CalculatorMulch

How Much Mulch Do I Need? The 27 Rule Explained

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Why does dividing by 27 turn feet into yards?

Because a cubic yard is a cube three feet on every side, and 3 × 3 × 3 = 27 cubic feet. That is the entire origin of the number. Bulk landscape material is priced by the cubic yard, bagged material is labelled in cubic feet, and every mulch question is a conversion between those two units.

Written out, the rule is:

How Deep Should Mulch Be? 2, 3 or 4 Inches

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What depth does mulch actually need to be?

Three inches, for the ordinary case of a planting bed with shrubs and perennials in it. The number is not arbitrary: it is where two curves cross. Weed suppression improves steeply from zero to about three inches and then flattens out, because by three inches you have already blocked the light. Soil health gets worse steeply after about four inches, because gas exchange falls off. Three sits on the good side of both.

Bagged vs Bulk Mulch: Which Is Actually Cheaper?

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What is the actual break-even between bags and bulk?

For the most common US pricing — a 2 cu ft bag at $4.29 and bulk mulch at $38 per yard with a $65 delivery — the crossover is 3.26 cubic yards. Below that, bags cost less in total. Above it, bulk does.

The arithmetic is short enough to do on a phone in the aisle:

Bagged cost per yard = 13.5 × bag price. At $4.29, that is $57.92.
Saving per yard by going bulk = $57.92 − $38.00 = $19.92.
Break-even = delivery fee ÷ saving per yard = $65 ÷ $19.92 = 3.26 yards.

What matters is that none of those three inputs is fixed, and the answer is extremely sensitive to all of them. “Bulk is cheaper past three yards” is a statement about one specific set of prices that nobody checked.

How Many Bags of Mulch Are in a Cubic Yard?

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What is the conversion for every bag size?

A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet. Divide 27 by the bag size and you have the count. Here it is for all five sizes sold in US retail, together with how much ground a single bag actually covers.

Bag size	Bags per cubic yard	Covers at 2 in	Covers at 3 in	Covers at 4 in
0.75 cu ft	36	4.5 sq ft	3.0 sq ft	2.25 sq ft
1 cu ft	27	6 sq ft	4 sq ft	3 sq ft
1.5 cu ft	18	9 sq ft	6 sq ft	4.5 sq ft
2 cu ft	13.5	12 sq ft	8 sq ft	6 sq ft
3 cu ft	9	18 sq ft	12 sq ft	9 sq ft

The coverage column is the one that stops overbuying. A 2 cu ft bag covers 8 square feet at the standard 3-inch depth — an area smaller than a bath towel. That is why a modest front bed swallows fifty bags and why people are always surprised by the count. The mulch bags calculator runs your own area against every size at once.

How Much Does a Yard of Mulch Weigh — and Will It Fit in My Truck?

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What does a cubic yard of each material weigh?

Volume is identical across materials — a cubic yard is always 27 cubic feet — but weight is not, and the spread is enormous. This table gives the working ranges used by every tool on this site, plus how many yards each class of truck can legally take per trip at the midpoint density.

Material	lb per cubic yard	Half-ton (1,200 lb)	¾-ton (2,000 lb)	1-ton (3,000 lb)
Shredded bark mulch	400–800	2.0 yd	3.3 yd	5.0 yd
Compost	1,000–1,600	0.9 yd	1.5 yd	2.3 yd
Screened topsoil	2,000–2,700	0.5 yd	0.85 yd	1.3 yd
Fill dirt	2,200–2,900	0.47 yd	0.78 yd	1.2 yd
Gravel / crushed stone	2,400–3,000	0.44 yd	0.74 yd	1.1 yd
Sand	2,600–3,000	0.43 yd	0.71 yd	1.1 yd

The pattern is worth stating plainly: mulch is the only material on that list a passenger truck moves in useful quantity. Everything else is a single scoop per trip at best, which is why yards deliver soil and stone by the truckload and why the delivery fee is not the rip-off it looks like.

When to Mulch and How Often to Replace It

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When is the right time to mulch?

Late spring, after the soil has warmed. Mulch is an insulator, and insulation works in both directions: laid over cold March soil it keeps that soil cold, delaying the root activity that everything else depends on. Wait until the soil is around 55°F a couple of inches down — in most of the US that lands somewhere between mid-April and late May — and mulch does what you actually want, which is holding warmth and moisture in and keeping weed seeds in the dark.

How to Fill a Raised Bed Without Overpaying for Soil

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How much soil does my bed actually need?

Length × width × depth in feet, divided by 27 for cubic yards. Here are the sizes people actually build, with bag counts rounded up.

Bed size	Depth	Cubic feet	Cubic yards	1.5 cu ft bags	2 cu ft bags
2 × 8 ft	6 in	8.0	0.30	6	4
4 × 4 ft	12 in	16.0	0.59	11	8
4 × 8 ft	6 in	16.0	0.59	11	8
3 × 6 ft	12 in	18.0	0.67	12	9
4 × 8 ft	12 in	32.0	1.19	22	16
4 × 8 ft	18 in	48.0	1.78	32	24
4 × 12 ft	12 in	48.0	1.78	32	24
4 × 8 ft	24 in	64.0	2.37	43	32

The depth column carries all the weight here. Doubling a 4 × 8 bed from 12 to 24 inches doubles the fill from 32 to 64 cubic feet and roughly doubles the cost — for a bed that grows almost exactly the same vegetables, since most annual crops work the top 8 to 12 inches. Twelve inches over reasonable native soil is the value sweet spot. Deeper beds earn their keep on top of paving, hardpan or contaminated ground, where the bed is the soil profile. Your own dimensions go into the raised bed soil calculator.

Topsoil vs Garden Soil vs Compost vs Potting Mix

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What actually separates these five products?

The proportion of mineral soil to organic matter, and how coarse the whole thing is. Everything else — the name on the bag, the price, the weight — follows from that.

Product	What it is	Typical lb per cubic yard	Belongs in	Max share of a growing mix
Fill dirt	Unscreened subsoil, little organic matter	2,200–2,900	Grade changes, backfill below root zone	0%
Screened topsoil	Native upper-layer soil, sieved	2,000–2,700	Lawn base, bulk of a bed, levelling	50–60%
Garden soil	Topsoil pre-blended with compost	~2,035 (calculated)	In-ground beds and borders	100% as sold
Compost	Decomposed organic matter	1,000–1,600	Amendment, topdressing, mix component	25–30%
Potting mix	Peat or coir, bark, perlite — no soil	Light; sold in dry quarts	Containers and seed starting only	Containers only

The garden soil figure is worth explaining, because nobody publishes it. It is a blend, so its weight is a blend too: 70 percent topsoil at a midpoint 2,350 lb per yard plus 30 percent compost at a midpoint 1,300 gives 2,035 lb per cubic yard. That is meaningfully lighter than straight topsoil and it is why a yard of garden soil is a slightly less alarming thing to put in a pickup. All the underlying ranges are in the density and truck-load guide.

How Much Gravel for a Driveway or Patio (Depth & Base Layers)

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How deep does gravel go for each job?

Depth is set by load, not by looks. Here is the whole range in one place.

Application	Total depth	Build-up
Decorative gravel in beds	2–3 in	Single layer over woven fabric
Garden path, foot traffic	3 in	2 in of 3/4 in stone + 1 in of fines or pea gravel
Paver or flagstone patio	5–7 in	4–6 in compacted crushed base + 1 in bedding sand
Shed or hot tub pad	4–6 in	Compacted crushed stone, screeded level
Driveway, firm subgrade	4–6 in	Base course + finer top course
Driveway, clay or soft subgrade	8–12 in	Three layers, coarse to fine
French drain	6–12 in	Washed stone around perforated pipe
Dry well / soakaway	as designed	Washed stone, no fines

Two rules run through that table. Coarse stone goes at the bottom, fine stone on top — the large angular pieces bridge the soft subgrade and the fines lock the surface together. And washed stone is used wherever water has to move through, because the fines that make a driveway hard are exactly what clogs a drain.

Refunds and withdrawal

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Last updated 2026-08-10.

The short version

You have 14 days from buying Pro to change your mind and get your money back. Press Withdraw from contract on your account page. We confirm by email straight away and the refund goes back to the payment method you used, within 14 days of that email.

You do not need a reason, and we do not ask you to give one up.

Your right of withdrawal

If you are a consumer in the EU, you have a statutory right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason. The period ends 14 days after the day the contract was concluded — that is, 14 days after you bought Pro.

Terms of use

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Last updated 2026-08-10.

These terms cover calculatormulch.com (“the site”). Using the site means you accept them. If you buy Pro, the Pro section below is part of your contract.

Who you are dealing with

Operated by: maicrosites.com
Established in: Slovakia, European Union
Email: info@calculatormulch.com
Site: calculatormulch.com

1. What the site is

CalculatorMulch is a set of calculators and reference pages. Everything that calculates runs in your browser and is free to use, with no account.

Free and Pro

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Everything that calculates here is free and always will be — no account, no sign-up, no limits on how often you use it. That is not a trial. Search engines send people here to get an answer, and an answer behind a wall is not an answer.

Pro is for what happens around the answer. It remembers your setups on every device you sign in on, turns any result into a page you can send someone, lets you put a tool on your own site, emails you when a date you care about is coming, and takes the ads off every site we run — with one account and one price.

Tree Ring Mulch Calculator

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ring size against depth, with the trunk gap already taken out. Bags are 2 cubic feet.

Ring diameter	2 in deep	3 in deep	4 in deep
3 ft	1 bag	1 bag	2 bags
4 ft	2 bags	2 bags	3 bags
5 ft	2 bags	3 bags	4 bags
6 ft	3 bags	4 bags	5 bags
8 ft	5 bags	7 bags	9 bags
10 ft	8 bags	11 bags	14 bags
12 ft	11 bags	16 bags	21 bags

An avenue of eight trees with 6-foot rings is 32 bags, which is about 56 cubic feet — past the point where bags make sense. Two cubic yards delivered loose covers it with something in hand, and the bulk versus bagged calculator will say where the crossover falls at your supplier’s prices.

Bag Coverage Chart: What One Bag Covers

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What one bag covers, by depth

Depth	0.75 cu ft	1 cu ft	1.5 cu ft	2 cu ft	3 cu ft
1 in	9 sq ft	12 sq ft	18 sq ft	24 sq ft	36 sq ft
2 in	4.5	6	9	12	18
3 in	3	4	6	8	12
4 in	2.25	3	4.5	6	9
6 in	1.5	2	3	4	6

The number on the bag is almost always the 2-inch row.

Bulk vs Bagged Calculator

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Where the two lines cross

Bags at $4.50 for 2 cu ft ($60.75 a yard) against bulk at $38 a yard plus $85 delivery:

You need	Bags	Bulk	Cheaper
1 yd	$63.00	$161.00	bags
2 yd	$121.50	$161.00	bags
3 yd	$184.50	$199.00	bags
4 yd	$243.00	$237.00	bulk
6 yd	$364.50	$313.00	bulk
10 yd	$607.50	$465.00	bulk

What the delivery fee does to the crossover

Delivery fee	Bulk wins from
$40	1.8 yd
$60	2.6 yd
$85	3.7 yd
$120	5.3 yd
$170	7.5 yd

Everything else on the ticket moves the answer far less than this one line does.

Cubic Metres to Cubic Yards Converter

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

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.

French Drain Gravel Calculator

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What the pipe saves you

A 40-foot trench, 12 in wide and 18 in deep — 60 cubic feet in total:

Pipe	Displaced	Gravel needed	Tons
None	0 cu ft	60.0 cu ft (2.2 yd)	2.8
3 in	2.0 cu ft	58.0 cu ft (2.1 yd)	2.7
4 in	3.5 cu ft	56.5 cu ft (2.1 yd)	2.6
6 in	7.9 cu ft	52.1 cu ft (1.9 yd)	2.4

Small on a short run, real on a long one: 120 feet with a 6-inch pipe displaces almost a full cubic yard.

Mulch Top-Up Calculator

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Topping up against starting over, on 400 sq ft

Mulch there now	Target	You need	From bare soil	Saved
0 in	3 in	3.7 yd	3.7 yd	none
1 in	3 in	2.5 yd	3.7 yd	1.2 yd
1.5 in	3 in	1.9 yd	3.7 yd	1.8 yd
2 in	3 in	1.2 yd	3.7 yd	2.5 yd
2.5 in	3 in	0.6 yd	3.7 yd	3.1 yd

At an inch and a half left, you are ordering half as much — and spreading half as much, which is the part your back notices.

Paver Base Calculator

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Base depth by what goes on top

Use	Compacted base	Bedding sand	Dig out (60 mm paver)
Walkway, foot traffic	4 in	1 in	7.4 in
Patio, furniture	6 in	1 in	9.4 in
Driveway, one car	8 in	1 in	11.4 in
Driveway, clay or frost	10–12 in	1 in	13.4–15.4 in

What 200 sq ft takes

Layer	Depth	Cubic yards	Tons
Crushed stone base	6 in	3.7	5.0
Bedding sand	1 in	0.6	0.8
Total		4.3	5.8

That is two deliveries or five trips in a half-ton pickup — stone is heavy enough that payload, not bed space, is the limit.

Soil Amendment Calculator

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What each working depth costs you

200 square feet at 25% compost by volume:

Worked in to	Soil volume	Compost needed	Bags at 1.5 cu ft	Spread depth
3 in	50 cu ft	0.46 yd	9	0.75 in
6 in	100 cu ft	0.93 yd	17	1.5 in
9 in	150 cu ft	1.39 yd	25	2.25 in
12 in	200 cu ft	1.85 yd	34	3 in

Percentages worth using

Situation	Compost by volume	Why
Established bed, annual feed	10–15%	Replacing what the soil consumed
New vegetable bed	25%	The usual extension recommendation
Heavy clay or pure sand	33%	Structure is the problem, not fertility
Filling a raised bed	30–40% with topsoil	It is a mix, not an amendment
No-dig surface layer	1–2 in on top	Worms do the incorporating

The neighbouring tools

To fill a new raised bed rather than amend an existing one, the raised bed soil calculator handles the mix. For compost on its own by area and depth, use the compost calculator; for the soil underneath it, topsoil.

Annual Mulch Budget

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The yearly cost of keeping beds topped up, and what it comes to over five years — including the labour if you are pricing a job.

Bags or Bulk: Cost Comparison

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Compare bagged and bulk pricing including delivery for the volume you actually need — the crossover point is usually lower than people expect.

Delivery and Load Planner

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

How many truck or trailer loads your order takes, and roughly what it weighs — which is the limit that usually bites first.

Mulching Season Reminders

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Set your spring and autumn mulching dates once and get an email before each one, year after year.

Multi-Bed Mulch Planner

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every bed in one table — length, width and depth per bed — adding up to the total cubic yards, cubic feet and bags you need to order.

Soil and Compost Blend Planner

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Work out the volume of each component in a soil mix — topsoil, compost, and amendment — from the bed size and your chosen ratio.

Bags to Cubic Yards Converter

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is the conversion that decides most landscape purchases, and it is the one nobody in the transaction has an interest in making easy. Bulk is quoted per cubic yard, bags are priced per bag, and the two only meet when you know how many bags a yard contains.

Memorise one row of this table — the 13.5 — and the rest follows by halving and doubling.

Bag size	Bags per cubic yard	Cubic yards per bag	Typically holds
0.5 cu ft	54	0.019	Pea gravel, river rock, paver sand
0.75 cu ft	36	0.028	Premium and rubber mulch
1 cu ft	27	0.037	Compost, garden soil
1.5 cu ft	18	0.056	Topsoil, potting mix, dyed mulch
2 cu ft	13.5	0.074	Shredded hardwood mulch
3 cu ft	9	0.111	Pine bark, cypress, pine fines

Once you have the yardage, the cost calculator works out where the bag price stops beating a delivery fee.

Compost Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Compost is the one landscape material where the right answer is a thin layer applied often, not a thick layer applied once. The volume you need is therefore much smaller than for mulch or topsoil, and the depth choices are correspondingly finer — a quarter inch is a real, useful number here in a way it never is under bark.

The figures below are per 1,000 sq ft, which is roughly a small back lawn, so a typical suburban top dressing lands between one and two cubic yards.

Cubic Yards Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every calculator on this site is this one, wearing a different hat. Mulch, topsoil, compost, gravel and sand all use area × depth ÷ 27; what changes afterwards is the density, the bag size and the unit the supplier quotes in. Learn the formula once and you can sanity-check any quote you are given.

The table converts depth to volume for a 100 sq ft patch, which is the easiest unit to scale in your head — multiply by five for 500 sq ft, by ten for 1,000.

Cubic Yards to Tons Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Volume and weight are two different transactions on the same pile. Mulch is sold by the cubic yard, stone is sold by the ton, and soil is sold either way depending on the yard — so the conversion is not optional, it is how you check that two quotes are for the same material.

The table is the whole density set this site calculates with, and it is the reason a “yard” means nothing until you say a yard of what.

Fill Dirt Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Fill dirt is the only material on this site where the number you calculate is deliberately not the number you order. Everything else goes down loose and stays loose. Fill goes down loose and is then compacted, and the difference between those two states is the reason so many patched lawns have a dip in them a year later.

The table is per 100 sq ft — a 10 × 10 ft patch — so multiply straight through for the area you are filling.

Gravel Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Gravel is the material where the unit changes halfway through the transaction. You measure a patio in square feet, you calculate in cubic yards, and the yard sells you tons off a weighbridge. Density is the only thing connecting the three, and it is different for every stone on the pile.

Use the table to convert once you have the volume — or just switch the material in the calculator above and read the tonnage straight off.

How We Calculate

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every calculator on this site runs on the same three steps, in the same order the supply yard does it: area × depth = volume, volume ÷ 27 = cubic yards, cubic yards × density = weight.

The formulas

Rectangle: length ft × width ft
Circle: π × (diameter ÷ 2)²
Triangle: base × height ÷ 2
Ring around a tree: π × (outer radius² − trunk gap²). A mulch ring is a circle with a hole in it, and the hole is not a detail — mulch piled against the bark is what kills the tree. If the gap is wider than the ring, the area is zero rather than a negative number.
Volume: area sq ft × (depth in ÷ 12) = cubic feet; ÷ 27 = cubic yards, because a cubic yard is a 3 ft cube and 3 × 3 × 3 = 27.
Bags: cubic feet ÷ bag size, always rounded up — nobody sells half a bag.
Weight: cubic yards × the material’s pounds per cubic yard from the table below; tons = pounds ÷ 2,000.

The density table

These are dry, loose, as-delivered figures — the single number in the middle is what every calculator on this site uses, the range is the published spread. Organic materials gain 20–40% of their weight when soaked, which matters for your truck’s payload far more than for your order.

Mulch Bags Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Bag size is the only variable in this niche that stores make genuinely hard to compare. Two brands sit on the same pallet at the same price, one holds 2 cubic feet and the other 3, and the shelf tag prices both per bag. The fix is to convert everything to cost per cubic foot before you decide — which is what the table above does the moment you type a price.

Mulch Cost Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every article on this subject ends with “bulk is cheaper over about three yards” and none of them show the working, because the answer depends on three numbers that are different in every town: the bag price, the yard price and the delivery fee. Change the delivery from $50 to $85 and the crossing point moves by more than a yard.

The table below is the same calculation at four common bag prices, against a $42 bulk yard and a $65 delivery, so you can see how sharply the bag price alone moves the decision.

Mulch Depth Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Depth is the only input on this site that people guess. Area gets measured, prices get checked, and then the depth is whatever the bag said or whatever looked right last year — which is how beds end up at six inches and trees end up in volcanoes.

The table is the whole argument in one place: what a cubic yard covers at each depth, and what the same 500 sq ft bed costs to fill.

Pea Gravel Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Pea gravel is bought in bags far more often than any other bulk stone, because a small patio looks like a small job right up until you price 54 bags to the cubic yard. Knowing the bag count before you leave the house is the whole point of this page.

The figures below are at 2 inches, the depth that keeps a rounded-stone surface walkable.

Area	Cubic yards	0.5 cu ft bags	Weight
50 sq ft	0.31	17	772 lb
100 sq ft	0.62	34	1,543 lb
150 sq ft	0.93	50	2,315 lb
200 sq ft	1.23	67	3,086 lb
300 sq ft	1.85	100	4,630 lb

Read the weight column before the bag column. A hundred square feet is already three quarters of a ton, which is a full load for a sedan and a real one for an SUV.

Playground Mulch Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Everything on a playground order follows from one measurement, and it is not the size of the area. It is the fall height: the vertical distance from the highest surface a child can stand on to the protective surfacing below. That number sets the depth, and the depth sets the volume.

Measure the fall height first, read the depth off the table, then measure the use zone — six feet out from stationary equipment, and twice the pivot height fore and aft of any swing.

Potting Soil Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Container gardening is where the arithmetic gets fiddly, because nothing shares a unit. Pots are sized in inches across the rim, mix is sold in dry quarts or cubic feet depending on the brand, and the pot itself holds less than its dimensions suggest.

The table below is the conversion for common round pots, filled to an inch below the rim with the taper allowed for. Heights are the usual proportion for each diameter.

Raised Bed Soil Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Raised beds are the one job on this site where people routinely order twice what they need, because the volume looks small on paper and enormous in bags. A single 4 × 8 bed at full depth is more than a cubic yard — 22 bags, or most of a pickup load.

The table gives the finished volume for the standard timber sizes at 12 inches, before the settling allowance. Halve the numbers for a 6-inch bed, add half again for 18.

River Rock Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The whole difficulty with river rock is that suppliers publish one coverage figure per ton and customers apply it to every stone size on the yard. Coverage is a function of depth, and depth is a function of how big the stone is — so the same ton covers 116 square feet as pebbles and 39 as cobble.

Work out your depth from the grade you are buying, then read across.

Sand Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Sand is four different products sold under one word, and the calculator cannot tell you which one to buy. What it can do is stop the two ordering mistakes: bedding a patio too thick, and buying sandbox sand a bag at a time when the box needs half a ton.

Everything below is per 100 sq ft, at the depth each job actually calls for.

Job	Depth	Cubic yards	50 lb bags
Paver bedding sand	1 in	0.31	17
Above-ground pool base	2 in	0.62	34
Sandbox	8 in	2.47	134
Volleyball or play court	12 in	3.70	200

The last two rows are the reason sandboxes get built and then never filled properly. A hundred and thirty-four bags is 6,700 lb — three and a third tons, or one bulk delivery against four trips in a half-ton pickup.

Topsoil Calculator

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Topsoil is the material where the difference between the volume you calculate and the volume you order matters most. Mulch you can eyeball; soil settles, gets raked into low spots and disappears into the tilth of whatever is underneath. Ordering the exact calculated figure is how a new lawn ends up half an inch short along one edge.

The depths below are the ones worth knowing, sized per 1,000 sq ft so you can scale them to any job by eye.

About

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

CalculatorMulch is a small independent site that answers one question about every landscape material sold by the yard: how much of it do you need, and what will that cost? Mulch, topsoil, compost, gravel, sand and stone each get their own calculator, because the volume maths is shared and everything after it — weight, bag sizes, how it is sold — is not.

Why it exists

The mulch calculator question is asked by people standing at the edge of a bed with a tape measure, usually once a year, with no way to tell whether the number they have been given is right. What already exists falls into two camps. Local garden centres and supply yards have a one-page form that exists to book a delivery in their own town. General calculator sites have the arithmetic but stop at a raw figure — 4.63 cubic yards — without telling you that suppliers sell in half-yard steps, that the same volume is 63 bags at one size and 42 at another, or where bulk starts beating bagged.

Contact

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Questions, suggestions or corrections? Email us:

info@calculatormulch.com

We usually reply within a few working days.

Who you are writing to

Operated by: maicrosites.com
Established in: Slovakia, European Union
Email: info@calculatormulch.com
Site: calculatormulch.com

One person reads this address, so please put what you need in the first message rather than asking whether you may ask. Replies come within a few working days; complaints get an answer within 14 days, and how a complaint escalates if we cannot settle it is set out in the terms of use.

Privacy Policy

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Who is responsible for your data

Operated by: maicrosites.com
Established in: Slovakia, European Union
Email: info@calculatormulch.com
Site: calculatormulch.com

There is no data protection officer. The site is run by one person and meets none of the conditions in Article 37 GDPR that would require one, so the address above reaches the person who actually decides what happens to your data — not a queue.

What we process

The tools run entirely in your browser — your inputs are never sent anywhere.