Volume, bags, and bulk for garden beds, lawns, and landscaping projects.
How much you can move at once. A builder's wheelbarrow is about 0.08 m³; a small tipper is 6 m³.
Extra to order for spillage on the way in. 10% is typical.
Nothing to work out yet
Enter values for Length, Width, Desired Depth, Bag Size (litres), Load Size (m³).
Bed area follows the shape: rectangles are length × width, round beds are π r² from the diameter, and triangular beds are half the base times the height from base to tip. That is multiplied by depth, then by your waste factor and your settlement allowance — loose soil drops once it is watered in, so ordering to the finished depth leaves you short. Weight uses each material's own density, and mulch weighs roughly a third of what topsoil does. Bag count is the volume divided by the bag size you choose, rounded up. Loads to shift answers the question volume alone does not: the same 3 m³ is one tipper delivery or roughly forty barrow runs up a side passage, and which of those it is decides how the day goes. Set the load size to your barrow or your truck and the figure follows.
A raised bed 4 metres by 1.2, filled to 100 mm with topsoil. The finished volume is 0.48 m³ — but the calculator tells you to order 0.55 m³, which is 12 bags at 50 litres or about 7 barrow loads.
The gap is settlement. Loose soil drops once it is watered in and finds its own density, so ordering the finished depth leaves you short by roughly the amount it settles. Topsoil carries 15%; the figure is a property of the material rather than something you type, which is why Topsoil, Mulch and Decorative Stone no longer return the same answer for the same hole.
Fill the same bed with mulch and settlement rises to 25%, because bark compresses hard as it beds in. Decorative stone is 5% — it essentially just closes its voids.
Confusing settlement with waste. They are different things and both are on this page. Waste is what you spill on the way in. Settlement is volume you paid for that is still in the bed, just lower down.
The direction matters. Soil and mulch are sold by LOOSE volume, so what settles afterwards is volume you have already bought and no longer have — hence the allowance. Asphalt is the opposite: it is sold by mass at its compacted density, so its compression is already inside the price and adding for it double-counts. Same physical idea, opposite arithmetic, and this site treats them differently on purpose.
Either bags or bulk, and the two are quite different purchases. Twelve 50-litre bags is a car boot; the same volume as a bulk bag is a delivery with a crane. The Bag Size field is there because bags vary — 25, 40 and 50 litres are all sold.
Loads to Shift answers the question volume alone does not: the same 3 m³ is one tipper delivery or roughly forty barrow runs up a side passage, and which of those it is decides how the day goes. Set Load Size to your barrow — about 0.08 m³ — or to your truck, and the figure follows.
The working separates the finished volume from the ordered volume and names the settlement percentage for your material, so you can see both numbers rather than one blended figure. If your supplier quotes a different settlement, that is the line to change it against.
Weight is a guide rather than a promise. Soil density moves a great deal with how wet it is, and a bulk bag after a week of rain is meaningfully heavier than the same bag in August. Use it to check a vehicle is up to the load, not to argue over a ticket.