Sand Calculator — cubic yards, tons and bags

Sand is sold by the ton and laid by the inch. Area times depth is the volume in place; the yard figure to order is that plus what compaction takes back, and the ton figure is the yards times a density. About 1.4 tons to the loose cubic yard is the usual estimating figure for dry sand, the same one the gravel page lists, and wet sand weighs more for the same volume. The density field is editable because the supplier’s figure for the sand you are buying beats the page’s.

Paver bedding is one inch of concrete sand, screeded and left loose. The Concrete Masonry & Hardscapes Association’s tech note on building interlocking concrete pavements, PAV‑TEC‑002‑22, has the bedding sand spread and screeded to an uncompacted nominal 1 in. (25 mm) and not disturbed once screeded, so the order is the area times one inch with no allowance: a 30 × 10 foot patio takes 25 cubic feet, just under a yard, about 1.3 tons at the page’s density, or 50 half‑cubic‑foot bags. Sand to fill low spots in the base is what the note says not to do; unevenness in the bedding reflects through to the surface. Ask for sand to ASTM C33 or CSA A23.1, “often called concrete sand”, washed and generally sharp. Masonry sand for mortar, limestone screenings and stone dust are never used for bedding, though a finer ASTM C144 sand may go in the joints, and frozen or saturated sand is not laid at all.

The allowance is for sand that gets compacted. Bedding, a sandbox and loose fill take 0. The 15% setting is the allowance the gravel page uses for a compacted layer, for sand placed as fill and run over with a plate; 25 is for a base under a slab compacted hard. Neither is a test result. How much a sand gives up depends on the sand and the machine, and the supplier knows it better than this page.