How much does a yard of dirt weigh?

Weight of a yard of dirt, soil and other materials

Quick answers, per loose cubic yard:

• Dirt or topsoil: 1,900–2,200 lb dry, 2,800–3,200 lb wet. More on the topsoil calculator page.
• Gravel: 2,700–3,100 lb, about 1.35–1.55 US tons. See the gravel calculator.
• Sand: 2,600–3,100 lb, dry to wet. See the sand calculator.
• Wood chip mulch: 243–473 lb, dry to fresh. See the mulch calculator.
• Concrete: about 3,780 lb once mixed. See how much a yard of concrete weighs.

A loose cubic yard of dirt weighs 1,900–2,200 lb dry and 2,800–3,200 lb wet; the table gives the same figures for soil, gravel, sand, compost and mulch.^[1]

Conversions between lb/yd³, US tons and kg/m³ use the exact NIST factors (1 lb/yd³ = 0.5933 kg/m³).^[7] Pea gravel and river rock have no separate published figure that we could verify, so this site uses the general gravel range for them.

Loose, in place and compacted

Delivered dirt and gravel are loose; the same material weighs more per yard in the ground or after compaction.

Earthmoving tables distinguish three states. Bank material is undisturbed in the ground; loose material has been dug and swelled; compacted material has been rolled. Delivered landscape material is loose, which is why the table above uses loose weights. The same tables give loose gravel 2,700–3,000 lb per cubic yard dry, but 2,980–3,450 lb in the bank state.^[1]

From US Army FM 5-434, Table 1-1.^[1] The last column is the useful one for ordering: one compacted cubic yard of gravel base needs about 1.17 loose cubic yards.

Moisture

Wet dirt weighs about 900–1,000 lb more per cubic yard than dry dirt.

Water fills the spaces between grains and adds weight. The Army tables show wet gravel and sand only about 100–200 lb per cubic yard heavier than dry, but wet earth about 900–1,000 lb heavier, nearly half as much again.^[1] Organic materials swing even more: green wood chips weigh roughly twice as much as dry chips,^[6] and screened compost at about 50% moisture weighs around 1,000 lb per cubic yard, rising past 1,500 lb when very wet.^[5]

Soil in the ground versus soil in a truck

Undisturbed soil is denser than delivered topsoil: about 1,850–2,700 lb of oven-dry soil per cubic yard in place.

Soil scientists measure dry bulk density in place. USDA NRCS figures, reproduced by South Dakota State University, put ideal values below about 1.1–1.6 g/cm³ depending on texture, with sandy soils at the high end and clays at the low end.^[9] That works out to about 1,850–2,700 lb of oven-dry soil per cubic yard in place, but it is not the weight of moist, loose, delivered topsoil. For that, use the loose figures above, or the producer's own: one UK producer gives 1 tonne of its standard topsoil as about 0.67 m³.^[10]

Single-number factors

Some references give one figure per material. A New Mexico state conversion table, adapted from the Bureau of Land Management handbook, lists ¼–2 in gravel at 1.42 tons per cubic yard, sand at 1.45, base course at 1.25 and topsoil or fill dirt at 0.80.^[2] These are handy for a quick estimate, but they do not say whether the material is loose or in place, and the ranges above are a better guide to how much a real load can vary.

Using the numbers

• To convert a tonnage quote to yards, use the tons to cubic yards converter.
• Sand and its bulking effect are covered in more detail on the sand calculator page.
• Metric orders by the tonne: the gravel calculator in tonnes.
• To size an order, use the cubic yard calculator and pick the material; it shows the weight range. For fill, the dirt calculator adds compaction.
• For a layer that will be compacted, use the paver base calculator.