Cubic Yard
concrete
A unit of volume equal to 27 cubic feet — the standard unit for ordering concrete, gravel, mulch, and topsoil in the United States.
A cubic yard is a cube three feet on each side. The divisor of 27 surprises people who expect 3, but volume scales with the cube of length just as area scales with the square. For planning purposes, one cubic yard fills roughly nine wheelbarrow loads, and a standard tandem-axle dump truck carries 10 to 14 cubic yards — though with wet or dense material the truck usually hits its weight limit before it fills.
Formula
yd³ = (length ft × width ft × depth ft) ÷ 27
Example
A 10 × 10 ft slab at 4 inches thick: 10 × 10 × 0.333 = 33.3 ft³, ÷ 27 = 1.23 cubic yards.
Common mistake
Entering depth in inches while length and width are in feet. Four inches is 0.333 feet — treating it as 4 overstates the order by a factor of twelve, and it is the single most common estimating error in construction.
Use the Cubic Yard Calculator
Convert length, width, and depth into cubic yards for ordering concrete, gravel, mulch, topsoil, or fill — plus cubic feet, cubic metres, and dump-truck loads.
Open Cubic Yard Calculator →Related Terms
- Concrete Bag Yield — The volume of finished concrete a single bag of mix produces — about 0.60 cubic …