JB PARCELCut and Fill Calculator
Earthwork is priced by what moves, and what moves is not what the drawing says. Soil swells when it is dug and shrinks when it is compacted, so enter the cut and the fill to see whether the site balances and how many loads leave or arrive.
How this calculator works
Work out the cut and the fill separately as volumes: area times average depth, divided by 27 to get cubic yards. Keep them apart, because they are not measured in the same kind of yard.
There are three yards in earthwork and mixing them is the usual mistake. A bank yard is soil sitting in the ground. A loose yard is what it becomes once it is dug, bulked up by swell, and it is loose yards that fill a truck. A compacted yard is what a fill becomes after it is rolled, and it is denser than the bank material it came from.
So a fill consumes more bank material than its own finished volume. At fifteen percent shrink, 222 compacted yards of fill takes 256 bank yards to build. That is why a site can look balanced on depths alone and still need dirt brought in.
Compare the cut in bank yards against the bank yards the fill consumes. A surplus leaves the site, swelling into loose yards on the way out; a deficit has to be imported, and is also bought in loose yards. Either way, divide by the truck capacity and round up, because a part load is a load.
Worked example: a pad that looks balanced and is not
Cut 10,000 square feet at an average of 2 feet, fill 6,000 square feet at an average of 1 foot, with 25 percent swell, 15 percent shrink, and 12 cubic yard trucks.
| Cut | 740.7 bank yards |
|---|---|
| Fill, finished | 222.2 compacted yards |
| Bank yards the fill consumes | 255.6 |
| Net | 485.2 bank yards of surplus |
| Leaving site | 606.5 loose yards |
| Truck loads | 51 |
Shrink is what moves the answer. The fill finishes at 222 yards but eats 256 of the cut, and on a tighter site that difference is what turns a balanced grading plan into an import bill.
Where the numbers come from
Swell and shrink factors are properties of the soil on a specific site and come from a geotechnical report. Quantities from average depths are a screening estimate; earthwork is taken off from existing and proposed contours. Grading, erosion control, and haul routes are permitted locally, and unsuitable or contaminated material is governed separately.
Questions investors ask
How do I calculate cut and fill?
Multiply each area by its average depth and divide by 27 for cubic yards, then compare them. The comparison has to be made in bank yards, the soil as it sits in the ground, after adding shrink to the fill, because a compacted fill consumes more material than its finished volume.
What is the difference between bank, loose, and compacted yards?
Bank is soil in place. Loose is the same soil after digging, expanded by swell, and it is what fills a truck. Compacted is what a fill becomes once rolled, which is denser than bank. One volume of dirt has three different numbers depending on where in the process you measure it.
What are typical swell and shrink percentages?
Swell is often 10 to 15 percent for sand and 30 or more for clay; shrink is commonly 10 to 20 percent. They are properties of the material on site, so a geotechnical report is the source. The defaults here are mid range figures for a first pass, not values to price work from.
Why does my site need imported fill if the cut is bigger than the fill?
Because shrink is applied to the fill. A fill that finishes at 222 yards can consume 256 yards of bank material, so a cut that looks larger on paper can still fall short. Unsuitable material that cannot be reused widens the gap further, since it leaves the site and is replaced.
How many truck loads is a cubic yard of dirt?
Trucks are loaded in loose yards, so apply swell before dividing. A 12 cubic yard truck carries about 12 loose yards, which is roughly 9.6 bank yards at 25 percent swell. Round up: a part load still ties up a truck and a driver.
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Screening a real property? Pull its appraised value, assessed value, acreage, land use, and last recorded sale off the JB PARCEL parcel map and drop the real numbers into this calculator instead of guessing. Coverage runs across every county we carry.