How much does a yard of topsoil weigh? The short answer is that a cubic yard of topsoil usually weighs somewhere between about 2,000 and 2,700 pounds, which is roughly one to one and a third tons, but the honest longer answer is that it depends heavily on how wet the soil is and what it is made of. Dry, screened topsoil sits near the bottom of that range, while soil that is damp, heavy with clay, or full of organic matter can weigh a good deal more, and fully saturated soil after rain can push past 3,000 pounds a yard. That variation matters, because the weight of topsoil decides how much your delivery truck can carry, how many wheelbarrow trips your back is in for, and whether a bulk load is a better deal than bags. This guide gives you clear numbers for a yard, a cubic foot, and a bag, a full weight chart, and the reasoning behind the figures so you can estimate your own load with confidence. Along the way it covers the questions people ask most, from how many tons a yard works out to, to how much a single 40-pound bag weighs and how the weight compares to sand, gravel, and mulch, so that whatever unit your supplier quotes, you can translate it into a number you can actually plan around.
If you are trying to work out how much a delivery will weigh or how many yards you actually need, plug your area and depth into the Dirt Calculator or the Topsoil Calculator to get the volume first, then use the weights below to turn that into pounds and tons.
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How much does a yard of topsoil weigh?
A cubic yard of topsoil weighs approximately 2,000 to 2,700 pounds, or about 1 to 1.35 tons. If you need a single number to plan around, 2,200 pounds per cubic yard is a sensible working average for ordinary, slightly moist screened topsoil. That figure is the one most landscapers reach for when they are estimating a delivery, and it is close enough for almost every home project.
The reason you see a range rather than one fixed number is that topsoil is not a manufactured product with a constant density. It is a natural material, and its weight shifts with moisture and composition from one pile to the next. A yard of bone-dry, sandy, screened topsoil might weigh only 1,900 to 2,000 pounds, while the same yard after a few days of rain, or a yard with a lot of clay in it, can weigh 2,600 pounds or more. Saturated topsoil, the kind you get when a pile has sat uncovered through a wet week, can climb toward 3,000 pounds a yard because every gap between the soil particles has filled with water, and water is heavy at about 62 pounds per cubic foot.
For quick mental math it helps to remember that a cubic yard of typical topsoil weighs roughly a ton. That rule of thumb is slightly low for moist soil and slightly high for very dry soil, but it is the fastest way to sanity-check a delivery. If a supplier tells you a truck is bringing five yards, you can expect something in the region of five to six and a half tons of material, which is worth knowing before it lands on your driveway. To turn your own project into a volume first, the Dirt Calculator does the area-and-depth math for you.
Why topsoil weight varies so much
Two piles of topsoil that look identical can weigh very different amounts, and understanding why puts you in control of your estimate. The two biggest factors are moisture and composition, and of the two, moisture is usually the one that moves the number most.
Water is the main culprit. Topsoil is full of tiny air spaces between its particles, and those spaces fill with water when the soil is wet. Because water weighs about 62 pounds per cubic foot, a yard of soil that has soaked up a lot of it can gain several hundred pounds without looking any bigger. This is why the same topsoil weighs less in a dry August pile than it does after an autumn downpour, and why suppliers who sell by weight rather than by volume can effectively charge you for water. If you are comparing prices, it is always worth asking whether a supplier sells topsoil by the cubic yard or by the ton, because a ton of wet soil gives you less actual dirt than a ton of dry soil.
Composition is the second factor. Sandy topsoil is relatively light and drains quickly, so it tends to sit at the lower end of the weight range. Clay-heavy topsoil is denser and holds water, so it sits at the higher end. Topsoil rich in organic matter, such as a blend with a lot of compost or leaf mould, is lighter again because organic material is far less dense than mineral soil. Screened topsoil, which has been passed through a mesh to remove rocks, roots, and clumps, is usually more uniform and slightly lighter and fluffier than unscreened soil straight from the ground, though once it settles the difference narrows. If you want to understand these ingredients in more depth, the guide on what topsoil is made of breaks down the mineral and organic mix.
How much does a cubic foot of topsoil weigh?
Because there are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard, you can work backward from the yard figure to get the weight of a single cubic foot. Dividing a typical 2,200-pound yard by 27 gives about 81 pounds per cubic foot, and the usual quoted range is roughly 74 to 100 pounds per cubic foot depending on moisture and type.
This per-cubic-foot figure is the one that matters when you are buying bagged topsoil or measuring out small amounts, because bags are labelled in cubic feet rather than yards. A cubic foot of dry, loose topsoil is often around 75 to 80 pounds, while a damp, dense cubic foot can be 90 to 100 pounds. It is a heavier material than many people expect, which is why a couple of bags can be surprisingly awkward to carry. If you are curious how the cubic-foot-to-yard conversion works in the other direction, the article on how many cubic feet are in a yard of topsoil covers it fully.
Here is a small point that catches people out: a cubic foot of loose topsoil in a bag weighs a little less than a cubic foot of the same soil once it has been spread and settled or lightly compacted, because settling squeezes out air. For planning purposes the loose weight is what you want, since that is the state the soil is in when you are moving it.
How much does a bag of topsoil weigh?
Bagged topsoil is sold by volume, not weight, so the poundage on the bag depends on how many cubic feet it holds and how moist the soil is. The most common sizes are the 0.75 cubic foot bag and the 1 cubic foot bag, though 40-pound bags sold by weight are also widespread, especially at big-box stores.
A 0.75 cubic foot bag of topsoil weighs roughly 40 to 50 pounds, which is why so many bags are labelled as 40-pound bags: that weight corresponds to about three-quarters of a cubic foot of typical soil. A 1 cubic foot bag weighs around 75 to 80 pounds when dry and can top 90 pounds when wet. A 1.5 cubic foot bag, less common for topsoil but sometimes seen, runs well over 100 pounds and is heavy to lift. The table in the weight chart section shows how these bag sizes add up.
Knowing the bag weight is useful for two reasons. First, it tells you what you are lifting, which matters if you are loading a car or carrying bags around the side of a house. Second, it lets you compare bagged and bulk topsoil fairly. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, so it takes about 36 of the 0.75 cubic foot bags, or 27 of the 1 cubic foot bags, to equal one bulk yard. That is a lot of bags to buy, lift, and empty, which is why bulk delivery is usually cheaper and easier for anything larger than a small bed. The article on how many bags of topsoil are in a yard works through that comparison in detail.
Topsoil weight chart: 1 to 10 yards and by the bag
The chart below gives working weights for common quantities of topsoil. The dry column uses about 2,000 pounds per cubic yard, the typical column uses 2,200 pounds for slightly moist screened soil, and the wet column uses about 2,700 pounds for damp or clay-heavy soil. Use whichever column best matches the state of your soil, and remember these are estimates rather than guaranteed figures.
| Amount of topsoil | Dry (~2,000 lb/yd) | Typical (~2,200 lb/yd) | Wet (~2,700 lb/yd) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 cubic foot | ~74 lb | ~81 lb | ~100 lb |
| 0.5 cubic yard | ~1,000 lb | ~1,100 lb | ~1,350 lb |
| 1 cubic yard | ~2,000 lb (1 ton) | ~2,200 lb | ~2,700 lb |
| 2 cubic yards | ~4,000 lb | ~4,400 lb | ~5,400 lb |
| 3 cubic yards | ~6,000 lb | ~6,600 lb | ~8,100 lb |
| 5 cubic yards | ~10,000 lb (5 tons) | ~11,000 lb | ~13,500 lb |
| 7 cubic yards | ~14,000 lb | ~15,400 lb | ~18,900 lb |
| 8 cubic yards | ~16,000 lb | ~17,600 lb | ~21,600 lb |
| 10 cubic yards | ~20,000 lb (10 tons) | ~22,000 lb | ~27,000 lb |
Reading across a row shows just how much moisture changes things: ten yards of dry soil weighs about 20,000 pounds, but the same ten yards soaking wet can weigh 27,000 pounds, a difference of three and a half tons that your delivery truck and your driveway both have to cope with. When in doubt, plan for the typical column and treat the wet column as your worst case. To turn your specific area into a yardage before reading the chart, run the numbers through the Dirt Calculator or Cubic Yard Calculator.
Weight, volume, and coverage: keeping the three straight
A lot of confusion around topsoil comes from mixing up three different questions that sound similar but are not: how much the soil weighs, how much space it takes up, and how much ground it covers. Getting these straight makes ordering far easier, because suppliers, calculators, and delivery trucks each care about a different one.
Weight is what the truck and your back care about, measured in pounds or tons, and it is driven mostly by moisture as this guide has shown. Volume is what you actually buy, measured in cubic yards or cubic feet, and it stays the same whether the soil is wet or dry, which is why buying by volume is fairer than buying by weight. Coverage is what your project cares about, measured in square feet at a given depth, and it depends on how thickly you spread the soil: one cubic yard covers about 100 square feet at 3 inches deep, or about 300 square feet at a thin 1 inch. The same yard, therefore, has one weight, one volume, and many possible coverage figures depending on depth.
When you plan a project, you usually start from coverage, the area you want to fill, convert that to a volume in cubic yards, and only then think about weight for the delivery. That is exactly the order a good calculator works in. Enter your length, width, and depth into the Dirt Calculator to get the volume, use the coverage guide to check the area a yard will cover at your chosen depth, and use the weight figures here to understand what will land on your driveway. Keep the three ideas separate and topsoil ordering stops being confusing, because you will always know which number you actually need. For the full method of turning an area into an order, see how much topsoil you need.
How many tons is a yard of topsoil?
Because a cubic yard of topsoil weighs roughly 2,000 to 2,700 pounds, and a ton is 2,000 pounds, one cubic yard of topsoil is a little over one ton, commonly between 1 and 1.35 tons. For rough planning, treating a yard as a ton is close enough, but for ordering by weight it is worth using the higher figure so you do not come up short.
Turning that around, one ton of topsoil is a little less than one cubic yard, usually about 0.7 to 0.9 of a yard depending on moisture. This is where buying by the ton versus by the yard gets important. If a supplier sells by the ton and the soil is wet, a ton buys you less volume than you might expect, because part of what you are paying for is water weight. Suppliers who sell by the cubic yard are selling you a fixed volume regardless of how wet it is, which is generally the fairer measure for topsoil.
These conversions come up constantly when a delivery is quoted in one unit and you are planning in another. The dedicated guide on how many yards of topsoil are in a ton walks through the tons-to-yards conversion with its own chart, and the Dirt Calculator will give you both the volume and an estimated weight for your project in one step.
Does screened, wet, or fill soil weigh differently?
Not all topsoil weighs the same even at the same moisture, and three variations come up often enough to be worth spelling out: screened topsoil, wet topsoil, and fill dirt.
Screened topsoil has been passed through a mesh to remove stones, roots, and clumps, leaving a finer, more uniform material. Freshly screened soil is fluffier and full of air, so a yard of it can weigh slightly less than unscreened soil right after screening, often around 2,000 to 2,200 pounds. Once it settles and takes on normal moisture, though, its weight converges with ordinary topsoil. You are paying for the uniformity and the absence of rocks, not for a big weight difference.
Wet topsoil is simply topsoil that has absorbed water, and as covered above it can weigh several hundred pounds more per yard than the same soil dry. This is not a different product, just a different moisture state, but it matters for delivery weight and for working the soil, since very wet soil is heavy, sticky, and hard to spread. Fill dirt, by contrast, is the subsoil from below the topsoil layer, with little organic matter and often more clay or rock. It tends to be denser and can weigh more per yard than topsoil, frequently 2,400 to 3,000 pounds, and it is used for raising levels and filling holes rather than growing plants. If your project involves bulk fill as well as topsoil, the Dirt Calculator handles both, and the what is topsoil guide explains where topsoil ends and subsoil begins.
How topsoil weight compares to sand, gravel, and mulch
If you are ordering more than one material for a project, it helps to know how topsoil weight stacks up against the other bulk materials you might have delivered, because they are far from equal. Topsoil sits in the middle of the pack: heavier than mulch, lighter than sand and gravel.
Mulch is the lightest of the common landscape materials, at roughly 400 to 800 pounds per cubic yard for wood mulch, because it is mostly air and light organic fibre. That is why a yard of mulch is so much easier to move than a yard of topsoil, which weighs three to five times as much. Compost is a little heavier than mulch but still lighter than topsoil, usually around 1,000 to 1,600 pounds per yard. Topsoil, at about 2,000 to 2,700 pounds a yard, is heavier than both. Sand is heavier again, commonly 2,600 to 3,000 pounds per yard, and gravel or crushed stone is the heaviest of the group at around 2,800 to 3,400 pounds per yard because the individual particles are dense rock.
The practical upshot is that you cannot assume a yard of one material weighs the same as a yard of another. If your delivery truck is bringing a mixed load, or if you are working out how many trips a job will take, the material matters as much as the volume. A yard of topsoil and a yard of mulch take up the same space in the truck but put very different loads on it, and on you. For a mulch project specifically, the using topsoil with mulch and fabric guide is a useful companion, and the Dirt Calculator will give you the topsoil volume to pair with these weights.
Why the weight of your topsoil actually matters
It is easy to treat topsoil weight as trivia, but it has real practical consequences for how you order, move, and receive it. Three situations make the weight matter more than the volume.
The first is delivery. Dump trucks and trailers have legal and mechanical weight limits, and because topsoil is heavy, weight, not space, is often what caps a load. A standard tandem dump truck might be limited to around 10 to 13 tons, which is why a topsoil order is frequently capped at a certain tonnage rather than filling the bed to the brim. Knowing your load will weigh roughly a ton per yard helps you understand why a supplier quotes the load sizes they do. The guide on how many yards of topsoil fit in a dump truck covers those limits in detail.
The second is moving the soil yourself. A cubic yard of topsoil is nine to fourteen wheelbarrow loads depending on your barrow and how full you fill it, and at roughly a ton per yard that is a serious amount of lifting and pushing. Knowing the weight up front helps you decide whether to move a load in a day or spread it over a weekend, and whether to recruit help. The third situation is surfaces and structures: a heavy load of soil sitting on a driveway, a deck, a raised bed frame, or a slab needs to be within what that surface can bear, and saturated soil is heaviest of all. Planning the weight, not just the volume, keeps you from overloading a truck, a barrow, or a structure.
Loose, settled, and delivered: which weight applies?
One more distinction is worth understanding, because it explains why the same soil can seem to weigh different amounts at different stages of a project: the difference between loose and settled soil. It does not change the total weight, but it changes the volume, and volume is how topsoil is usually sold.
When topsoil is loaded loose into a truck or a bag, it is full of air and takes up its maximum volume. Once it is spread and left to settle, or once it is lightly compacted and watered in, that air is squeezed out and the same soil occupies less space, often 10 to 20 percent less. The weight has not changed, but a pile that measured a yard when loose might only fill three-quarters of a yard once settled in place. This is why experienced landscapers order a little extra: the yardage you buy is the loose, delivered volume, and it shrinks slightly as it settles, so a bed filled exactly to the brim with loose soil will sit a touch low after a few weeks and a few rains.
For weight planning this means you should use the loose delivered weight, roughly a ton per yard, when you are thinking about the truck and the wheelbarrow, because that is the state the soil is in while you are handling it. When you are thinking about how much to order, add about 10 to 15 percent to your calculated volume to allow for settling, which the guide to compacting and settling topsoil explains in more detail. A cubic yard is nine to fourteen wheelbarrow loads at roughly 150 to 220 pounds a full barrow, so a five-yard delivery is well over fifty barrow trips, which is worth knowing before you commit your weekend. Confirm your delivered volume with the Topsoil Calculator and add a little for settling.
How to work out the weight of your own topsoil
You can estimate the weight of any topsoil load in two short steps: find the volume, then multiply by a weight per unit. The volume is the harder part, and it is exactly what a calculator is for, but the math is simple once you have it.
Multiply the length by the width by the depth of your area in feet, then divide by 27 to convert cubic feet to cubic yards. For a 10 by 10 foot bed at 4 inches deep, that is 10 x 10 x 0.33 = 33 cubic feet, or about 1.2 cubic yards. The Dirt Calculator does this instantly if you would rather not do it by hand.
Use about 2,000 pounds for dry soil, 2,200 for typical slightly moist soil, or 2,700 for wet or clay-heavy soil. Pick the figure that matches the state your soil is likely to be in when it is delivered.
Multiply your cubic yards by the weight per yard. For the 1.2-yard bed above at 2,200 pounds per yard, that is about 2,640 pounds, or just over 1.3 tons. Divide by 2,000 at the end if you want the answer in tons.
That is the whole method. Because the volume step is where mistakes creep in, it is worth confirming your cubic yards with the Dirt Calculator or the Topsoil Calculator before you order, especially for larger areas where a small error in depth turns into a large error in weight and cost. Once you know the volume, the weight is just one multiplication away, and you will know exactly what is arriving before the truck does.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a yard of topsoil weigh?
A cubic yard of topsoil typically weighs between about 2,000 and 2,700 pounds, which is roughly 1 to 1.35 tons. Dry, sandy, screened topsoil sits near the low end, while damp, clay-heavy, or organic-rich soil sits near the high end, and fully saturated soil after rain can exceed 3,000 pounds a yard. For planning, 2,200 pounds per cubic yard is a good working average. The single biggest factor is moisture, because water fills the air spaces in the soil and adds significant weight without changing the volume.
How many tons is a yard of topsoil?
One cubic yard of topsoil is a little over one ton, usually between 1 and 1.35 tons, since a ton is 2,000 pounds and a yard of topsoil weighs about 2,000 to 2,700 pounds. For quick estimates you can treat a yard as roughly a ton, but if you are ordering by weight it is safer to use 1.2 to 1.3 tons per yard so you do not come up short. Wet soil weighs more per yard, so the wetter the soil, the more tons a given volume will weigh.
How much does a cubic foot of topsoil weigh?
A cubic foot of topsoil weighs roughly 74 to 100 pounds, with about 80 pounds being typical for slightly moist soil. Since there are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard, you can divide the yard weight by 27 to get the cubic-foot weight. Dry, loose soil is toward the lower end, while damp or dense soil is toward the upper end. This is the figure that matters most when you are buying bagged topsoil, which is labelled in cubic feet.
How much does a 40 lb bag of topsoil weigh and cover?
A 40-pound bag of topsoil weighs, as the name says, about 40 pounds, and it holds roughly 0.75 cubic feet of soil. That is enough to cover about 3 square feet at 3 inches deep, or about 9 square feet spread 1 inch deep. It takes around 36 of these bags to equal one bulk cubic yard, which is why bulk delivery is usually cheaper and easier for larger projects, while bags are convenient for small beds and top-ups.
Why does wet topsoil weigh more than dry topsoil?
Topsoil is full of tiny air spaces between its particles, and when the soil is wet those spaces fill with water. Water weighs about 62 pounds per cubic foot, so a yard of soil that has absorbed a lot of water can gain several hundred pounds without looking any different. This is why the same topsoil weighs less in a dry pile than after rain, and why buying topsoil by weight rather than by volume can mean paying for water. Suppliers who sell by the cubic yard give you a fixed volume regardless of moisture.
How much does 5 yards of topsoil weigh?
Five cubic yards of topsoil weighs about 10,000 to 13,500 pounds, or roughly 5 to 6.75 tons. Using a typical figure of 2,200 pounds per yard gives about 11,000 pounds, while wet soil at 2,700 pounds per yard gives about 13,500 pounds. This is why a five-yard delivery often approaches the weight limit of a standard dump truck, and why suppliers pay attention to tonnage as well as volume when loading a truck.
Does screened topsoil weigh less than regular topsoil?
Freshly screened topsoil can weigh slightly less per yard than unscreened soil because screening removes rocks and clumps and leaves the soil fluffier and full of air, often around 2,000 to 2,200 pounds a yard right after screening. Once it settles and takes on normal moisture, though, its weight is close to that of ordinary topsoil. You are mainly paying for the uniform texture and the absence of stones and roots rather than for a meaningful reduction in weight.
How do I calculate the weight of my topsoil order?
First work out the volume in cubic yards by multiplying length by width by depth in feet and dividing by 27, or by using a topsoil or dirt calculator. Then multiply the cubic yards by a weight per yard: about 2,000 pounds for dry soil, 2,200 for typical soil, or 2,700 for wet soil. The result is the weight in pounds, which you can divide by 2,000 to get tons. Confirming the volume with a calculator first is the key step, since most errors come from the volume rather than the weight figure.
How many wheelbarrows are in a yard of topsoil?
A cubic yard of topsoil is about 9 to 14 wheelbarrow loads, depending on the size of your barrow and how full you fill it. A standard 6-cubic-foot contractor barrow holds around 0.22 of a yard when heaped, giving roughly 9 loads per yard, while a smaller 4-cubic-foot barrow gives closer to 14 loads. Each full barrow of topsoil weighs roughly 150 to 220 pounds, so moving a single yard by hand means shifting about a ton in total. For larger deliveries that quickly adds up, which is worth planning for before the soil arrives.
How much does a ton of topsoil cover?
Because a ton of topsoil is a little less than a cubic yard, usually about 0.7 to 0.9 of a yard, a ton covers roughly 70 to 90 square feet at 3 inches deep, or about 200 to 270 square feet spread 1 inch deep. The exact figure depends on how wet and dense the soil is, since a ton of dry soil is more volume, and therefore more coverage, than a ton of wet soil. If your supplier sells by the ton, it is worth converting to cubic yards first so you can check the coverage against your actual area.
The quick version
A cubic yard of topsoil weighs about 2,000 to 2,700 pounds, roughly 1 to 1.35 tons, with 2,200 pounds a good working average. Moisture is the biggest variable: dry soil is lighter, and wet or clay-heavy soil is heavier, sometimes past 3,000 pounds a yard when saturated. A cubic foot runs about 74 to 100 pounds, a 0.75 cubic foot bag about 40 to 50 pounds, and it takes roughly 36 of those bags to equal one bulk yard. To get your own load’s weight, find the volume in cubic yards and multiply by the weight per yard that matches how wet the soil is.
For related numbers, see yards of topsoil in a ton, how much area a yard covers, bags of topsoil in a yard, and how much topsoil you need. Confirm your volume with the Dirt Calculator or Topsoil Calculator, browse more guides in the topsoil blog and the home calculators hub, or explore all the free tools on the Waldev homepage.
Disclaimer: This guide is for general planning and education only. Topsoil weight, coverage, and prices vary widely with moisture, soil type, region, and supplier, so treat every figure here as a starting estimate rather than an exact value. For a firm quantity, measure your own area and confirm the number with the Dirt Calculator; for a firm price, get a local quote before ordering.
University extension resources on soil bulk density explain why moisture and composition change how much a given volume of soil weighs. Soil bulk density →
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service guidance covers soil properties and how soil is assessed in the field. NRCS soils →