SettingsSettings for this calculationUS
The standard allowance most suppliers and estimating guides assume for ordinary work.
The longest dimension of the area.
Measure the excavation or the finished area, whichever you are filling. For an irregular shape, break it into rectangles and add the results — that is more accurate than averaging a length and a width across a shape that is not rectangular.
The shorter dimension of the area.
Which of the two horizontal dimensions you call the width makes no difference here — the product is the same either way. The DEPTH is the field that matters, and it is the one most often entered in the wrong unit, because depths are quoted in small units while plan dimensions are quoted in large ones. Measure the plan size at the level you are filling to as well: a battered excavation is wider at the top than at the bottom.
How deep the material goes.
Depth is where most errors happen, because it is usually the smallest number and the one people convert wrong. Four inches is 0.333 ft, not 0.4 — using 0.4 over-orders by a fifth.
Allowance for spillage, compaction and uneven subgrade.
Ten percent is the usual allowance for bulk fill on a prepared base. Go higher on an uneven excavation, where the low spots take more than the average depth suggests.
Volume to order (cubic yards)
3.443 yd³
Geometry only. The conversion is exact; the accuracy is entirely in your measurements.
- Geometric volume
- 3.13 yd³
- Cubic metres
- 2.63 m³
- Cubic feet
- 92.95 ft³
They open the calculator with your figures already in it
Cubic Yard Calculator: 3.44 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)
- 1 cubic yard = 0.764554857984 m³ exactly, from the international yard of 0.9144 m (1959)
- Ready-mix concrete, aggregate and topsoil are sold by the cubic yard across North America
Inputs used
- Length
- 19.5 ft
- Width
- 13 ft
- Depth
- 4 in
- Waste / over-order (%)
- 10
Intermediate steps
- Geometric volume
- 3.13 yd³
- Cubic metres
- 2.63 m³
- Cubic feet
- 92.95 ft³
Confidence note: Geometry only. The conversion is exact; the accuracy is entirely in your measurements.
What this calculation does not cover
- The waste box applies a single flat percentage to the whole volume, and that one number is doing the work of spillage, compaction and an uneven subgrade together — there is no separate swell factor, so material that loses depth once it is rolled needs the percentage raised rather than a second allowance.
- Depth enters the sum once and is then spread evenly over the entire footprint, so a base that falls away to one corner, a dished excavation, or a trench with battered sides will swallow more than length times width times depth predicts.
- Clearing the waste field is read as zero rather than as the ten percent it opens on: the answer reverts to the bare geometric volume and the waste-allowance note beneath it disappears with it.
- Weight never enters the calculation — the answer and its breakdown are volume only, in cubic yards, cubic metres and cubic feet, with no density behind them, so a load that fits inside a truck or skip by volume can still sit over its weight limit.
- Length and width are capped at 300 m (roughly 980 ft) and depth at 10 m, so a longer strip or a deep bulk excavation has to be split into sections and the cubic yards added up.
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 2026-09-05 · in the site-wide review of 2026-09-06 · v1.0.1
Regulatory standards & verification citations2
- 1 cubic yard = 0.764554857984 m³ exactly, from the international yard of 0.9144 m (1959)
- Ready-mix concrete, aggregate and topsoil are sold by the cubic yard across North America
Cite this page
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