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Wood Chip tonnage as delivered.
About 0.25 short tons per cubic yard for fresh wood chip; among the lightest bulk materials handled on site.
Approximate volume
40 yd³
About 0.25 short tons per cubic yard for fresh wood chip; among the lightest bulk materials handled on site. Compare against your compacted or settled requirement rather than the loose delivered figure.
- Conversion factor applied
- 4 yd³ per short ton
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Wood Chip Tons to Cubic Yards Calculator: 40 yd³ — 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)
- Inverse of approximately 0.25 short tons per cubic yard
- 1 short ton = 2,000 lb; a metric tonne is about 10% heavier
Inputs used
- Wood Chip weight (short tons)
- 10
Intermediate steps
- Conversion factor applied
- 4 yd³ per short ton
Confidence note: About 0.25 short tons per cubic yard for fresh wood chip; among the lightest bulk materials handled on site. Compare against your compacted or settled requirement rather than the loose delivered figure.
What this calculation does not cover
- The density behind this figure is fresh chip, so seasoned chip is where it goes wrong. Dried chip can weigh roughly half what the same volume weighs green, which means the same tonnage arrives as close to twice the volume. Ask how long it has been stacked before sizing an area from it.
- Some of a delivery goes into the ground rather than onto it. Chip is usually spread over ground nobody graded — woodland paths, rutted borders, last year's thinning layer — and the first of it fills hollows before any of it counts as finished depth. What is left treads down under foot and wheel traffic, and that loss happens while you are spreading, not over the season the heap later composts.
- The depth comes from the use, not from what the delivery will stretch to. A decorative border mulch and a path that has to stay walkable are not laid at the same depth, so take the depth the job needs and let this volume tell you the area it covers. Impact-attenuating play surfacing sits outside this conversion: it is a tested product certified to a fall height, not general chip laid to whatever depth a tonnage allows.
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 0.25 short tons per cubic yard
- 1 short ton = 2,000 lb; a metric tonne is about 10% heavier
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A tonnage of wood chip converts to a large volume, which is the point worth understanding before arranging transport or storage. The material also changes over time in a way aggregates do not: green chip loses water and volume as it seasons and begins to compost, generating heat in the process. Large stockpiles of fresh chip can self-heat significantly, which is a genuine fire consideration on storage as well as a reason the pile shrinks. Plan the space for the delivered volume rather than the settled one.