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Sand Calculator

Cubic yards, tons and coverage for any area

"Sand Calculator" Calculator

Area

at a depth of

in

Sand by the Cubic Yard: the Formula, the Weight and the Coverage

How much sand an area needs

Sand is bought by volume and delivered by weight, so «how much do I need» starts as a volume question: area times depth. In imperial units the whole thing collapses into one number:

cubic yards = square feet × depth in inches ÷ 324

That 324 is exact and worth knowing on its own. A cubic yard is 3 × 3 × 3 = 27 cubic feet; spread one inch — a twelfth of a foot — deep, those 27 cubic feet stretch over 27 × 12 = 324 square feet. So a cubic yard covers 324 ft² at 1 inch, 162 ft² at 2 inches and 81 ft² at 4 inches. Nothing about sand enters this part of the calculation, which is why the volume answer is exact and the weight answer further down is not.

Step by step

  1. Measure the area in square feet. Width × length for a rectangle; split anything L-shaped into rectangles and add them up.
  2. Decide the depth in inches. This is your decision, not the calculator's — a bedding course, a play area and a base layer are nothing like each other.
  3. Multiply and divide by 324. Area × depth ÷ 324 gives cubic yards; area × depth ÷ 12 gives cubic feet if you are buying in bags.
  4. Add about 10% for waste. Quoted from the WSDOT Design Manual, and it also absorbs the depth a screeded bed loses when it is compacted.

How much one cubic yard covers

Sand goes down thin, so the coverage numbers are large and the volume numbers are small — this is the table that keeps an order from being an order of magnitude out. The middle column is the coverage of a single cubic yard; the right column is what 100 square feet would take at that depth.

Depth One cubic yard covers 100 Square Feet needs
0.5 inches648 square feet0.15 cubic yards
1 inch324 square feet0.31 cubic yards
1.5 inches216 square feet0.46 cubic yards
2 inches162 square feet0.62 cubic yards
3 inches108 square feet0.93 cubic yards
4 inches81 square feet1.23 cubic yards

Common areas and what they take

Every row here has its own page with the depth table, the weight and the ordering figure worked out. All of them assume 1 inch.

Area Sand Weight, dry
30 square feet0.0926 cubic yards259–315 lbs
50 square feet0.15 cubic yards420–510 lbs
60 square feet0.19 cubic yards532–646 lbs
80 square feet0.25 cubic yards700–850 lbs
100 square feet0.31 cubic yards868–1,054 lbs
120 square feet0.37 cubic yards1,036–1,258 lbs
150 square feet0.46 cubic yards1,288–1,564 lbs
160 square feet0.49 cubic yards1,372–1,666 lbs
200 square feet0.62 cubic yards1,736–2,108 lbs
250 square feet0.77 cubic yards2,156–2,618 lbs
300 square feet0.93 cubic yards2,604–3,162 lbs
400 square feet1.23 cubic yards3,444–4,182 lbs
500 square feet1.54 cubic yards4,312–5,236 lbs
600 square feet1.85 cubic yards5,180–6,290 lbs
800 square feet2.47 cubic yards6,916–8,398 lbs
900 square feet2.78 cubic yards7,784–9,452 lbs
1,000 square feet3.09 cubic yards8,652–10,506 lbs
1,200 square feet3.7 cubic yards10,360–12,580 lbs
1,500 square feet4.63 cubic yards12,964–15,742 lbs
2,000 square feet6.17 cubic yards17,276–20,978 lbs

What sand weighs — and the one distinction most calculators skip

The WSDOT Design Manual (M 22-01.23, September 2024, Exhibit 620-1) notes in a footnote that where the grading contains more than 45% sand the unit weight approaches 3,400 lbs per cubic yard for material that is essentially all sand. That figure is for compacted sand.

What arrives on a truck is not compacted, and it is lighter for the same volume. WSDOT does not publish a truck-measure weight for sand, so we have no sourced number for it — but the same table does publish both states for gravel: 2,850–3,100 lbs per cubic yard as delivered against 3,400–3,800 compacted, a gap of roughly 20%. We apply that same allowance and print 2,800–3,400 lbs per cubic yard, with 2,800 lbs flagged as our estimate rather than a quoted figure. Most calculators print one number around 2,700 and never say which of the two states it is.

All of these are dry weights. WSDOT states it outright: weights shown are dry weights and corrections are required for water contents. Damp sand off an open yard can be noticeably heavier, which matters when a load is charged or a trailer is rated by weight.

How much to order, and in what

  • Bulk, by the cubic yard. The figure this page gives you. Add the 10% and round up to whatever increment your supplier delivers in.
  • Bulk, by the ton. Sand yards often quote by weight. Use the weight band and ask which state it is quoted in — the compacted and loose figures differ by about a fifth, and that is a fifth of your bill.
  • Bags. Bagged sand is normally sold by weight, so divide the weight band by the weight on the bag. Because the band is wide, you get a range of bag counts rather than a single number — round up.
  • The 10% itself. «If material is to be stockpiled, increase required quantities by 10% to allow for waste» — WSDOT Design Manual. It is a road-building manual, but the arithmetic of waste does not change in a garden.

Where this stops being exact

  • The default depth is an assumption. The form starts at 1 inch, roughly a bedding course, and it is our choice rather than a published recommendation. A play area or a base layer is several times deeper.
  • The weight is a band, and half of it is ours. Only the compacted figure has a source. Anything quoted for loose sand here is an estimate we have labelled as such.
  • WSDOT is a highway manual. Its subject is base, surfacing and ballast for road construction. Sand is sand, but a bagged play sand and a screened concrete sand are not the same material, and neither is quite what the manual is describing.
  • Compaction eats depth. A bed screeded to your target depth ends up shallower once it is tamped or driven on. The 10% allowance is for waste, not for compaction — plan for both.
  • Area first. If you have measurements rather than an area, the square footage calculator turns width and length into the number this page wants.

See Also

Last Results

FAQ

How do you work out how much sand you need?

Multiply the area in square feet by the depth in inches and divide by 324: cubic yards = ft² × inches ÷ 324. The 324 is exact — a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, and spread one inch deep it covers 27 × 12 = 324 square feet.

How much does a cubic yard of sand weigh?

Between roughly 2,800 and 3,400 lbs — 1.4 to 1.7 short tons — dry. The upper figure is the one with a source: the WSDOT Design Manual puts material that is essentially all sand at about 3,400 lbs per cubic yard compacted. The lower figure is our own allowance for loose sand as it is delivered, because WSDOT does not publish a truck-measure weight for sand.

Is sand measured compacted or loose?

Both, and the difference is large enough to matter. Compacted is the state after the layer is tamped down; truck measure is loose sand as it arrives, and it is lighter for the same volume. In the same WSDOT table, gravel runs 2,850–3,100 lbs per cubic yard as delivered against 3,400–3,800 compacted — a gap of about 20%. Volume ordered goes by truck measure; the weight quoted in a spec usually does not.

How much does a cubic yard of sand cover?

324 square feet one inch deep, 162 square feet at 2 inches, 108 square feet at 3 inches and 81 square feet at 4 inches. Every one of those is 324 divided by the depth in inches.

How deep should a sand layer be?

This calculator assumes 1 inch, which is our assumption and not a published recommendation — a bedding course under pavers is usually about that, while a play area or a base layer is much deeper. Read the answer for your own depth off the depth table instead of scaling in your head.