How it works
Area × depth in feet gives cubic feet. Cubic feet ÷ 27 gives cubic yards. Tons use the site's typical dry or wet range. Bags = cubic feet ÷ 0.5, rounded up.
Worked example
A 10 × 10 ft area 2 in deep: 10 × 10 × (2 ÷ 12) = 16.67 cu ft, which is 0.62 cu yd and 34 bags of play sand. Dry, it weighs about 0.80–0.93 tons.
Tips and common mistakes
- Ask whether bulk sand is sold dry, damp or washed; wet sand is listed heavier.
- QUIKRETE's own bag table allows nothing for waste or an uneven base.
Questions about this calculator
How do you calculate how much sand you need?
Area × depth in feet = cubic feet. ÷ 27 for cubic yards, or ÷ 0.5 for 50 lb bags of play sand.
How much area will 50 lbs of sand cover?
About 3 sq ft at 2 in deep, or 6 sq ft at 1 in (0.5 cu ft per bag).
How far does 1 ton of sand cover?
Dry sand at 1.3–1.5 t/yd³: about 108–125 sq ft at 2 in deep.
How much sand for 100 sq ft?
At 2 in: 0.62 cu yd, or 34 bags.
Sources
Densities are a typical range — ask your supplier. Weight varies with moisture and gradation.
Values marked with a link come from the linked source, which opens in a new tab. Unit conversions and our own defaults are listed separately. Every value the site uses is in the methodology source register.
Where the numbers come from 8
- Dry sand density range
- 1.3 – 1.5 US tons/cu yd
- Typical range; no primary standard exists, and weight varies with moisture and gradation. Confirm with your supplier.
- Wet sand density range
- 1.5 – 1.7 US tons/cu yd
- Typical range; no primary standard exists, and weight varies with moisture and gradation. Confirm with your supplier.
- Play sand bag volume (50 lb)
- 0.5 cu ft/bag
- QUIKRETE Play Sand No. 1113 tear pad: "Contains approx. ½ cubic foot (14 L) of Play Sand" (opens in a new tab)quikrete.com · PDF
- Play sand bag weight
- 50 lb
- QUIKRETE Play Sand No. 1113 tear pad: "Contains approx. ½ cubic foot (14 L) of Play Sand" (opens in a new tab)quikrete.com · PDF
- Meters per international foot
- 0.3048 m/ft
- NIST, international foot conversion (opens in a new tab)nist.gov
- Pounds per US short ton
- 2000 lb/US ton
- NIST Guide to the SI, US short ton (2000 lb) (opens in a new tab)nist.gov
- Kilograms per pound
- 0.45359237 kg/lb
- NIST Guide to the SI, pound conversion; exact definition (opens in a new tab)nist.gov
Unit conversions and our defaults9
- Inches per foot
- 12 in/ft
- Unit definition: one foot contains twelve inches
- Cubic feet per cubic yard
- 27 cu ft/cu yd
- Geometry: 3 × 3 × 3 feet
- Centimeters per meter
- 100 cm/m
- Metric prefix definition: centi is one hundredth
- Liters per cubic meter
- 1000 L/m³
- Metric definition: one liter is one cubic decimeter
- Circle constant π
- ≈ 3.14159 unitless
- Circle geometry, as specified in the owner brief
- Sand calculator starting area
- 10, 10, 2 ft length, ft width, in depth
- Wave 2 pack worked example; editable starting measurements
- Mulch, paver and sand circle starting diameter
- 10 ft
- Build choice: matches the starting length; editable, not a recommended size
- Count rounding tolerance
- 1e-9 unitless
- Owner specification: ceil(x − 1e-9)
- Volume and weight display precision
- 2 decimal places
- Owner specification: display volume and tons to two decimals