How to Convert Soil Yardage to Tonnage

Contact your local environmental and planning departments. Some state bodies, such as Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation, hold soil maps and can advise you about your local soils. If no outside help is available, you will need to weigh a sample of soil and extrapolate the tonnage per cubic yard yourself. This is an approximate value as the compaction, moisture content and composition of the soil can vary within the same site.

Fill a garden bucket with soil, compact it to resemble the original soil structure, and weigh it on a set of bathroom scales. Record the weight in pounds.

Calculate the volume of the bucket by multiplying its stated capacity in gallons by 231, the number of cubic inches occupied by one gallon of water at standard temperature and pressure. For example, a two-gallon bucket has a capacity of 462 cubic inches -- (2 x 231 = 462.

Divide the number of cubic inches in a cubic yard by the volume of the bucket and multiply by the weight of the bucket. The result is the weight of the soil per cubic yard, measured in pounds. There are 46,656 cubic inches in a cubic yard.

For example, a 462 cubic inch bucket -- 2 gallons -- filled with soil and weighing 30 pounds, extrapolates to a cubic yard of the same soil weighing 3,030 pounds -- (46,656 / 462) x 30 = 3,030.

Divide the weight in pounds by 2,000 to convert to tons. To conclude the example, a cubic yard of soil weighing 3,030 pounds weighs 1.52 tons -- 3,030/2,000 = 1.52