The short answer on tons per yard of soil
A cubic yard of screened topsoil generally weighs somewhere between 1 and 1.5 tons. If you need one working number to size an order, use about 1.25 tons per cubic yard and you will be close enough to plan a delivery around.
Run it the other direction and a ton of moderately damp soil comes out to roughly 0.75 to 0.8 cubic yards. That is the part that surprises people. Ordering a ton does not get you a full yard of coverage, it gets you about three quarters of one.
The reason there is a range instead of one clean figure is moisture, and to a lesser degree how tightly the pile was loaded and stacked. The same screened topsoil can weigh well under a ton per yard after a dry week and push toward a ton and a half after a soaking rain. Nothing about the soil changed. The water did.
That is also why two quotes for the same job can look different. A supplier pricing by weight is quoting the material as it sits in their yard on that day. If their pile has been uncovered through a wet stretch, every ton you buy carries rain with it. A supplier pricing by volume is selling you the same space regardless of the weather.
Key takeaway: figure about 1.25 tons per cubic yard of screened topsoil, or about 0.78 cubic yards per ton, and confirm the exact density with your supplier before you commit to a weight based order.
A yard is space. A ton is weight.
These two units are not interchangeable, and most ordering mistakes come from treating them like they are.
A cubic yard is a measure of space. It is a cube 3 feet on every side, which is 27 cubic feet. Picture something about the size of a large washing machine. In practice a dumped yard never holds that shape. It slumps into a low, wide cone that looks smaller than you expected until you start moving it.
A ton is 2,000 pounds and tells you nothing at all about coverage. Two tons of dry sandy soil and two tons of soaked clay fill very different holes. The clay is denser, so it takes up less space for the same weight, and you will be short on your bed depth if you assumed they were equivalent.
Your project, meanwhile, is almost always a volume problem. Beds, raised boxes, low spots in the lawn, and grade work are all length times width times depth. That math lands in cubic feet, and dividing by 27 turns it into cubic yards. At no point does weight enter the calculation.
Density is the bridge. Here is the whole conversion in plain steps, using the moderately damp topsoil figure of about 100 pounds per cubic foot.
- Start with pounds per cubic foot. Call it 100.
- Multiply by 27, the number of cubic feet in a yard. That gives 2,700 pounds per cubic yard.
- Divide by 2,000. That gives 1.35 tons per cubic yard.
Redo those three steps with whatever number your supplier gives you for their specific blend and you will have their real conversion rather than an internet average. If they tell you their topsoil runs 90 pounds per cubic foot, you get about 1.2 tons per yard. If they say 110, you get about 1.49. Same math, different soil.
Real weight ranges, dry versus rain soaked screened soil
Dry to moderately damp screened topsoil
Moderately damp, consolidated screened topsoil is commonly figured at about 100 pounds per cubic foot, which works out to roughly 2,700 pounds or about 1.35 tons per cubic yard. That is the default a lot of soil calculators use, and it is a fair middle of the road assumption for a screened product that has been sitting outside in normal weather.
On the drier end, screened topsoil is often cited anywhere from about 2,000 to 2,400 pounds per cubic yard. So when you see published figures that seem to disagree, they are not typos. They are describing the same material in different conditions. Lighter blended topsoil, the kind cut with compost or sand, comes in below the straight screened figure.
After a heavy rain
Wet material climbs toward the top of the range and stays there until it drains and dries. Fill dirt that runs near 1 ton per yard dry commonly reaches about 1.5 tons per yard once it is wet or compacted, and the practical ceiling for heavy, saturated material is around 2 tons per yard.
What is happening is simple. Water fills the air space between soil particles. It adds weight without adding a single bit of usable volume. Your bed still needs the same number of cubic feet of soil in it. If you bought that soil by weight the day after a storm, part of what you paid for was rain, and that rain will evaporate out of the pile in your driveway over the following week.
How soil type shifts the number
Texture moves the figure as much as moisture does.
- Sandy soil runs around 1.25 tons per cubic yard. Individual sand grains are dense but they stack with a lot of air between them.
- Dry clay can reach about 1.8 tons per cubic yard. Fine particles pack tightly with very little air space, and clay holds onto water for a long time after rain.
- Compost is much lighter, closer to 1,200 pounds per cubic yard. That is why compost heavy blends weigh noticeably less than straight topsoil and why a yard of compost is far easier to wheelbarrow.
- Fill dirt usually weighs more per yard than screened topsoil, because it carries more clay and subsoil and fewer light organic particles. If your real job is raising a low spot or building up grade, fill is the right material and topsoil is money spent in the wrong place.
The practical version of all this is short. If you are buying by the ton, order after a dry stretch when you have the choice. If you are buying by the yard, wet material is not a pricing problem at all. It is only a handling problem, and a real one, because a wet yard is much harder to shovel and move than a dry one.
Quick conversion table
These are planning figures. Use them to size an order and to sanity check a quote, then ask your supplier for their density on the specific blend before you sign off on anything priced by weight.
- Screened topsoil, dry to damp. About 1 to 1.35 tons per cubic yard. About 0.75 to 1 cubic yard per ton.
- Screened topsoil, after rain. About 1.35 to 1.5 tons per cubic yard. About 0.67 to 0.75 cubic yards per ton.
- Fill dirt, dry. About 1 ton per cubic yard. About 1 cubic yard per ton.
- Fill dirt, wet or compacted. About 1.5 tons per cubic yard, with a ceiling near 2 tons for heavy saturated material. About 0.5 to 0.67 cubic yards per ton.
- Sandy soil. About 1.25 tons per cubic yard. About 0.8 cubic yards per ton.
- Dry clay. About 1.8 tons per cubic yard. About 0.55 cubic yards per ton.
- Compost. About 0.6 tons per cubic yard. About 1.7 cubic yards per ton.
Coverage is a separate question from weight, and it is the one that actually decides whether your order is right. One cubic yard spread 1 inch deep covers 324 square feet. From there the math is easy.
- 2 inches deep, about 160 square feet per yard.
- 3 inches deep, about 100 square feet per yard.
- 4 inches deep, about 80 square feet per yard.
Here is the whole process on a real bed. Say you have a bed 20 feet by 15 feet and you want 4 inches of soil in it. Multiply 20 by 15 for 300 square feet, then multiply by one third of a foot for 100 cubic feet. Divide by 27 and you get about 3.7 cubic yards. Convert that at damp screened topsoil weight and you are looking at roughly 4.5 to 5.5 tons. If someone quoted you 4 tons for that bed, you are going to come up short, and you will notice it as thin spots at the far end of the bed rather than as a shortage you can see in the pile.
Truck capacity, and why it decides your order size
With soil, trucks run out of weight long before they run out of room. That is the single most useful thing to understand about bulk soil delivery, and it explains something homeowners ask about constantly.
A soil load can look half empty in the bed and already be at legal payload. Mulch is light and fluffy, so a mulch delivery fills the truck visually. Soil is dense, so the same truck carries a smaller looking pile. Nothing is missing from your order. The truck simply cannot legally carry a heaped bed of dirt.
Pickups and trailers
Self hauling soil in a half ton pickup is where people get into trouble. A single cubic yard of damp topsoil can exceed the payload rating of a common pickup on its own, before you account for passengers, tools, or a toolbox in the bed. For most homeowners, a partial yard is the honest limit, and even that will have the rear suspension sitting low. Small utility trailers have the same issue with an added one, tongue weight and tire ratings that were never designed for a couple of tons of wet dirt.
Single-axle and tandem dump trucks
Dump trucks step up in capacity from there, and the honest answer is that the number of yards a given truck can bring depends on the truck, the material weight that day, and the roads between the yard and your house. Rather than guess, ask the supplier one specific question. What is the largest load you can get to my address. That answer accounts for their fleet and your street at the same time.
Tri-axle loads
The biggest trucks in a typical landscape supply fleet carry considerably more, and they are usually the cheapest soil per yard you will find because the delivery cost spreads across a bigger load. They are also the least likely to fit down a narrow residential driveway. On grading and fill jobs where volume is large and access is open, this is the load size to ask about first.
Two ordering habits save real money here. Order in whole loads when you can, because paying to move a truck for an extra yard or two is usually the most expensive soil you will ever buy. And when your number falls between load sizes, round down and top off later rather than rounding up. Extra soil is heavy, awkward to store, and it kills the grass wherever the pile sits.
Access is the wildcard that overrides all of it. Tight driveways, low branches over the approach, soft lawns after a rainy week, and weight limits on private drives or shared lanes can all force a smaller truck and more trips. Mention anything unusual about your access when you order, not when the driver arrives.
Which unit should you actually order in?
Order by the yard whenever the job is defined by depth and area. Garden beds, raised beds, lawn repair, and topdressing are all volume jobs. You measured them in cubic yards, so buying in cubic yards keeps one unit from end to end and removes a place for error to creep in.
Weight pricing turns up more often on fill, grading, and heavier bulk material, partly because those jobs are often sold off a scale ticket. If a quote comes back priced per ton, convert your volume figure first so you are comparing the same job rather than two different jobs that happen to have similar numbers attached.
To compare two quotes fairly, put both on the same footing. Convert each one to dollars per cubic yard delivered, delivery fee included. A low per ton price on rain soaked material is not the deal it appears to be, because a meaningful share of those tons is water that will be gone from the pile in a week.
Four questions worth asking before you place a weight based order.
- What does a cubic yard of this specific blend weigh.
- Is it screened, and how fine is the screen.
- Has the pile been under cover or sitting out in the weather.
- What is the largest load you can get to my address.
On volume orders, buy roughly 5 to 10 percent extra. Soil settles, it disappears into low spots you did not know you had, and you will find a use for the last wheelbarrow. Do not pad a weight order the same way, though. Adding 10 percent to a ton figure that already includes moisture is padding on top of padding.
Once you are past a yard or so, bulk topsoil and garden soil is noticeably cheaper than buying the same volume in bags, and the gap widens as load size grows. Bags make sense for a container or a small repair. For a bed, bulk wins on price and on the number of trips you make.
If you remember nothing else, remember the order of operations. Measure the space, turn it into cubic yards, and only then let anyone convert it to tons. Volume is the job. Weight is just how some suppliers bill for it.
How We Started
We started Mulch Mound because we got tired of the hassle that came with buying landscaping materials. The options were either loading bags into your car at a garden center or calling around to local suppliers, trying to figure out pricing, minimums, and delivery schedules. Neither option felt convenient or transparent.
Three of us – Alec, Mo, and Tyler – decided there had to be a better way. Alec and Tyler got their start back in 2013 running a landscaping business during college, moving mulch and mowing lawns to pay tuition. That experience taught them how frustrating it was to source materials, and years later, that frustration turned into Mulch Mound.
We focus on making it simple to get mulch, stone, and soil delivered directly to your home. Order online, pick your delivery date, and we handle the rest. No loading bags. No calling multiple suppliers. No wondering if you bought enough or paid a fair price.
We work with quality local suppliers in the areas we serve and aim to be straightforward about what we offer and what it costs. Landscaping is hard work. Buying the materials for it shouldn't be.
Frequently asked questions
How many cubic yards do I get if I order a ton of soil?
Roughly three quarters of a cubic yard for damp screened soil. Spread 3 inches deep, that ton covers about 75 square feet, which is a patch about 8 by 9 feet.
Scaling that up helps set expectations. Two tons is a reasonable single garden bed. It is not a yard renovation, and it is not enough to regrade around a foundation. If your quote is written in tons and the number is small, do the coverage math before you assume it is enough.
How much more does a yard of soil weigh after it rains?
Enough to change which truck can legally carry it. A load sized correctly for dry material can sit over payload after a heavy soaking, which is the real reason delivery drivers watch the forecast so closely.
It also changes how the day goes on your end. Wet soil sticks to shovel blades, clumps instead of spreading, and compacts under foot traffic in a way that undoes the loose structure you want in a new bed. If you can wait two dry days after a storm before spreading, the work goes faster and the result is better.
Why does my soil delivery look smaller than a mulch delivery of the same size?
Because you are comparing a settled pile to a fluffy one. Bark mulch traps a lot of air and holds a tall, loose shape when it comes off the truck. Screened soil slumps flat almost immediately and keeps slumping as it drains, so the same cubic yardage covers less ground in the driveway and looks like less material.
Measure the pile if you want a check. Length, width, and rough height at the peak will get you within range of the yardage on the ticket, and that estimate is far more reliable than eyeballing it.
Does fill dirt weigh more than topsoil?
Usually yes on a per yard basis, because fill holds more clay and subsoil and fewer light organic particles. Those fine mineral particles pack tightly, so the same space holds more weight.
That same composition is why fill is cheaper per yard and much worse for planting. Use it to build up grade or fill a hole, then cap it with screened topsoil where you actually want roots to grow.
Can I mix units on one delivery?
Ask, but expect a single unit per ticket. Yards and tons are usually separate line items in a supplier's system, and mixing them on one load creates confusion at the scale.
What you can do instead is have the supplier convert your yard figure into their weight and read the number back to you before they load the truck. That way you have agreed on the volume and they have a weight they can hit, and there is no argument later about what was delivered.