Mulch, Topsoil, Compost & Gravel Calculator

Mulch, topsoil, compost and gravel are all sold the same way — by volume — and they all answer to the same math: the area you're covering times how deep you want the layer, converted into cubic yards because that's how landscaping suppliers price and deliver material. This calculator runs that one calculation for all four materials in a single place: pick the material, enter your area (directly, or as length × width) and a depth, and get the volume in both cubic yards and cubic feet.

Depth is the number people guess wrong most often — a typical mulch layer is 2 to 4 inches deep, and the calculator shows that as a hint next to the depth field so you're not covering beds either too thin to suppress weeds or so thick it smothers roots. Because weight isn't printed on a mulch pile the way it is on a bag of concrete, the tool also estimates it from each material's typical bulk density — roughly 350-450 lb per cubic yard for mulch, 2,000-2,200 lb for topsoil, 1,000-1,100 lb for compost and 2,700-3,000 lb for gravel — and states plainly that real density varies with moisture and the exact product, so treat the weight as an estimate, not a delivery receipt. It also converts cubic feet into a bag count for the common 2 cubic foot bag size, rounded up so you don't come up short.

If you're covering walls or a ceiling rather than a yard, the site's paint calculator runs the same kind of area-based math for paint coverage instead of material volume. Everything on this page runs locally in your browser from static bundled figures: nothing is uploaded, no account is needed, and the calculator works offline once the page has loaded.