How Do You Measure a Yard ?

[Nyboy]

I had 7 yards of garden soil delievered yesterday while at work. When I got home the pile of soil was much smaller then I was expectng. How is a yard measured by weight, volume ? How do you figure, how many yards you need for a project ?

 

[Ridgerunner]

They probably measure it by the bucket size of whatever is loading it, though some truck beds are a known size. It's usually not a real precise measurement. When I lived outside New Orleans with all the settlement we got down there, I'd get an 8 yard load of river sand every two to three years to level my yard. That's what a standard dump truck they used holds. It would normally take one a day to move it by wheelbarrow and then a day to spread it and level it. I'd be tired.

A yard is a volume measure. It should be a cube 3 feet on each side so one cubic yard is 27 cubic feet. Say you have a raised bed 4' x 8' and you want 8" of dirt in it. 8" is 2/3 of a foot, so you would need 4 x 8 x 2/3 = 21.3 cubic feet.

Or 4' x 8' x 8"/12" per foot = 21.3 cubic feet.

21.3 cubic feet divided by 27 cubic feet = about 0.8 cubic yards.

What sizes are you looking at? I can figure that for you.

 

[digitS']

Look what I found?

http://www.had2know.com/garden/calculate-volume-pile-gravel.html

@Ridgerunner probably also knows about "angle of repose" and such. You can't be completely accurate measuring a pile. For one thing, sighting down a 4' level while holding a tape measure is tricky .

This might be a good time to confirm this notion I have that sunlight at a 45 degree angle will cause an object to cast a shadow exactly it's height. (If it isn't a good time, I'll go back under my chair .)

digitS'

 

[thistlebloom]

NYboy, when I order bark or compost I give them the square footage of the area I'm spreading it in and tell them how deep I want it and let them work the formula. Saves my brain cells.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Steve, I think the question was how to figure how much you need, not to measure a pile. At last I'll think about it that way, it's easier to calculate. In real life though there are a lot of approximations you have to make. Dirt is not an exact science.

I did study angle of repose a little more than 4 decades ago. We even did some experiments with it in my soils classes. The basic concept is simple. If you drizzle dirt or sand out of a nozzle and let it build a pile, it will have sides at a specific angle depending on the particles in the dirt. But like anything else the more you delve into it the more complicated you can make it.

You're talking about an isosceles right triangle where the included angle is 90 degrees and the two side angles are 45 degrees. Basic geometry. That was about five decades ago. The shadow height will be its length. One trick to engineering is to draw things out so you can better visualize what you are seeing. It just makes things so much easier.

 

[Nyboy]

I failed math a few times. 15 mounds 3 feet high 6 feet wide wold need how many yards?

 

[Ridgerunner]

How long? Or do you mean round.

I'll check on my blackberry juice to see how the jelly bag is doing then assume round mounds and get back to you.

 

[thistlebloom]

Is this for your fruit trees? Will they be in framed beds or are you just raising the soil height on the ground free form?

Ridge will give you the right answer I'm sure. But the nursery or where ever you're ordering the soil from can tell you how much you'll need for an 18 square foot bed 3 feet deep. Times 15.
Whooee, that's gonna be a lot of dirt!

 

[Smart Red]

To figure cubic yards you need three measurements, length, width, and height. If you are talking round mounds where the diameter is 6 feet and the depth is 3 feet high, you go with area equals pie are square (I know they're really round but not in math class) and x's that answer by 3 ft high or you do: 3.14(pi) x 9 ft (radius squared) x 3 ft. high.

I changed the radius to 1 yard (3ft) and the height to 1 yard (3ft) so my answer would be in cubic yards.

That is just over 3 yards per circle around each of 15 trees or 47.14 cubic yards of material to go around 15 trees.

If my math is correct. Remember, it's been decade since I've done this for a living.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Darn blackberries. I put them through a food mill to get rid of the seeds since my wife can't handle the seeds and I did not know how I was going to use them then canned them. I'm trying to strain them through a jelly bag to get the juice for jelly and they just won't let go of their juice. Oh, well, patience I guess. I may resort to boiling them in a couple of cups of water and then straining them to up the liquid volume. It's raining so it's a slow day around here watching blackberry juice slowly drip.

With round mounds you are talking about a cone six feet wide and three feet high. The volume of one of those is about 28-1/4 cubic feet. Fifteen of those would be 424 cubic feet or just under 16 cubic yards. Red, the formula for volume of a cone is pi x Radius Squared x Height divided by 3.

If you are talking about a square 6 feet on a side and 3 feet high you have 108 cubic feet in each one. Fifteen of those is 1620 cubic feet or 60 cubic yards.