When you go to the home improvement center, it’s normally pretty easy to eyeball the bags of mulch, dirt, stone, and concrete to figure out how countless you require for your project. However if you’re working on a larger scale, these materials are marketed in cubic yards, which can be more an overwhelming to number out, not to point out haul home.

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Whether you’re filling your pickup van or having actually a load ceded on a dump truck, here are the answers to some generally asked questions around working through cubic yards.


What is a cubic yard?

A cubic yard is a cube of product that is one garden (3′) wide, long, and also high. There room 27 cubic feet in one cubic yard. Now, before you gain the yardstick to measure the size, store in mental that loose materials will fluff up significantly if dry and also compress down as soon as wet.

How much does a cubic garden weigh?

The weight of a cubic garden depends completely on the form of material.


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Mulch: Weighs in at roughly up to 1,000 pounds per cubic yard, relying on the kind and whether it’s wet or dry.Soil: Weighs around 2,200 pounds per cubic yard, depending on the moisture content.Sand, Gravel, Stone: can tip the scale at upwards of 3,000 pounds per cubic yard.

Check through your supply garden for weights of specific materials.


How many wheelbarrow loads are in a cubic yard?

Wheelbarrows come in different sizes, but a tool sized, 3-cubic-foot wheelbarrow, will take about nine loads complete to same one cubic yard of material.

How numerous cubic yards carry out I need?

The best way to estimate the amount you’ll require is through plugging the height, width, and also length need into our Cubic garden Calculator. As a basic guideline, if you’re dispersing the product 3” thick, one cubic yard will cover around 100 square feet, or a 10′ x 10′ area.

Can i haul a cubic garden in mine pickup van or trailer?

Sure, presume it no weigh more than the truck or trailer is rated to handle. Supply yards space usually good at sizing up your vehicle, and also loading a safe amount of material.

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Still, if you’re control the fill yourself, it’s vital to understand your vehicle’s hauling capacity, and also how your auto behaves when completely loaded. Trailers have the right to be particularly difficult, due to the danger of fishtailing.

If you’re advertise the weight limit, remain off major highways and also Interstates, and also keep your rate under 45 mph.

To arrangement a for sure project, friend really need to identify the weight of the certain material you’re ordering. However, here are some general guidelines to provide you one idea of how countless trips it could take because that a large project:


Full-size Pickup Trucks: deserve to usually manage 2 cubic yards that soil, 2-3 cubic yards that mulch, and also 1 cubic yard of stone or gravel.Small Pickups and also Trailers: can usually take care of 1 cubic garden of soil to probably 1½ that mulch.Dump Trucks: If you’re having actually the product delivered, a small dump truck commonly carries around 5 cubic yards, and a bigger one carries about 10 cubic yards or more.How perform I buy materials by the cubic yard?

If you’re brand-new to working v this amount of material, it’s really straightforward to obtain started. During peak seasons, supply can’t always keep up with demand, so start by calling your neighborhood supply yards to get prices and access of the wanted material.

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Landscape supply suppliers usually bring topsoil, mulch, sand, gravel, and also patio stone.Mulch and also compost, do from ground-up yard waste, may additionally be easily accessible at your local landfill for a low price.Concrete needs to be ordered from a concrete delivery agency and comes premixed in trucks.

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If you want the product delivered, you have the right to place her order appropriate then over the phone. If you’re choose it increase yourself, you just need to drive into the supply yard, park at the office or booth, and go within to location your order and pay. The staff human will then straight you to the loading area, where a front-end loader will come and also scoop the material right into your truck or trailer. And also off you go!

What have to I do with mine materials?

Ideally, you must dump the material at the final location – your back will say thanks to you! v my little truck, ns just ago it best up to the flower bed or driveway, climate shovel the material out. If that’s no possible, dump that in a level spot where you aren’t worried around killing the grass underneath. If you’ve gained a really big project, enlist some help and 2-3 wheelbarrows, to store the job moving along.