CalculatorMulchOne cubic metre is 1.31 cubic yards. Everything else follows.
Metric converter
0.76 cubic metres
= 1.00 cubic yards · 765 litres
- Cubic feet
- 27
- Weight
- 318 kg · 700 lb
- In tonnes and US tons
- 0.32 t · 0.35 US tons
- Bulk density
- 415 kg/m³
What the yard needs this month
MonthlyOne job a month, with the depth and the volume it actually needs. No plant catalogues, no upsell — just the material side of the garden.
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How do you convert cubic metres to cubic yards?
Multiply cubic metres by 1.30795 to get cubic yards, or cubic yards by 0.764555 to go the other way. A yard is 0.9144 metres, so a cubic yard is 0.9144³ — about three quarters of a cubic metre. The everyday version is that a cubic metre is a bit over 1.3 yards, and a yard is a bit over three quarters of a metre. For garden quantities, rounding to 1.31 and 0.76 is close enough that the error is smaller than the settling in the delivery.
The weight side matters more than the volume side and gets converted less often. Bulk density in the US is quoted in pounds per cubic yard; everywhere else it is kilograms per cubic metre, and the two differ by a factor of about 0.593. Mulch at 700 lb/yd³ is 415 kg/m³; topsoil at 2,200 lb/yd³ is 1,305 kg/m³. That second figure is the one that decides whether a load is legal in your car.
Bagged material is the third unit in play. Compost outside North America is usually sold in litres — 40, 50 and 60 litre bags — and a cubic metre is 1,000 litres, so a cubic yard is about 765 litres, or nineteen 40-litre bags.
The conversions worth memorising
| From | To | Multiply by |
|---|---|---|
| Cubic yards | Cubic metres | 0.7646 |
| Cubic metres | Cubic yards | 1.3080 |
| Cubic yards | Cubic feet | 27 |
| Cubic metres | Litres | 1,000 |
| Cubic yards | Litres | 764.6 |
| Pounds | Kilograms | 0.4536 |
| lb per cubic yard | kg per cubic metre | 0.5933 |
The same material, both systems
| Material | lb/yd³ | kg/m³ | One yard weighs | One metre weighs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shredded mulch | 700 | 415 | 318 kg | 415 kg |
| Compost | 1,300 | 771 | 590 kg | 771 kg |
| Topsoil | 2,200 | 1,305 | 998 kg | 1,305 kg |
| Pea gravel | 2,500 | 1,483 | 1,134 kg | 1,483 kg |
| Crushed stone | 2,700 | 1,602 | 1,225 kg | 1,602 kg |
A cubic metre of crushed stone is over 1.6 tonnes. That is more than most cars are rated to carry, loaded or not.
Depths, both ways
| Inches | Centimetres |
|---|---|
| 1 in | 2.5 cm |
| 2 in | 5.1 cm |
| 3 in | 7.6 cm |
| 4 in | 10.2 cm |
| 6 in | 15.2 cm |
Related
For volume from a bed’s dimensions rather than a conversion, use the cubic yards calculator. To turn a volume into a weight and a number of trips, cubic yards to tons; to count bags, bags to cubic yards.
Frequently asked questions
How many cubic feet in a cubic metre?
35.31. And 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard, which is the number most garden arithmetic in the US actually turns on — the 3 × 3 × 3 rule.
How many litres in a cubic yard?
765 litres, near enough. That is nineteen 40-litre bags of compost, or about thirteen 60-litre bags. It is the conversion worth knowing if you read American gardening advice and shop in Europe.
Is a tonne the same as a ton?
No, and the difference is about 10%. A metric tonne is 1,000 kg or 2,205 lb; a US short ton is 2,000 lb or 907 kg. A UK long ton is 2,240 lb. Bulk material quoted in tons is nearly always short tons in the US and tonnes almost everywhere else.
Why does density vary so much between materials?
Because you are weighing air as much as material. Loose mulch is mostly gaps, so 700 lb per yard; wet topsoil packs tight at 2,200; crushed stone fills its own voids at 2,700. The same volume can weigh four times as much depending on what is in it.
Which figure should I give a supplier?
Whichever unit they price in — that is the one you will be billed on. Ask for the delivered volume in their units and use this to check it against the amount you calculated, rather than converting your order and hoping.
Are these densities exact?
They are typical loose dry figures and can be 20% out either way depending on moisture and how finely a material is ground. Wet topsoil after a week of rain is noticeably heavier than the table says, which matters when the number is deciding what your vehicle can carry.
How we calculate this
Worked example
With Amount 1, Measured in cubic yards, Material (for the weight) Shredded hardwood mulch, this page works out 0.76 cubic metres. = 1.00 cubic yards · 765 litres
- Cubic feet27
- Weight318 kg · 700 lb
- In tonnes and US tons0.32 t · 0.35 US tons
- Bulk density415 kg/m³
Sources:
The conversion that actually goes wrong is depth
The bulk material trade is one of the last places where imperial and metric genuinely collide. American suppliers price by the cubic yard, European ones by the cubic metre or the tonne, Australian ones by the cubic metre, and gardening advice circulates freely between all of them. A recipe that says “spread three inches of mulch” reaches a reader who buys in litres and thinks in centimetres, and something gets lost in the middle.
The conversion that goes wrong most often is not volume, it is depth. Three inches is 7.6 cm, and people round it to 10 — a 32% overshoot that turns into a third more material than the bed needed, and a mulch layer thick enough to cause the problems mulch is supposed to prevent.