Sand Calculator for Boxes, Pool Rings and Leveling
Enter your project dimensions
Two sand orders in the same Nassau County back yard get sized in completely different places. The inch under a patio is bedding sand, and it belongs on the paver sand calculator, where joint sand is counted in bags rather than tons. The six inches going into the sandbox next to that patio is sized here. Mixing up the two is the quickest way to order twice, and this sand calculator is built for the second kind of job: boxes, pool rings, leveling passes, pipe bedding and mixes.
Where a sand order goes short, and where it goes long
Short orders usually start at the tape. A sandbox is measured on the outside of the frame instead of the inside, and on a 6 by 10 box the boards alone can account for most of a wheelbarrow load. Depth gets guessed as well, and with sand the guess is nearly always thin, because a level surface hides how much of the box the sand is filling.
Long orders come from the opposite habit: pricing the job in bags and then rounding up hard. Roughly 54 bags at 50 lb make a cubic yard, each holding about half a cubic foot, so it takes very few square feet before the bag arithmetic stops making sense.
The third error is weather rather than measurement. Rain adds weight to a pile but not volume, so a soaked heap still holds the yardage you ordered. What it will not do is screed. Sand that has taken a storm clumps under the board and drags, which is why a tarp matters more for sand than for stone.
Rectangles, a round pool ring, and up to five areas at once
Rectangle covers a box, a bedding run or a strip of lawn. Circle takes a single diameter, which is how a round pool base or a tree ring goes in. Multiple areas totals up to five separate pieces in one pass, useful when a job has a box, a path and a leveling patch in it.
Dimensions go in feet, depth in inches between 0.25 and 24. The material list sets the weight behind the tonnage, and the tick box adds 5 percent for compaction and spillage. On sand that allowance mostly covers what misses the wheelbarrow and what disappears into the ground underneath. Cubic yards, tons and cubic feet all appear together, and the estimate can be sent to your inbox.
What a yard of sand does, and what it weighs
Both mason and washed sand are published here at about 2,700 lb per cubic yard, which is 1.35 tons. That makes them lighter per yard than any of the crushed grades and heavier than screened topsoil.
Spread out, one cubic yard covers 324 square feet at an inch, 162 at 2 inches, 108 at 3 and 54 at 6. Those four figures will settle most jobs before you touch the tool. To check a result by hand, multiply the area in square feet by the depth in inches, divide by 12, divide by 27, then multiply by 1.35.
Mason, washed, and when stone dust does the job better
Mason sand is screened finer and more evenly, which is why it goes under pool liners, into mortar and into paver joints. Washed sand is rinsed to take out clay and silt, which suits sandboxes, bedding and general mixing. Both weigh the same per yard, so the calculator returns the same tonnage whichever you pick; the choice is about texture, not quantity.
Where neither belongs is directly under a paver on soft ground. That job wants a compacted stone base first, sized on the paver base calculator, with a thin leveling course of stone dust or coarse washed sand over it. Round play sand is wrong in both the bed and the joints.
For mixing on site, allow about a ton of sand per 7 to 8 bags of cement, then follow whatever ratio the mix calls for. A hundred block wall takes roughly a third of a ton of mason sand for its mortar.
A box dug into sand, a pool ring and a lumpy upstate lawn
Three hypothetical jobs, with the arithmetic shown.
Sandbox, 6 by 10 ft inside the boards, 8 inches deep. 6 x 10 = 60 square feet. 60 x 8 / 12 = 40 cubic feet. 40 / 27 = 1.48 cubic yards, and 1.48 x 1.35 = 2.00 tons of washed sand. Six inches is the usual depth; the extra two here suit a box that gets dug in hard.
Above ground pool base, 23 ft across, 2 inches deep. A 23 ft circle is 415.48 square feet. 415.48 x 2 / 12 = 69.25 cubic feet. 69.25 / 27 = 2.56 cubic yards, and 2.56 x 1.35 = 3.46 tons of mason sand. Screed it dead level and keep stones away from the liner.
Leveling pass over a lumpy lawn, 1,200 sq ft at half an inch. 1,200 x 0.5 / 12 = 50 cubic feet. 50 / 27 = 1.85 cubic yards, and 1.85 x 1.35 = 2.50 tons. On the heavy clay and silt soils of the valley floors, work the sand into the top of the soil with a rake rather than leaving it as a separate sheet, or you build a layer that water sits on top of. The growing material that goes in with it is sized on the topsoil calculator. Do this after the spring thaw, when the ground has dried enough to take a roller.
Getting the pile somewhere it can stay dry
Pick the drop spot before the order goes in. Sand wants firm, flat ground close to the work, on a tarp if the surface matters, and it wants covering the moment it lands. A pile left open takes rain, and wet sand is the difference between screeding a pool base in an afternoon and fighting it for a day.
Take the tonnage across to Washed Sand or the mason sand listing, set the quantity and choose a delivery date. Delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code, and the delivery page covers the clear route the driver needs to the tipping spot. If you are still weighing up the two sands, contact is quicker than a second load.
Common questions
Do I enter the depth before or after it is screeded?
Enter the finished depth you want to end up with. Sand does not compact the way a base mix does, but it does settle into whatever is beneath it, particularly over loose soil or an old lawn. Screed to your finished level, and leave the 5 percent ticked so there is a little in hand for the low corner you find halfway through.
How do I check the result without trusting the screen?
Square feet times depth in inches, divided by 12, gives cubic feet. Divide that by 27 for cubic yards, then multiply by 1.35 for tons. Run it once on a job you know: a 10 by 10 patch at 2 inches is 16.67 cubic feet, 0.62 cubic yards and 0.83 tons. If your hand figure and the screen figure disagree, the depth units are usually the reason.
The pool is oval, not a circle. What goes in the boxes?
Measure the long axis and the short axis, and enter them as a rectangle. That gives you rather more than the oval holds, roughly a quarter more, so treat the answer as generous rather than exact. For a shape further off square, split it down the middle and enter the halves as two areas.
Where should a couple of tons of sand be tipped?
Somewhere flat, firm and close, because sand shovels far heavier than it looks. Keep it off a lawn that you want to keep, since the footprint will be bare for the rest of the season, and off a fresh apron unless there is a tarp under it. Leave the driver a straight approach and room to raise the body.
The estimate gives yards and tons. Which figure do I put in the cart?
Tons, since that is how sand is sold here. The yardage is there for planning: it tells you how big the pile will be and how many wheelbarrow loads stand between it and the job. One cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, which at 2 inches deep covers 162 square feet.
Related calculators
Two sands, one free truck.
Mason and washed sand by the ton, delivered free across New York.
