How Much Fill Dirt Do I Need? Yards, Truckloads and Cost
Multiply length by width by depth, all in feet, and divide by 27 to get cubic yards of fill dirt. When the fill gets compacted in lifts, order 15 to 25 percent more loose dirt than that number. Then divide the loose yards by 12 for a count of tandem dump truck loads.
We sell select fill and fill dirt from our pits. The two pits sit in southeast Fort Bend County, and our own tandem dump trucks haul the loads. The math works on a job of any size. Our pits and trucks are built for jobs in the hundreds of loads.
How do you measure an area for fill dirt?
Measure the length and the width in feet. Depth usually starts in inches, so divide the inches by 12 to get feet. Three inches is 0.25 feet, 6 inches is 0.5 feet and 18 inches is 1.5 feet.
Split an odd shape into rectangles. Work out the yards for each rectangle, then add them up. Say an L-shaped area is a 40 by 20 foot piece plus a 20 by 20 foot piece. At 6 inches deep, that is 14.8 plus 7.4 yards, about 22 in all.
A low spot has no single depth. Measure it at several points, add the readings and divide by how many you took. Readings of 2, 4 and 6 inches average 4 inches, so use 4 inches across the whole spot.
How many cubic yards of fill dirt do common areas take?
The table shows in-place cubic yards for common areas and depths. In-place means the finished fill in the ground, before the compaction allowance. Yards are rounded to the nearest yard, and tandem loads at 12 yards each are rounded up.
| In-place yards and loads | 3 inches deep | 6 inches deep | 12 inches deep | 24 inches deep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 by 20 feet (400 sq ft) | 4 yd, 1 load | 7 yd, 1 load | 15 yd, 2 loads | 30 yd, 3 loads |
| 40 by 40 feet (1,600 sq ft) | 15 yd, 2 loads | 30 yd, 3 loads | 59 yd, 5 loads | 119 yd, 10 loads |
| 60 by 40 feet (2,400 sq ft) | 22 yd, 2 loads | 44 yd, 4 loads | 89 yd, 8 loads | 178 yd, 15 loads |
| 100 by 100 feet (10,000 sq ft) | 93 yd, 8 loads | 185 yd, 16 loads | 370 yd, 31 loads | 741 yd, 62 loads |
| Quarter acre (10,890 sq ft) | 101 yd, 9 loads | 202 yd, 17 loads | 403 yd, 34 loads | 807 yd, 68 loads |
| One acre (43,560 sq ft) | 403 yd, 34 loads | 807 yd, 68 loads | 1,613 yd, 135 loads | 3,227 yd, 269 loads |
Acreage adds up fast. Every foot of fill over one acre is 1,613 in-place yards, or about 135 tandem loads. A quarter acre at 24 inches takes the same 807 yards as a full acre at 6 inches.
How much extra fill dirt should you order for compaction?
Loose dirt shrinks when it gets rolled in lifts. So a pad or a low spot takes more loose yards than its in-place number. A Texas bulk supplier’s rule of thumb is 15 to 25 percent extra for fill compacted in lifts.
Take a 60 by 40 foot pad raised 2 feet. That is 178 in-place yards, or 15 loads in the table. With the compaction allowance, the order is about 215 loose yards, or about 18 tandem loads.
Treat the allowance as a planning figure. The real shrink depends on the material and how hard it gets compacted.
Those 178 yards cover the pad footprint alone. Our house pad cost guide works a full pad, with extra width and sloped sides.
How do you convert cubic yards of fill dirt to tons?
Some sellers price fill by the ton. To convert, multiply the loose yards by what one yard weighs. That weight changes with the material and how wet it is. The same supplier’s calculator uses these loose weights for one cubic yard:
- Fill dirt: 1.15 to 1.35 tons
- Select fill: 1.20 to 1.40 tons
- Sand: 1.30 to 1.50 tons
- Topsoil: 1.00 to 1.20 tons
So 20 yards of fill dirt weighs about 23 to 27 tons. The 215 loose yards for the 60 by 40 pad weigh about 258 to 301 tons as select fill. To go from tons to yards, divide instead: 100 tons of fill dirt is about 74 to 87 yards.
A tandem dump truck hauls roughly 10 to 16 yards a load, and 12 is the working number. Rated at about 14 tons, it carries only about 10.4 yards of fill at 1.35 tons a yard. Heavy fill reaches the weight limit before the bed is full, and the load count goes up. Our guide to how many yards fit in a dump truck covers each class of truck.
Which fill material does your job need?
Select fill is the engineered fill for pads and structural work. Our post on what select fill is covers the spec.
Fill dirt raises grade. When the ground needs reshaping as well as fill, that job is dirt work and grading.
Bank sand works as bedding and drains well. The sand for our bank sand delivery comes out of the same pits.
What will your fill dirt cost?
Cost follows the count. Multiply your yards, tons or loads by a price in the same unit.
For one published data point, an online seller lists prices for delivery to Rosenberg. It starts select fill at $49.57 a yard and fill dirt at $48.28 a ton. At those starting prices, 20 yards of select fill comes to about $991. The fill dirt works out to about $56 to $65 a yard at 1.15 to 1.35 tons a yard.
Those are one seller’s delivered list prices, not ours. Our price comes from the job itself: the material, the load count and the haul.
Our fill dirt cost guide for the Houston area covers per-yard and per-load prices. It also shows why trucking moves the total.
When does Fort Bend County require a plan or permit for fill?
On unincorporated county land, two triggers matter: the yards you add per acre and the height you add. Outside the mapped flood zone, more than 500 cubic yards of fill per acre needs an engineer’s drainage plan. The Fort Bend County Drainage District has to approve it.
Under 500 cubic yards per acre, the county may approve a simplified grading plan. Spread over one acre, 500 yards is only about 3.7 inches of fill. In the table, one acre at 6 inches is already 807 yards.
Height is the second trigger. Grading that raises or lowers natural ground more than six inches needs a county development permit.
Those county rules cover unincorporated land. Inside Needville, Richmond, Rosenberg or any other city, check with the city before the first load. Inside the mapped flood zone, fill that cuts floodplain storage has to be offset one to one, so talk to the county before any fill goes in.
What do you need to get a load count?
Have the footprint and the depth ready, plus the material your plans call for. With those numbers, the yards and the loads are simple math.
Our site work starts at about $10,000, and our excavators start in the 50,000 pound class. On volume jobs, we can run three shifts and keep trucks moving around the clock. Call (281) 750-6510 with your measurements, and we will work out the yards and loads with you.