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handh3842

How many cubic feet in a cubic yard?

handh3842
15 years ago

A few years ago I ordered 8 cubic yards of topsoil to regrade my lawn where someone had previously excavated for a failed gravel driveway. When I went to the garden center, they told me a cubic yard is equal to 9 cubic feet. My understanding of a cube is that it is the same length on all three sides, which means it should be 3' x 3' x 3' or 27 cubic feet. No one there seemed to understand my point and insisted a cubic yard is 9 cubic feet. At other places they look equally dumbfounded. Therefore, can someone please tell me how many cubic feet in a cubic yard: 9 cubic feet or 27 cubic feet? Thank you.

Comments (10)

  • sinfonian
    15 years ago

    You know, my first response was 9, but you are correct, it's 27.

  • handh3842
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    It makes sense doesn't it, that it should be 27, but I started to wonder if it was some sort of industry practice of the garden center industry to call 9 cubic feet a cubic yard. No matter what, I felt I was being ripped off. It's important to know about this before I go out to get the stuff for Mel's Mix.

  • greenbean08_gw
    15 years ago

    I agree, 27 cubic feet.

    Here's a link to back that up...

    Here is a link that might be useful: wikipedia - cubic yard

  • shebear
    15 years ago

    27 cubic feet. Or about one full size long bed pickup's worth.

    9 cubic feet would be a 3' x 3' x 1' bed.

    I move a lot of mulch and dirt so I'm good at this. It's amazing how many people don't understand volume.

  • jwstell42
    15 years ago

    Yes - it is 27 cubic feet in 1 cubic yard.

    3 feet wide, by 3 feet tall, by 3 feet deep.

  • Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
    15 years ago

    Next time you go to one of these "garden centers", point them to The Internets if you must insist on clarifying how many ft3 are in their loader bucket.

    There are literally hundreds of conversion sites that they can look it if they decide they want to know. Otherwise, as long as they fill up their bucket, that is the measure of whether you are getting ripped off, not whether an hourly worker knows how many feet in a yard. Alternatively, you can figger how many wheelbarrows it takes in a yard and go from there.

    Dan

  • carolynp
    15 years ago

    I've bought 1/2 a cubic yard of mulch from the local garden center and it usually fills my 1/4 ton pickup. They might just be generous.

  • handh3842
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Thanks everyone. At least now I know. After talking to the folks at the garden centers, I thought there was something wrong with my way of thinking. A couple of years after that, I went to a different garden center to get more dirt. I wanted to install a new shed on an elevated mound for water run off. He told that a yard was what would fill the bucket of his front loader. However, when I looked at the way they filled it, it looked only 1/2 full. It wasn't leveled at the top, or heaped higher than the sides to make up for lack of leveling. His bucket also looked small. He didn't know it was 27 cubic feet either. When I tried to visualize the dirt shaped into a cube, it didn't seem it would add up to a cubic yard with 3 equal 3-foot sides. I guestimated it might have been 2/3 of a cubic yard. Oh well, it's all in the past. I'll stick to my guns next time, or bring one. Hehe.

  • heet131_comcast_net
    12 years ago

    I blast for a living, most people would figure in ft. verses yds. For example 9 square feet = 1 cubic yd. If you said cubic feet into one yard answer would be 27. Thats the mix up, if I was to blast an area of 100' by 200' by 18' deep it would fiqure 100x200x18'divided by 27 answer would be 13,333 cubic yards.hope this helps.

  • sinfonian
    12 years ago

    Nine square feet is a yard, not a cubic yard. You'd need to stack three one foot blocks on top of each other to get volume. I'm sure Heet131 knows exactly what he's talking about and it was just a typo.

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