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Mulch calculator

Square footage × depth in inches ÷ 324 gives you cubic yards of mulch. The calculator below does that for a rectangle, a circle, or a square footage you already know, and it will add 10% for spillage and settling if you want it to.

1 — How big is the area?

Feet.

Feet.

Feet, measured straight across the widest point of the bed.

Add the beds together if you are mulching more than one.

2 — How deep?

Settled depth over the ground, not the height of the pile when it lands.

Ordering allowance
3 — Your supplier's price (optional)

Whatever your supplier quoted, in dollars. Leave it blank and the tool just gives you the volume. This is your number, not ours — we do not publish prices.

Enter an area and a depth, then choose Calculate. Results appear here.This calculator needs JavaScript. Without it, the arithmetic is below and it is short: square feet × depth in inches ÷ 324 = cubic yards.

The assumptions, so you can argue with them

  • Depth is settled depth. Mulch lands loose and compacts. The depth you pick here is what you want on the ground after it has settled and been watered in, not the height of the pile the day it is spread.
  • A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet. Depth in inches becomes depth in yards by dividing by 36, and square feet become square yards by dividing by 9 — which is where the 324 comes from. There is no fudge factor buried in it.
  • The 10% allowance is optional and it is not precision. It covers measuring slop, spillage off the tailgate, and the fact that beds are rarely the shape you measured. Turn it off and you get the bare geometry.
  • The circle is a filled circle, not a ring. If you are mulching a ring around a trunk and leaving the middle bare, measure the outer diameter, run it, then run the bare middle and subtract.
  • Every measurement is in feet and inches. Area in square feet, depth in inches, result in cubic yards, because that is how mulch is sold here.

Why there is no price on this page

We do not publish prices. A number on a page becomes something a customer expects us to honour regardless of what the site turns out to be like, and the things that actually move the cost of a mulch job are invisible from here: how far the truck can get from the beds, whether it is a wheelbarrow run or a straight dump, how much bed prep and edging is in it, and how much of the old material has to come out first. The optional price field above uses your supplier’s number, not ours, and it covers the material only.

If you want the work done rather than the material delivered, ask us for an estimate or call (512) 996-9100.

Call (512) 996-9100