Calculate how much sand you need for a base, bedding layer, or fill area, in cubic feet and tons.
The Sand Calculator helps you figure out exactly how much material to buy before you order a truck or make a hardware store run. Calculate how much sand you need for a base, bedding layer, or fill area, in cubic feet and tons. Instead of guessing at cubic yards or bag counts and hoping it's close, you enter the numbers you already have — the measurements from your plan, tape measure, or job site — and get a precise, ready-to-order figure back in seconds.
This tool is built for two kinds of people: contractors running a fast takeoff between jobs who need a number they can call into a supplier immediately, and homeowners or first-time DIYers who don't want to either overspend on wasted material or come up short mid-pour. Every calculator on ConcreteYard uses the same standard, industry-typical assumptions — 150 lb per cubic foot for normal-weight concrete, standard bag yields, and common mix ratios — so the numbers here should line up closely with what your supplier or hardware store confirms when you place the order.
Whether you're pricing out a job, planning a delivery, or just want to know how much to buy at the store today, this calculator gives you a number you can act on immediately — no spreadsheet, no account, and no guesswork required.
Common uses: paver/patio base leveling, playground fill, mason sand for a mix. Standard bulk density ~100 lb/cu ft.
1. Measure accurately. Get exact dimensions in the units the calculator asks for — feet for length and width, inches for thickness are the most common setup. A rough guess in, a rough number out; precise measurements are what make this tool worth using over a mental estimate.
2. Enter your numbers. Fill in the fields above with your project's actual measurements. Default values are pre-filled as a sane starting point — replace every one of them with your real numbers before you rely on the result.
3. Adjust the settings. Where available, set your waste percentage, bag size, or price per yard to match your job. These small adjustments are what separate a rough ballpark from an order-ready figure.
4. Read the batch ticket. Click calculate and use the highlighted total as your order quantity — it already accounts for waste and rounds to a practical ordering increment where relevant.
| Use | Typical Depth |
|---|---|
| Paver/patio base leveling | 1 in |
| Playground fill | 6\u201312 in |
| Under a slab (bedding) | 1\u20132 in |
This calculator sizes bulk sand for a base or fill layer \u2014 for sand as a component of a concrete mix, use the Mix Ratio Calculator instead, which splits your total volume by ratio.
A standard 1in bedding layer under pavers, over a 12x10 ft area, needs about 10 cubic feet, roughly half a ton. Adjust depth above for your project.
Most suppliers sell bulk sand by the ton. This calculator converts your area and depth to tons using an average density of 100 lb per cubic foot.
Skipping the waste factor. Uneven subgrade, formwork gaps, and simple spillage routinely eat 5–10% of your raw calculated volume. Ordering the exact math-perfect number is one of the most common ways to come up short mid-pour.
Rounding down instead of up. Ready-mix trucks deliver in fractions of a yard, but suppliers set order minimums. If your number lands at 4.1 yards, round to 4.25 or 4.5, not down to 4.
Mixing up units. Thickness is almost always in inches while length and width are in feet — plugging inches into a feet field (or vice versa) is the single most common calculator input error.
Treating irregular shapes as one rectangle. An L-shaped or curved area isn't one simple calculation. Break it into rectangles, run each section separately, and add the totals together for an accurate figure.
Order slightly more than the bare minimum — a short-load fee for a second truck almost always costs more than the extra material would have. Confirm your supplier's order minimum and short-load fee before you finalize a quantity that's close to the cutoff.
Check the weather. Concrete needs temperatures generally above 40°F to cure properly without special cold-weather additives, and pouring in direct heat or high wind can cause the surface to dry and crack before it has a chance to properly set.
Have everything staged before the truck arrives — forms set, base compacted, tools (screed board, bull float, edger) on site, and enough hands to place and finish the pour before it starts to set.
Plan your control joints in advance for any flatwork. Joints control where concrete cracks as it cures and shrinks — skipping them doesn't prevent cracking, it just makes the cracks unpredictable.
Yes — it uses standard, industry-typical formulas and material assumptions (150 lb/cu ft concrete, standard bag yields, common mix ratios). For structural or permitted work, always confirm final quantities with your supplier or engineer.
No. Every calculator on ConcreteYard runs entirely in your browser, works instantly, and requires no sign-up, login, or download.
Yes — every tool on this site is built to work the same on a phone as it does on a desktop, so you can run the numbers standing at the job site before you call in an order.
Every tool below shares the same 150 lb/cu ft mix assumption, so figures stay consistent across your takeoff.