Sand Calculator for Indiana Boxes, Pool Rings and Mixes
Enter your project dimensions
Two sand jobs get mixed up more often than any others here. One is bulk sand by the ton: a sandbox, the ring under an above-ground pool, the sand half of a mortar or concrete mix, a lawn gone lumpy over clay. The other is the single inch of bedding sand under pavers, which has its own depth, its own tolerance and its own page. This sand calculator handles the first list. Before the numbers, it is worth knowing what an estimate on this ground can and cannot tell you.
Where a Sand Estimate Stops Being Reliable on Heavy Ground
The tool measures the box you describe to it. It knows nothing about what sits underneath, and on the flat till plain that is where sand goes missing.
- Sand placed straight onto wet clay works down into it. On soft ground, either firm the base first or expect the first load to disappear a little.
- A layer of sand over unbroken clay acts like a lid. Water perches on the clay and sits in the sand, which is why lawn sand is blended into the top few inches rather than laid on as a sheet.
- A depth entered as an average is only as good as the average. Measure the deep point and the shallow point and split them rather than guessing.
- The sandy lake plain and outwash ground in the northwest of the state behaves nothing like the clay in the middle of it. The same sandbox on either will take the same sand; the ground under it will not treat that sand the same way.
A Yard at Twenty-Seven Hundred Pounds, Dry or Soaked
This site publishes both mason and washed sand at about 2,700 lb per cubic yard, which the tool reads as 1.35 tons a yard. The two weigh the same, so switching between them in the material list changes nothing in the result. That is the same figure as river rock and a little under crushed gravel at 2,800 lb.
Coverage from a ton, rounded, runs roughly 240 sq ft at 1 in, 120 sq ft at 2 in, 80 sq ft at 3 in and 40 sq ft at 6 in. To check any answer by hand, take square feet times the depth in inches, divide by 12 for cubic feet, divide by 27 for cubic yards, then multiply by 1.35.
Rain changes the shovel and not the order. Soaked sand is heavier to move and harder to screed, but the hole it fills is the same size, so the yardage stands. Keep a tarp over the pile once it lands.
Running a Round Pool and an L-Shaped Patch Through the Sand Calculator
- Choose rectangle, circle or multiple areas. Circle mode is the one for a pool ring or a round fire pit base; multiple areas takes five pieces and totals them.
- Enter length and width in feet, or the diameter in feet for anything round.
- Enter the depth in inches, from 0.25 to 24. A half inch of lawn sand and a 6 in sandbox both sit comfortably inside that.
- Choose mason or washed sand.
- Tick the box for 5% extra to cover compaction and spillage.
- Press calculate and read cubic yards, tons and cubic feet, then send the result to yourself with email my quote.
An L-shaped area is two rectangles, not one. Split it along the inside corner, enter both, and make sure the overlap at the corner is counted once. The same goes for a patch beside a pool ring: enter the ring as a circle, the patch as a rectangle, and let the tool add them.
A Sandbox, a Pool Ring and a Lawn That Needs Leveling
All three are examples with invented sizes, not customer projects.
Sandbox, 10 ft by 6 ft at 6 in of washed sand.
- 10 x 6 = 60 sq ft
- 60 x 6 / 12 = 30 cubic feet
- 30 / 27 = 1.11 cubic yards
- 1.11 x 1.35 = 1.5 tons
Above-ground pool base, 26 ft round at 2 in of mason sand.
- 3.14 x 13 x 13 = 531 sq ft
- 531 x 2 / 12 = 88.5 cubic feet
- 88.5 / 27 = 3.28 cubic yards
- 3.28 x 1.35 = 4.4 tons
Screed that one dead level and keep stones away from the liner, which is the reason mason sand is the usual pick under a pool.
Lawn leveling, 1,200 sq ft blended at 1/2 in.
- 1,200 x 0.5 / 12 = 50 cubic feet
- 50 / 27 = 1.85 cubic yards
- 1.85 x 1.35 = 2.5 tons
Work that into the existing surface rather than laying it over the top, and repeat it thinly across two seasons instead of trying to fix a lumpy lawn in one pass.
For a mix rather than a layer, the sand goes in by ratio instead of by depth. Allow roughly a ton of sand for 7 to 8 bags of cement on ordinary concrete and mortar work, and about a third of a ton of mason sand for the mortar on a 100 block wall. Anything much past a yard or two of structural concrete is a different kind of job from a bulk sand order, and worth planning as one.
The Tarp the Pile Lands On, and the Half Ton Left Over
- Round up to the ton rather than down. Sand that is 3 in short in a sandbox is obvious to everyone who uses it.
- Ask for the pile on a tarp on a firm surface. Sand stains concrete, and a tarp can be dragged and folded when you are down to the last wheelbarrow.
- Bags are for touch-ups. A 50 lb bag holds about half a cubic foot, so 54 of them make a cubic yard and one covers roughly 6 sq ft at an inch. Past a dozen bags, bulk stops being a close call.
- Spare sand keeps. Under cover it will still be usable for joints, a pot or a patch next season.
Bedding Under Pavers Has Its Own Tool and Its Own Inch
Sort the job by the layer and the right page follows.
- Bulk sand for boxes, pool rings, mixes and lawn work is sized here, on mason sand or washed sand.
- The 1 in bedding layer under pavers, and the joint sand that goes in afterwards, is sized on the paver sand calculator, where the depth stays at one inch and does not get treated as a leveling course.
- The compacted stone base under that bedding layer is a different order again, sized on the paver base calculator with #53 stone.
- Bedding for pipe, or a drainage layer that has to let water through, belongs on the stone calculator instead of here.
Once the tons are settled, open the product page, set your quantity and pick a delivery date. Delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code, and the truck needs a firm spot with room to tip.
Common questions
Why does the tonnage change when I switch material but the yards do not?
Because the space you are filling has one volume and the cubic yards report it. Only the weight per yard changes between materials. Mason and washed sand are both published at 2,700 lb a yard here, so switching between those two moves nothing at all; switch to a graded stone at 3,000 lb and the tons climb while the yards sit still.
Is the 5 percent worth ticking on a sandbox or a pool ring?
Yes, for spillage more than settlement. Sand this shallow barely compacts, but a fair amount ends up outside the frame or in the grass while it is being moved. On a pool base, where level matters more than depth, the extra also gives you something to screed with.
The pool pad sits on ground that falls away slightly. What depth do I enter?
Enter the average, after measuring the sand depth at the high side and the low side. Do not measure along the slope for length. A pool base has to finish level, so the sand is doing the correcting, and a fall of even a few inches across the ring can double the sand it takes.
The area is an L around the corner of the deck. Do I need two runs?
One run in multiple areas mode. Cut the L into two rectangles at the inside corner, enter each as its own area, and the tool totals them. Five pieces fit in one calculation, which covers most yards.
Should the strip under the edging be in the measurement?
Include anything the sand will actually sit under, and stop where it stops. A sandbox frame gets measured inside the boards; a pool ring is measured to the outside of the track, because the extra few inches keep the edge from crumbling under the wall.
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Two sands, one free truck.
Mason and washed sand by the ton, delivered free across Indiana.
