Landscape suppliers, quarries and ready-mix plants sell bulk material by the cubic yard. But when you measure a garden bed, a slab or a trench, you naturally get dimensions in feet — and multiplying them gives cubic feet. This converter turns that volume into the yards you’ll actually order, and shows how many full yards plus leftover cubic feet you have.
How to use the cubic feet to cubic yards converter
- Enter the volume in Cubic feet (ft³). If you have dimensions, multiply length × width × depth in feet first — remember that 6 inches is 0.5 ft.
- Read the cubic yards, plus the whole-yards-and-leftover breakdown and the metric volume.
- The chart lists 1 ft³ to 1,000 ft³ with the same breakdown, so you can see where each extra yard begins.
Cubic feet to cubic yards formula
The 27 is exact: a yard is 3 feet, and a cube has three dimensions, so 3³ = 27.
Worked example: a garden bed
A raised bed is 10 ft long and 4 ft wide, to be filled 6 inches deep.
Step 1. Volume: 10 × 4 × 0.5 = 20 ft³.
Step 2. 20 ÷ 27 = 0.7407 yd³.
Order. Most suppliers sell in quarter- or half-yard steps, so order 3/4 or 1 cubic yard; soil settles after watering.
Bigger job: a patio base needs 100 ft³ of gravel. 100 ÷ 27 = 3.7037 yd³, or 3 yd³ plus 19 ft³. Ordering 4 yards leaves a margin for compaction and uneven ground.
How far a cubic yard goes
Divide 324 by the depth in inches to find how many square feet one cubic yard covers:
| Depth | Coverage per cubic yard | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 1 in | 324 ft² | Top-dressing a lawn |
| 2 in | 162 ft² | Light mulch refresh |
| 3 in | 108 ft² | Standard mulch layer |
| 4 in | 81 ft² | Gravel path, thick mulch, 4-inch slab |
| 6 in | 54 ft² | Raised beds, driveway base |
Where does 324 come from? 27 ft³ spread 1 inch (1/12 ft) thick covers 27 × 12 = 324 ft². The mulch calculator and topsoil calculator work from area and depth directly.
Concrete is ordered in yards too
Ready-mix concrete is batched and billed by the cubic yard. A 10 × 10 ft slab 4 inches thick is 100 × 0.3333 = 33.33 ft³, or 1.23 yd³. Suppliers often have a minimum load, and it’s normal to add 5–10% for spillage, form bulges and uneven subgrade. The concrete calculator includes that allowance and also counts bags for small pours.
Avoid these mistakes
- Mixing inches and feet. A depth of 4 inches entered as “4” makes the volume 12 times too large. Use 0.3333 ft.
- Dividing by 3 or 9. Those factors are for length and area. Volume needs 27.
- Forgetting compaction. Gravel and soil compact by roughly 10–20% depending on the material, so loose volume delivered is more than the finished volume.
For the reverse conversion — say, to work out how many bags make up a yard — use cubic yards to cubic feet. If you’d rather enter dimensions than a volume, the cubic yards calculator does the multiplication too.
Frequently asked questions
How many cubic feet are in a cubic yard?
27. A cubic yard is a cube 3 feet on each side, and 3 × 3 × 3 = 27 cubic feet.
How do I convert cubic feet to cubic yards?
Divide by 27. For 100 ft³: 100 ÷ 27 = 3.7037 yd³, which is 3 full cubic yards plus 19 ft³.
Why not divide by 3?
Dividing by 3 converts a length (feet to yards). Volume has three dimensions, so the factor is 3 cubed, which is 27. Dividing by 3 would make an order nine times too large.
How much area does a cubic yard of mulch cover?
324 square feet at 1 inch deep, 108 ft² at 3 inches and 81 ft² at 4 inches. The formula is 324 ÷ depth in inches.