Fill Dirt Calculator in Yards, Tons and Loads
Dirt fluffs up when it’s dug out, then packs back down once it’s in the ground. That gap between the two is why fill jobs come up short a month later. This fill dirt calculator builds the allowance in for you. Measure the void, pick your fill, and you get cubic yards, tons and truckloads.
Your result
What to order
18 cubic yards of fill dirt, which allows 20% for settling
The hole itself measures 14.81 yd³. The extra 2.96 yd³ is what settling will take.
- Hole volume
- 14.81 cubic yards before any allowance for settling
- How this is worked out
- 14.81 yd³ hole × 1.2 for 20% settling = 17.78 yd³ × 2,000 lb ÷ 2,000 = 17.78 tons
What is fill dirt?
Fill dirt is the cheap stuff. It's whatever comes out of the ground below the growing layer, screened of roots and rubbish and sold by the truckload. Nothing will grow in it, and that is exactly why people want it.
Because nothing in it can rot, nothing in it can collapse later. That makes it the right material for filling a hole, raising a level, or backfilling behind a wall, where what you want is bulk that stays put.
Work the quantity out first because holes are much bigger than they look. A pool, a trench, a low corner of the yard: all of them swallow more than anyone guesses, and dirt is one of the few things you can't buy a bit more of at the store on Sunday.
Calculate fill dirt volume for any shape of hole
Nothing complicated about the math. Length × width × depth in feet ÷ 27 = cubic yards. That’s the whole thing for a square hole or a trench. Everything after that comes down to measuring the void properly.
- Measure in feet, including the depth. Fill dirt fills a hole, not a surface. So depth is a real measurement here, not a spread thickness in inches.
- Average an uneven bottom. Old pools slope from a shallow end to a deep end. Take both and use the middle. For a rough hole, measure the depth in three or four places.
- Divide cubic feet by 27. That gives you cubic yards, which is the unit every dirt yard quotes in.
- Add the settling allowance. Somewhere between 15 and 30%, depending on the fill. Almost every other calculator skips this step.
Picture a trench 40 ft long, 2 ft wide and 3 ft deep. That works out at 240 cubic feet, or 8.9 cubic yards. General fill settles about 20%, so you order 10.7 yards instead.
Why you must add a compaction factor
Loose dirt shrinks by 15 to 30% once it’s compacted. That one fact is why fill jobs come up short. You measure the hole right, you order the right number of yards, and a month of rain and traffic later there’s a dip where the fill went in. Which is why compaction is built into this calculator rather than bolted on afterwards.
Think about what dirt is doing when it arrives. It has been dug out and tipped, so it’s full of air pockets between the clods. Compact it, or just let rain and time do the job for you, and that air gets driven out. The surface drops. How far it drops depends on what the fill is made of.
| Hole volume | Sandy or gravelly fill (+15%) | General fill / loam (+20%) | Clay-heavy fill (+30%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 yd³ | 11.5 yd³ | 12 yd³ | 13 yd³ |
| 20 yd³ | 23 yd³ | 24 yd³ | 26 yd³ |
| 40 yd³ | 46 yd³ | 48 yd³ | 52 yd³ |
| 80 yd³ | 92 yd³ | 96 yd³ | 104 yd³ |
Compacting in layers is what makes the difference last. Fill in 6 to 8 inch lifts and tamp each one rather than dumping the whole load and hoping. A plate compactor hired for a day costs less than a second delivery.
How much fill dirt do I need?
A hole 10 ft square and 2 ft deep needs 7.4 cubic yards before settling, and about 8.9 with general fill. A 40 ft trench 2 ft wide and 3 ft deep takes 10.7 yards. An average backyard pool swallows 125.
Those numbers climb faster than people expect, because depth multiplies. Add a foot to a 10 by 10 hole and that’s another 3.7 yards. Most of a pickup load, from one extra foot. Measure the depth in a few places before you order rather than eyeballing it once.
Reading the table below: the first column is the raw void. The second is what to actually order, with 20% already added for settling. The third is roughly what it weighs on the truck.
| Job | Hole volume | Order | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 × 10 ft, 1 ft deep | 3.7 yd³ | 4.4 yd³ | 4.4 tons |
| 10 × 10 ft, 2 ft deep | 7.4 yd³ | 8.9 yd³ | 8.9 tons |
| Trench 40 × 2 × 3 ft | 8.9 yd³ | 10.7 yd³ | 10.7 tons |
| Pool 16 × 32 ft, 3–8 ft | 104.3 yd³ | 125.2 yd³ | 125.2 tons |
Filling a pool, trench or low spot
An old pool is the job people most often get wrong, because the bottom slopes. Averaging a 3 ft shallow end and an 8 ft deep end gives 5.5 ft, and a 16 by 32 ft pool at that average holds about 104 cubic yards before settling.
Pools need the shell broken up before you fill them too. Otherwise water collects in what’s basically a buried bathtub. Punch holes through the floor, collapse the walls into the hole, then fill in compacted lifts. Skip that and you get a sinkhole in the lawn two winters later.
Trenches and low spots
Trenches are the easy one. Length by width by depth, no averaging needed. Low spots are trickier, because the depth changes across the whole area. Measure the deepest point, measure a few shallower ones, then use that average with your total square footage.
Fill dirt weight per yard, wet and dry
A cubic yard of dry fill dirt weighs about 2,000 lb, which is one ton. Wet clay fill can reach 3,000 lb a yard, and that difference decides what can legally carry it.
The estimator above turns your yards into tons so you can check that before booking anything. And it matters more than it sounds. A half-ton pickup is rated for about 1,000 lb, so one cubic yard is already double what the truck should be carrying. Past a wheelbarrow or two, fill dirt is a delivery job.
Moisture is the variable nobody quotes on. That same yard of clay arrives at 2,000 lb after a dry week or 3,000 lb after a wet one. If the yard sells by weight, you pay for the water either way. Ordering by volume sidesteps it, which is one reason fill is more often quoted by the cubic yard than by the ton.
How much fill dirt fits in a dump truck
A single-axle dump truck carries about 6 cubic yards and a tandem about 12. Those two cover most residential deliveries, and they’re what people mean when they ask how much is a load of fill dirt.
Weight limits a load, not volume. Take a tandem rated for 12 yards of dry fill. Load it with wet clay and it hits its axle limit well before the bed is full. The driver delivers a part load and charges for the trip anyway. So ask what the truck is rated to carry, not what it holds.
| Truck | Cubic yards | Approx. weight |
|---|---|---|
| Pickup (½-ton) | 1 | 1 tons |
| Single-axle dump | 6 | 6 tons |
| Tandem dump | 12 | 12 tons |
| Tri-axle dump | 16 | 16 tons |
Yards price a full load cheaper per yard than a part load, so rounding up to fill the truck often pays. Check your access first though. A tandem needs room to raise its bed, and low branches or a soft lawn will leave the delivery sitting at the curb.
Fill dirt cost estimate, and where to get it free
Clean fill dirt runs about $8 to $25 per cubic yard collected, or $15 to $40 delivered. How much fill dirt costs you comes down almost entirely to distance, because a yard of fill dirt is among the cheapest material a supplier sells and haulage usually costs more than the dirt itself.
You can often get it for nothing. Excavation contractors pay by the load to dispose of clean fill, so a site digging a basement or a pool nearby has dirt it actively wants to be rid of. Local classifieds and contractor boards carry free fill listings constantly. You cover the trucking, which is the real cost either way.
The catch? Free fill is unscreened. Expect rocks, roots and the odd lump of concrete, and go look at a load before you let anyone tip a pile of it in your yard. For a deep hole under a driveway, none of that matters. Under a patio slab, it matters a lot.
Fill dirt calculator FAQ
How much fill dirt do I need?
Multiply length by width by depth in feet, then divide by 27 for cubic yards. A hole 20 ft by 10 ft by 2 ft deep works out at 14.8 cubic yards. Now add 15 to 30% for settling. So you order about 18 yards of general fill.
How much does fill dirt cost?
Clean fill dirt runs roughly $8 to $25 per cubic yard picked up. Delivered, it’s $15 to $40 once haulage goes on. It’s one of the cheapest things a yard sells, so the delivery often costs more than the dirt.
How much does a yard of fill dirt weigh?
About 2,000 lb for typical dry fill, which is one ton. Wet or clay-heavy dirt reaches 3,000 lb a yard. That weight is why fill gets quoted by the truckload rather than the bag, and why a pickup can only take one yard.
How much does fill dirt settle?
Loose fill loses 15 to 30% of its volume once compacted. Sandy fill settles least, around 15%. General fill is about 20%, and clay-heavy fill goes up to 30%. Order the raw hole volume and you end up short by roughly a fifth.
How much is a truckload of fill dirt?
A single-axle dump truck carries about 6 cubic yards. A tandem carries about 12. At $15 to $40 delivered per yard, a single-axle load lands somewhere between $90 and $240, depending how far you’re from the pit.
How much topsoil goes over fill dirt?
Four to six inches for grass, and 8 to 12 inches for beds or vegetables. Nothing grows in fill dirt, so stop the fill short of finished level by the depth of your cap and top it with screened topsoil.
How to calculate fill dirt?
Get the volume of the void in cubic feet, divide by 27 for cubic yards, then multiply by 1.15 to 1.30 depending on the fill. Filling a pool, or anything with a sloping bottom? Average the shallow and deep measurements first.
Is fill dirt the same as topsoil?
No. Fill dirt is subsoil with the organic matter taken out, which is exactly why it compacts well and grows nothing. Topsoil is the living layer above it. Use fill to build volume, and topsoil to plant into.