this volume comes to over an area is a loose depth, and what takes it down is compactive effort and traffic, not elapsed time — a bed vibrated to refusal before the paving goes down has already taken that loss, while one laid loose takes it afterwards under whatever uses the surface.
- A surplus cannot be absorbed by laying the bed deeper. Unlike a sub-base, a sand bedding course does not improve with thickness — an over-thick bed migrates and ruts under load instead of consolidating into a firm layer — so this figure is a quantity to deliver, not a depth you are free to lay to.
- Where the sand is going into mortar or a sand:cement screed, this volume is close to the volume of finished work it makes rather than a share of it: cement and water fill the spaces between the grains instead of adding their own volume on top, so a job sized by adding the ingredient volumes together comes up short of sand. Concrete runs the other way — there the coarse aggregate is the bulk and the sand fills the voids between the stones, so a batch finishes well above the sand volume and the same reasoning buys far too much sand.
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
- Inverse of approximately 1.35 short tons per cubic yard
- 1 short ton = 2,000 lb; a metric tonne is about 10% heavier
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.
Converting a sand tonnage back to volume tells you whether the load will bed the paving you have laid out. The bulking effect makes this less predictable than it looks: sand delivered damp will appear to be more than the conversion suggests and will shrink as it dries or is compacted. For bedding layers specified as a compacted thickness, order against the compacted requirement with an allowance on top, since screeded and vibrated sand occupies less volume than the loose material that arrived on the lorry.