Tons or Cubic Yards for Your Order

TL;DR

Gravel Valet sells heavy materials such as #57 Crushed Stone, Road Base, Mason Sand, Topsoil and Fill Dirt by the ton. Light, bulky materials such as Compost, Brown Shredded Mulch and Wood Chips are sold by the yard, meaning the cubic yard.^[1]

To turn cubic yards into tons, multiply by the weight of one cubic yard in pounds and divide by 2,000. To go the other way, multiply tons by 2,000 and divide by that same weight. A cubic yard holds 27 cubic feet, so a job measured in feet starts with that division.^[2]

Volume decides coverage, and weight decides tons. For 100 square feet at 3 inches deep, every material fills the same space, yet that space is 1.25 tons of #57 Crushed Stone and only 0.93 cubic yards of Compost.^[1]

Key Takeaways

Check the unit on each product before you work out an order, because the same project can call for tons of one material and yards of another.^[1]

Treat a cubic yard as a box 3 feet long, 3 feet wide and 3 feet tall, which holds 27 cubic feet.^[2]

Use the weight per cubic yard of the exact material you plan to buy, since Road Base at 2,800 lb and Topsoil at 2,200 lb give different tonnage for the same space.^[1]

Expect one cubic yard of most stone and sand to weigh more than a ton, as #57 Crushed Stone and Mason Sand both reach 2,700 lb.^[1],[2]

Order mulch and compost by volume alone, because a cubic yard of Brown Shredded Mulch weighs only 800 lb and Wood Chips only 700 lb.^[1]

Start every estimate from area and depth, then convert to the unit the product is sold in as the last step.^[2]

Why stone and sand are sold by the ton

Stone and sand are dense, and a weight is the one measure that stays the same from the quarry scale to your driveway. A pile of loose #57 Crushed Stone takes up a different amount of space depending on how it was dumped, shaken or packed on the way. Its weight does not change. That is why a ton is the fair unit for both the seller and the buyer of heavy material.^[1]

Pea Gravel and River Rock are sold the same way. Pea Gravel is 3/8 inch and River Rock is 1 to 3 inches, and both weigh 2,600 lb per cubic yard. Round stone settles into a tighter pile than angular stone, and large stones leave bigger gaps than small ones. Weight cuts through those differences, so a ton of either one is a known amount of rock.^[1]

Road Base and Mason Sand show the same logic with finer material. Road Base is 3/4 inch minus, a blend that packs down once it is rolled, so a yard of it shrinks after it is spread and compacted. Mason Sand is fine and tan, and it can fluff up when dry or slump when wet. A ton of each stays a ton through all of that.^[1]

Topsoil and Fill Dirt are heavy enough to be sold by the ton too. Topsoil is screened and weighs 2,200 lb per cubic yard. Fill Dirt is unscreened and weighs 2,400 lb. The screening takes out rocks and clumps, which makes Topsoil lighter and easier to rake into a bed.^[1]

Why compost and mulch are sold by the yard

Organic material is light and bulky, and what you care about is how much ground it covers. A cubic yard of Brown Shredded Mulch weighs about 800 lb, and Wood Chips weigh about 700 lb. Selling them by weight would mean paying for the water in them, and a wet load could cover far less ground than a dry one of the same weight.^[1]

Compost sits in between. It is screened, dark brown, and weighs about 1,200 lb per cubic yard. That is heavier than mulch but well under a ton, and like mulch its weight swings with moisture. Gravel Valet sells it by the yard, so you order the space it will fill in a bed.^[1],[2]

Volume makes the math simple for these products. A cubic yard of Compost covers the same area at a given depth as a cubic yard of Wood Chips or Brown Shredded Mulch. For 100 square feet, each one takes 0.62 cubic yards at 2 inches and 0.93 cubic yards at 3 inches.^[1]

Brown Shredded Mulch is double shredded, so its fibers knit into a mat that stays on a slope. Wood Chips run 1 to 3 inches with a natural color, and they suit play areas and paths through trees. Each of these mulches settles over a season, so plan to top it up.^[1]

How to convert cubic yards to tons

The rule is one line. Tons equal cubic yards times the weight of one cubic yard in pounds, divided by 2,000, the number of pounds in a US ton. The only figure that changes from one material to the next is the weight per cubic yard.^[2]

Start with stone. A cubic yard of #57 Crushed Stone weighs 2,700 lb, which is more than one ton, because a ton is 2,000 pounds. A cubic yard of Road Base weighs 2,800 lb, heavier again. So when a project calls for a set number of cubic yards of stone, the tons you order will be a larger number than the yards.^[1],[2]

Soil follows the same rule with smaller weights. Topsoil at 2,200 lb per cubic yard and Fill Dirt at 2,400 lb still weigh more than a ton per yard, but by a smaller margin than stone. Their tonnage for a given volume comes out a bit closer to the yard count.^[1],[2]

You can see the conversion already done in the coverage figures. For 100 square feet at 3 inches deep, the space is 0.93 cubic yards. That same space takes 1.25 tons of #57 Crushed Stone, 1.30 tons of Road Base, 1.20 tons of Pea Gravel and 1.02 tons of Topsoil.^[1]

How to convert tons back to cubic yards

Sometimes you know the tons and want the space. A neighbor may have a leftover pile, or an older plan may list a tonnage. To turn tons into cubic yards, multiply the tons by 2,000 to get pounds, then divide by the weight of one cubic yard of that material.^[2]

Run the numbers for a dense stone and the yards come out smaller than the tons. A ton of Road Base, at 2,800 lb per cubic yard, fills less than one cubic yard. A ton of Fill Dirt, at 2,400 lb, fills more of a yard than a ton of Road Base does, because each pound of it takes up more room.^[1],[2]

To get from cubic yards to cubic feet, multiply by 27. To see what that means on the ground, divide the cubic feet by the depth in feet. A depth in inches becomes feet when you divide by 12. That last figure is the area the material will cover at that depth.^[2]

The coverage figures make a fast check. If 1.73 tons of Road Base covers 100 square feet at 4 inches deep, a pile of that size will cover twice the area at half the depth. Matching your tonnage against those figures shows quickly whether a pile is enough for the job.^[1]

How much one cubic yard of each material weighs

These are the weights Gravel Valet uses for one cubic yard. Road Base is the heaviest at 2,800 lb. #57 Crushed Stone and Mason Sand weigh 2,700 lb. Pea Gravel and River Rock weigh 2,600 lb.^[1]

Soils come next. Fill Dirt weighs 2,400 lb per cubic yard and Topsoil weighs 2,200 lb. Organic products are much lighter. Compost weighs 1,200 lb, Brown Shredded Mulch 800 lb and Wood Chips 700 lb.^[1]

The gap between the heaviest and lightest is large. A cubic yard of Road Base weighs four times as much as a cubic yard of Wood Chips, give or take. That is why a single conversion factor for every material leads to bad orders. A figure meant for stone, used on mulch, would leave you with a bed far too thin.^[1]

Weight also matters for the ground where the load is dropped. A pile of stone or Fill Dirt is heavy enough to mark a soft lawn or crack an old, thin slab. A pile of Brown Shredded Mulch of the same size weighs a small part of that. Pick a drop spot on firm ground for heavy materials.^[1]

Why wet material weighs more than dry

Water adds weight without adding much volume. Mason Sand, Topsoil and Fill Dirt all hold water between their grains, so a load after rain can weigh more than the same load on a dry day. The weights per cubic yard in this guide are working figures for material as it is sold.^[1]

For stone sold by the ton, a wet load means you get less rock per ton, because part of the weight is water on the surface of the stones. Clean, washed stone such as #57 Crushed Stone holds little water on its surface, so the effect is small. Fine materials hold more, and Mason Sand can carry a fair share of water when damp.^[1]

This is the main reason organic products go by volume. A cubic yard of Compost, Brown Shredded Mulch or Wood Chips covers the same ground wet or dry, even though its weight can change a lot. By ordering yards, you buy coverage, which is what a bed needs.^[1]

For a tight estimate on sand or soil, round up rather than down. A small margin covers moisture, uneven ground and the material that stays on the tarp or in the wheelbarrow. Running short in the middle of a job costs more time than a small pile left over.^[1]

How to order when you only know square feet and depth

Most projects start with a tape measure, not a unit. Measure the length and width of the area in feet and multiply them for square feet. Decide on the depth in inches, then divide by 12 to get feet. Multiply square feet by feet of depth for cubic feet, and divide by 27 for cubic yards.^[2]

Now look at how the product is sold. For Compost, Brown Shredded Mulch or Wood Chips, that cubic yard figure is your order. For #57 Crushed Stone, Pea Gravel, River Rock, Road Base, Mason Sand, Topsoil or Fill Dirt, multiply the yards by the weight per cubic yard and divide by 2,000 to get tons.^[1],[2]

A quick way to check your result is to compare it with 100 square feet. A new bed at 4 inches deep takes 1.36 tons of Topsoil and 1.23 cubic yards of Compost for that area. A Road Base layer at 6 inches takes 2.59 tons for the same area. Scale up from there, so an area twice as large needs twice as much.^[1]

When one job uses several products, work each one out on its own line. A raised bed might take Topsoil by the ton and Compost by the yard, with Brown Shredded Mulch on top by the yard. Keep the units next to each figure so a ton never gets read as a yard.^[1]