Topsoil Calculator for Lawns, Beds and Finish Grading
Enter your project dimensions
Soil work here waits on a dry stretch rather than on a date. Saturated Piedmont clay smears under a rake instead of leveling, low coastal lots stay soft for days after a long wet spell, and ground at elevation in the western counties is out of the question once it freezes. Book the load for a week you can spread it in, and settle the depth before anything else, because depth moves a topsoil order further than area does.
Depth first: what each job actually takes
| Job | Depth | Yards per 1,000 sq ft |
|---|---|---|
| Topdressing established turf | 1/4 to 1/2 inch | 0.8 to 1.5 |
| Preparing for overseeding | 1/2 to 1 inch | 1.5 to 3.1 |
| New seeded or sodded lawn | 4 to 6 inches | 12.3 to 18.5 |
| Flower bed, mixed into the ground below | 6 inches | 18.5 |
| Finish grade over a completed fill | 4 inches | 12.3 |
Read down that column before touching the form. A thousand square feet at a half inch is a yard and a half. The same thousand at four inches is over twelve. The area on the tape did not change; the number on the order went up eightfold.
Entering the lawn once the depth is chosen
Rectangle takes a length and a width in feet, which covers most lawns and any bed with straight sides. Circle takes a diameter in feet for a ring or a round bed. Multiple areas holds up to five entries, so a front lawn, a side strip and two beds total in one pass rather than four.
Depth (inches) accepts 0.25 to 24, and the bottom of that range is where topdressing lives. Enter 0.5 rather than rounding up to 1, because on any lawn worth topdressing that rounding doubles the load. The material select drives the weight conversion. The tick box adds 5 per cent for compaction and spillage and starts ticked; nothing is added if you untick it. Results come back as cubic yards, tons and cubic feet, with Email my quote sending the set on.
A 1,400-foot front lawn and a topdressing pass out the back
Hypothetical jobs with the arithmetic shown.
The front lawn is being seeded from bare ground: 1,400 square feet at 4 inches. Four inches is a third of a foot, so 1,400 x 4 / 12 = 466.67 cubic feet. Divide by 27 for 17.28 cubic yards. Screened topsoil is published on this site at about 2,200 lb a cubic yard, which is 1.1 tons, so 17.28 x 1.1 comes to 19.01 tons.
The back lawn is established and only wants a topdressing: 2,600 square feet at a half inch. 2,600 x 0.5 / 12 = 108.33 cubic feet, 4.01 cubic yards, 4.41 tons. Nearly twice the area, less than a quarter of the material.
A third from the same property: a finish grade over completed fill, 520 square feet at 4 inches. 520 x 4 / 12 = 173.33 cubic feet, 6.42 cubic yards, 7.06 tons. Where the ground needed raising more than that, the lift below belongs in fill rather than topsoil, sized on the dirt calculator, with the top 4 inches kept for the layer roots live in.
What 2,200 pounds a yard means on the day
Topsoil is bought by volume and shifted by weight, and rain changes only the second. A soaked yard weighs appreciably more than a dry one, which makes a wheelbarrow heavier and a wet pile smear rather than rake, but the lawn still takes the same 17.28 yards it did before the forecast changed.
Cubic yards are the planning figure: what the lawn takes, and how much of the drive the load will cover. Tons are the ordering figure, converted at the published weight. Cubic feet suit patch repairs, where 20 square feet at 2 inches is 3.3 cubic feet and a yardage reading is no use to anyone with a shovel.
The weight is also worth knowing before the load arrives, because it decides how the material gets from the pile to the lawn. Seventeen yards is a full day of wheelbarrow work on a sloping Piedmont lot and an afternoon with a machine on flat ground, and either way the drop spot wants to be uphill of the work rather than below it.
Ordering to the low corners, not the flat middle
Lawns are not flat, and the depth you measured in the middle is rarely the depth the edges want. Round a lawn order up to the next half yard and spend the extra in the hollows and along the edges, where the grade has to finish clean against a walk or a drive.
Topdressing is the exception. Round down there, because half an inch is a maximum rather than a target, and grass covered rather than dusted does not come back. Loosen the surface an inch before spreading so water and roots cross the join instead of stopping at it, especially over clay, where a sealed subgrade holds water directly under the new layer.
Screened topsoil has had stones, roots and clods sifted out, so what lands is rakeable. It is the growing layer, not structure and not a bed blend: Fill Dirt makes up levels underneath, Garden Soil with compost in it goes in raised frames and is sized on the soil calculator, and Top Soil is what this page converts. When the yardage looks right, open the product page, choose your quantity and date, and delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code.
Common questions
What happens if the load runs out before the lawn is finished?
The unfinished strip settles differently from the rest and shows as a seam for a season or more, because seed struck straight into subsoil never quite catches up. Spread from the far side back toward the drive so any shortfall lands where a second load can reach it, and keep the last wheelbarrows for the low corners rather than the middle.
How accurate is this against what a lawn actually swallows?
The arithmetic is exact and the ground is not. A loosened subgrade takes part of the first inch into itself, hollows are always deeper than the tape suggested, and settled topsoil gives up a little height as it firms. Take depth readings at several points across the area, average them, and finish about half an inch high so the settled surface lands flush.
I have the yardage. Which page do I order from?
The Top Soil page for lawn and grading work. If what you are filling is a raised frame or a planting bed, the blended garden soil page is the better match and converts at a lighter weight, so re-run the figure rather than carrying this tonnage across.
Where should the pile go while I am spreading it?
On a tarp, on firm ground, and as close to the work as the truck can safely reach. Soil stains a drive and a pile left on turf kills the grass under it within a few days. The truck needs clear overhead space and room to raise its bed, so pick and check that spot before the order goes in.
Why does the result show tons when topsoil is sold by the yard?
The yard figure is the one that answers your question, which is whether the lawn is covered to the depth you chose. The ton figure is the same material weighed at about 2,200 lb a cubic yard, and it is useful mainly for judging how the load will arrive and how much of it you are going to move by hand.
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