Outdoor Calculators

Bulk materials: think in cubic yards, buy by the ton

Every bulk material starts as a volume: length × width × depth. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, and at a 3 in depth it covers about 108 sq ft. At 4 in, about 81 sq ft. From there the paths split. Gravel and sand are sold by weight, so volume converts through density: roughly 1.4 tons per cubic yard for crushed stone, 1.35 for dry sand. Mulch and topsoil are sold by volume, in bags of known size (a standard mulch bag is 2 cu ft; a 40 lb topsoil bag about 0.75 cu ft) or by the delivered yard. Each calculator handles its material's real conversion, not a one-size shortcut.

Depth is where the money is. Mulch does its job at 2–4 in; gravel driveways and pads are usually figured at 4 in or more over a compacted base. And a paver patio is really three materials: the pavers themselves, a crushed-stone base (4 in for a patio, 8 in for a driveway, per ICPI guidance) and a 1 in bedding-sand layer. The paver calculator prices all three layers together.

For the wooden side of the yard, the Fence Calculator splits a run into even sections and counts posts, rails and pickets from real board widths and gaps, and the Deck Calculator counts decking rows from the board's actual width (a nominal 2×6 is really 5.5 in wide), plus two screws at every board-and-joist crossing.