Dirt Calculator for Texas Low Spots, Trenches and Pad Fill
Enter your project dimensions
Stand at the back corner of a yard two days after a downpour and the puddle that is still sitting there has already drawn you the shape of the job. Clay opens up in a dry August, water finds the cracks, and by the following spring the ground has dropped an inch or two across an area nobody measured. Here is that job run end to end on the dirt calculator, and then the tool underneath it.
Bringing an 18 by 14 hollow back up to grade
Take a hypothetical hollow behind a garage. It runs roughly 18 ft by 14 ft. Probing it with a stake, the deepest point takes about 8 inches of fill and the edges feather away to nothing, so the average across the area is close to 4 inches.
- Area: 18 x 14 = 252 square feet
- Cubic feet: 252 x 4 / 12 = 84
- Cubic yards: 84 / 27 = 3.11
- Tons: 3.11 x 1.20 = 3.73
With the ten percent box ticked it reads 3.42 cubic yards and 4.10 tons. The 3.42 cubic yards is the number to order against, and the reason it is not the number you measured is covered further down.
What the dirt calculator does with a depth that changes as you cross it
Rectangles are easy and holes are not. The depth field takes one figure, so the work is in arriving at an honest average before you type it. Walk the area with a stake or a length of rebar, take a reading at the deepest point and a few around the shallow rim, and average them. Guessing high here is cheaper than guessing low.
Shape options are Rectangle, which wants length and width in feet, Circle, which wants a diameter, and Multiple areas, which takes up to five pieces at once. Use the last one when a depression has a deep bowl and a wide shallow skirt: enter the bowl at its own depth and the skirt at its own, rather than averaging two very different numbers into one that fits neither.
One limit worth knowing before you start. Depth accepts 0.25 to 24 inches. A trench two feet deep sits right at the top of that range, and a three-foot excavation does not fit, so run it as two passes and add the results, or enter the footprint twice at half the depth.
A trench for comparison: 40 linear feet at 18 inches wide is 60 square feet, and at the full 24 inches of depth that is 60 x 24 / 12 = 120 cubic feet, 4.44 cubic yards, 5.33 tons.
What a yard weighs before and after a week of rain
Volume is fixed by the hole. Weight is not.
| Material | Per cubic yard | Tons per yard |
|---|---|---|
| Fill dirt, dry | about 2,400 lb | 1.20 |
| Fill dirt, wet | up to 3,000 lb | 1.50 |
| Screened topsoil, for comparison | about 2,200 lb | 1.10 |
Rain adds weight, not volume, so a wet load does not fill more of your hole than a dry one. Where it does matter is on the ground: soaked clay fill smears under a plate instead of tightening, and a wheelbarrow of it is a different proposition from a dry one. If the forecast is unsettled, the pile sheds most of a shower on its own, and covering it means you can spread sooner.
Why the order is bigger than the hole
Fill settles. Placed loose and left alone, the surface drops as the material consolidates and the first heavy rain drives it down further, which is how one excavation ends up taking two deliveries.
Two things keep that from happening. Place it in 6 to 8 inch layers and compact or thoroughly water each one before the next goes on, and finish a lawn repair about half an inch proud of the surrounding grade so it settles flush rather than dished. Keep roots, branches and bagged clippings out of it as well. Buried wood rots slowly and quietly, and the hollow that opens above it years later is worse than the one you started with.
Fill going under a slab, a footing or anything that carries load is a different exercise. That calls for a compaction specification from whoever designed the structure, thinner lifts and proper equipment, not a rule of thumb from a calculator page.
Fill dirt below, growing soil above
Three tools on this site handle material that people all call dirt, and picking the wrong one is the most common mistake on this page.
- This calculator and Fill Dirt are for structure: changing grade, backfilling trenches, closing holes, building the body of a berm. It is screened mineral subsoil with little organic content, which is exactly why it stays where you put it.
- The topsoil calculator and screened topsoil are for the top 4 to 6 inches where grass and roots live. Stop the fill short of finished grade and put that layer over it.
- The soil calculator and garden soil are for raised beds and planters, where a blended mix is the point.
Run them separately and order them separately. A berm built entirely of the expensive material is money in the ground, and a lawn seeded straight onto fill will show you where the fill is by the end of the first summer.
From a number on the screen to a load at the gate
Email the estimate to yourself if you want it in hand, then open the product page, choose your quantity and a date, and give the delivery ZIP at checkout. Pick a drop spot the truck can reach and leave from without crossing the soft ground you are about to fill. If the route runs over a pasture or an unpaved approach, give it a couple of dry days first. Questions about a fill depth you are unsure of can go through the contact page.
Common questions
What happens if I order less fill than the hole needs?
You finish low, and once the surface has settled and grassed over, topping it up properly means opening it again. Coming up short on fill costs more work than having a wheelbarrow or two left over, which usually finds a home in a bed or against a low fence line.
How accurate is the estimate on ground this uneven?
The arithmetic is exact; your average depth is the variable. A hollow measured at three or four points and averaged will land close. One measured at the deepest spot alone will overshoot badly, and one measured at the rim will leave you short.
Which product page do I open after I have the yardage?
Fill Dirt for grading, backfill and berm bodies. If any part of the job is going to grow something, order that layer as topsoil separately rather than adding it to the fill total.
Where should the driver put four yards of dirt?
Somewhere firm, close to the work and out of the path you will be wheeling along. A four-yard pile takes up more of a driveway than people expect, and a tarp underneath saves scrubbing clay off concrete later.
Why does the result show both cubic yards and tons?
The hole is a volume, so cubic yards are what you measured and what you order. Fill is sold here by the cubic yard. Tons tell you what is landing on the drive and how long the spreading will take. At about 1.20 tons per cubic yard dry, the two figures describe the same pile.
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Screened fill dirt for grading and backfill, delivered across Texas.
