What Is a Cubic Yard?

What is a cubic yard? It's a three-foot cube: 3 feet long, 3 feet wide, 3 feet tall. That's 27 cubic feet of volume. It's the standard unit of measure for bulk materials in the US — gravel, sand, mulch, topsoil, concrete, asphalt — anything that arrives in a dump truck or a trailer.

For context, 1 cubic yard is:

• About the size of a full-size chest freezer lying on its side
• About the size of a standard washing machine (which is about 4 ft³) repeated 6.75 times
• About half the bed of a short-bed pickup truck (F-150 short bed ≈ 53 ft³)
• About 9 wheelbarrow loads (a 3 ft³ contractor wheelbarrow)

Where the cubic yard came from

The yard is an old English unit (the word comes from Old English gierd, meaning rod or stick), standardized in the 12th century as the distance from the king's nose to the tip of his outstretched thumb (yes, really). The cubic yard is the volume of a cube one yard on each side — straightforward enough.

In the US, the cubic yard is still the standard bulk-materials unit. In the rest of the world, the metric system dominates: bulk materials are sold by the cubic meter (35.3 ft³, about 1.3 yd³).

Cubic yard vs cubic meter

| Unit | Volume | Cubic yards in 1 unit | |---|---|---| | 1 cubic yard | 27 ft³ | 1 | | 1 cubic meter | 35.3 ft³ | 1.31 | | 1 cubic foot | 1 ft³ | 0.037 | | 1 liter | 0.0353 ft³ | 0.00131 | | 1 US gallon | 0.1337 ft³ | 0.00495 |

Most US bulk-materials calculators and ordering systems (including this one) default to cubic yards. The cubic feet to cubic yards converter lets you switch between the two.

Why cubic yards?

Three reasons:

1. Truck-friendly: a tandem dump truck holds 15–18 yd³, a single-axle dump holds 10, a pickup holds 1–2. The yard is a convenient unit for the way material is sold and delivered.
2. Coverage-friendly: 1 yd³ of mulch covers 162 ft² at 2″ deep — a typical bed depth. The math works out cleanly for landscaping.
3. US-customary: the US still uses imperial units for most construction and landscaping. Cubic yards are the standard, and most suppliers price and sell by the yard.

Common cubic yard calculations

• Mulch: 1 yd³ covers 162 ft² at 2″ deep, 108 ft² at 3″, 81 ft² at 4″
• Topsoil: 1 yd³ covers 108 ft² at 3″, 54 ft² at 6″
• Gravel (driveway base): 1 yd³ covers 81 ft² at 4″, 54 ft² at 6″
• Concrete: 1 yd³ fills 81 ft² at 4″ thick, 54 ft² at 6″
• Sand: 1 yd³ covers 162 ft² at 2″

For a quick calculator that does the math for any material, see the cubic yard calculator.