How much material do you need?
Measure the area, pick a depth, and get the volume, the weight and what to order, in cubic yards and tons or cubic metres and bulk bags.
Every density comes from a named supplier. 122 published figures across 32 materials, each with its source and the date it was read. See them all.
Concrete calculator
Use your supplier's density
You need
- Volume
- Weight
- Area
| Order by | Exact | Order, rounded up for anything sold in whole bags |
|---|
Enter your measurements to see what to order.
Calculators by material
- Concrete calculatorWork out how much concrete a slab, footing or pad needs, in cubic yards or cubic metres, with the bag count and a cost from your own price.
- Gravel calculatorWork out how much gravel you need in cubic yards and tons, or cubic metres and bulk bags, with the density range every figure comes from.
- Mulch calculatorWork out how much mulch a bed needs in cubic yards and 2 cubic foot bags, at the depth your borders actually want.
- Concrete slab calculatorWork out how much concrete a slab needs, in cubic yards and in 40, 60 and 80 lb bags, at the thickness the job calls for.
- Dirt calculatorWork out how much fill dirt a hole, pad or grade change needs, in cubic yards and tons, with the weight range fill actually covers.
- Soil calculatorWork out how much garden soil a raised bed or border needs, in bags and cubic yards.
- Sand calculatorWork out how much sand you need in cubic yards and tons, with separate figures for concrete sand, mason sand, play sand and paver sand.
- Topsoil calculatorWork out how much topsoil you need in cubic yards, tons or bulk bags, with the weight range wet and dry soil actually covers.
Counted, not weighed
Pavers, brick, turf and slabs are ordered by the piece. These calculators return a count and the base material that goes underneath.
- Paver calculatorWork out how many pavers a patio, walkway or driveway takes, plus the base and bedding sand that go underneath.
- Brick calculatorWork out how many bricks a wall takes, at 60 per square metre for a half-brick wall and 120 for one brick thick.
- Block paving calculatorWork out how many blocks a drive or patio takes at 50 per square metre, plus the Type 1 sub-base and sharp sand underneath.
- Paving slab calculatorWork out how many paving slabs a patio takes, in 600 by 600, 450 by 450 and 600 by 300, plus the sub-base underneath.
- Sod calculatorWork out how much sod a lawn takes, in hand rolls, southern slabs, big rolls and pallets, with the coverage each farm publishes.
- Turf calculatorWork out how many rolls of turf a lawn takes. One roll is one square metre at every UK and Australian supplier.
- Polymeric sand calculatorWork out how many bags of polymeric sand a paver patio takes. Coverage depends on joint width, and a wide joint takes two to three times the sand.
How deep to lay it
- driveway beA driveway is two layers, not one: a compacted sub-base that carries the load, and a surface that sits on top of it. Each has its own depth and its own material, and ordering them together is what runs people short.
- path beA path carries feet rather than cars, so both the sub-base and the surface are shallower than a driveway. That is the single biggest saving on a small job.
- border beA border is a surface layer with nothing structural under it, so depth is about suppressing weeds and holding moisture rather than carrying load.
- shed base beA shed base is a compacted sub-base with either a concrete slab or a bedded paving layer on top. It needs to be level and to drain, which is what the sub-base is for.
- drainage layer beDrainage stone works by the voids between the stones, not by the stone itself, so a clean single-size aggregate matters more than depth alone.
- raised bed beRaised bed depth follows the root depth of what goes in it. The volume follows the depth, and filling a bed takes more soil than almost anyone expects.
How the calculators work
Area times depth gives a volume. Volume times the material's bulk density gives a weight. Weight divided by your supplier's bag or load size gives what to order, rounded up for anything sold in whole bags and left alone for anything sold loose.
Why the weight of a load varies so much
Bulk density changes with grading, moisture and how the material was loaded. Published figures for gravel run from 1424 to 1780 kg per cubic metre, which is a 25 percent spread on the same order. Each calculator shows that range and lets you replace it with the figure your own supplier states.
Ordering in the UK and Australia
UK merchants sell by the tonne and the bulk bag, nominally 850kg but genuinely 700 to 1000kg depending on the supplier and how damp the load is. Australian yards sell by the cubic metre and the scoop, half a cubic metre for soil and mulch and 0.4 of a cubic metre for stone. The aggregate calculator and the MOT Type 1 calculator work in those units and at those depths.
Every calculator
United States
- Concrete calculator
- Concrete slab calculator
- Gravel calculator
- Mulch calculator
- Topsoil calculator
- Sand calculator
- Landscape rock calculator
- Paver base calculator
- Crushed stone calculator
- Pea gravel calculator
- River rock calculator
- Decomposed granite calculator
- Road base calculator
- Paver sand calculator
- Play sand calculator
- Mason sand calculator
- Dirt calculator
- Soil calculator
- Compost calculator
- Wood chip calculator
- Stone dust calculator
- Riprap calculator
- Crushed concrete calculator
United Kingdom
Common questions
- How much concrete do I need?
- How much mulch do I need?
- How much gravel do I need?
- How many bags of mulch in a yard?
- How much topsoil do I need?
36 material calculators, 7 counted by the piece, 6 depth guides, 5 answer pages.