Sand Calculator: Buying Sand on a Lot That Is Already Sand
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Two jobs land on this sand calculator that do not belong here, and both cost people a delivery. The first is the inch of bedding under pavers, which is a screeded course with its own tolerances and its own page. The second is the assumption that because the yard is already sand, the sand can simply be dug from one part of it and moved to another. Neither works out, and the reason is the same in both cases: what the job needs is a graded, washed material laid at a controlled depth, not whatever the lot happens to be made of.
Native ground under a pool ring, and the layer that has to screed flat
Loose quartz sand off a Florida lot carries organic matter, roots and shell fragments, and it does not screed to a flat plane and stay there. Under a pool liner that matters more than anywhere else, because anything sharp left in the bed is working against vinyl from day one, and a bed that dishes by half an inch shows up as a ripple across the whole floor.
So the depth you enter is the depth of clean imported material sitting on top of ground you have already leveled, not the depth of the hole. Two inches is the working figure under an above-ground pool, screeded dead flat. A play box takes six. A leveling pass worked into a lawn runs a quarter to a half inch at a time, and on ground this free-draining a thicker blanket does more harm than good because it buries the crowns rather than filling between them.
Three shapes, one depth, and the sand calculator material line
Rectangle takes a length and a width in feet. Circle takes one diameter in feet, which covers a pool ring, a fire pit surround or a round planting bed. Multiple areas totals as many as five separate pieces in one pass, all sharing the depth you set.
Depth is entered in inches and accepts anything from a quarter inch to 24, so a half-inch leveling pass and a filled box go through the same field. The material line sets the weight behind the tons reading, a checkbox adds an optional 5 percent for compaction and spillage, and the panel returns cubic yards, tons and cubic feet together, with a button to email the figure to yourself.
Why a sand order is planned in yards and loaded in tons
The three outputs describe one pile. Cubic feet is the footprint in square feet times the depth in inches, divided by 12. Cubic yards divides that by 27, since a cubic yard is a three-foot cube, and that is the unit you think in when you look at a heap on the drive. Tons is what the truck weighs, and it comes from the published figure for the material selected.
Both sands here sit at about 2,700 lb a cubic yard, which is 1.35 tons, so switching between them does not move the number. Rain does not move it either: a pile that has taken a soaking is heavier on the shovel and slower to screed, but the volume you ordered is the volume that arrived. Book the load for a week you can spread it, and tarp it if it has to sit.
A pool ring, a play box and a low strip along the fence
Hypothetical jobs with round numbers, each done longhand.
A 27-foot round pool needs its base taken to 2 inches. Circle mode wants the diameter, not the radius: 27 feet across works out at roughly 573 square feet. 573 x 2 = 1,146, divided by 12 is 95.5 cubic feet, divided by 27 gives 3.54 cubic yards, or 4.78 tons at 1.35. With the 5 percent ticked, about 3.71 yards and 5.02 tons.
The play box beside it is 8 by 6 feet, filled 6 inches deep. That is 48 square feet. 48 x 6 = 288, divided by 12 is 24 cubic feet, divided by 27 is 0.89 cubic yards, or 1.20 tons. With the allowance, 0.93 yards and 1.26 tons.
The strip of lawn along the fence that never quite drains runs 60 by 12 feet and takes a half-inch pass. 720 square feet x 0.5 = 360, divided by 12 is 30 cubic feet, divided by 27 is 1.11 cubic yards, or 1.50 tons. With the allowance, 1.17 yards and 1.58 tons.
Three jobs, three depths, three separate runs of the tool. Only the pool ring and the box could share a run, and only if you gave them the same depth, which you would not.
Ordering long, because loose sand goes everywhere before it goes flat
Sand is the material that disappears. Some blows, some rides off on boots, some vanishes into the wheelbarrow route, and a screed rail eats a surprising amount on the first pass. The 5 percent option is aimed squarely at that, and on a job that has to finish level it earns its place.
Round the tonnage up as well on anything you are screeding. Running short across the last quarter of a pool base with the liner already unrolled is the one outcome worth a little surplus to avoid, and leftover sand is genuinely useful: it fills the ruts a heavy rain opens in a sandy drive and levels under a shed or a rain barrel.
Two listings sit behind the material line. Mason Sand is the finer, more uniform of the two and is the usual choice under a pool liner and for mortar and paver joints. Washed Sand has the clay and silt rinsed out, which is what you want in a play box and in general bedding and mixes. The tonnage reads the same either way, so pick on how the material behaves, not on the number.
One layer this page deliberately does not size: the screeded inch directly under pavers. That sits on top of a compacted base, its thickness is fixed rather than chosen, and it belongs on the paver sand calculator with the stone beneath it sized on the paver base calculator.
With the tonnage settled, open the listing, set the quantity and pick a date. Delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code, and booking a drop spot covers the access the truck needs. All of the material tools are together if the job turns out to need stone as well, and ask before you order if the depth under a liner is the part you are unsure of.
Common questions
Nothing about the play area is square. What shape do I give it?
Box it in. Enter the smallest rectangle that contains the shape, or split it into two or three rectangles under Multiple areas that step in to follow it. Sand is easy to have a little left of and awkward to be short of with a box half filled.
Two summers of rain have thinned the sand under the pool. What depth do I enter to bring it back?
Enter what is missing, not what is there. Lay a straightedge across the low areas, measure down to the sand at three or four points, and average those readings. Entering the full two inches when only half an inch has gone doubles the order.
I ran out with a third of the box still to fill. Does that matter?
For a play box, no: top it up whenever suits. For a screeded pool base it matters a lot, because a second delivery landing days later means re-screeding the part you had already leveled. Order long on anything that has to come out flat in one session.
How far out can this figure be once the sand is on the ground?
The arithmetic is exact. The uncertainty is all in your measurements and in how even the ground underneath is. On a pad you have leveled properly, expect to be close. On a lawn pass judged by eye, treat it as a starting quantity and buy to the upper end of your estimate.
I have the tonnage. Which listing do I open, and does the choice change the figure?
The figure does not change, because both sands are published at the same weight. Open Mason Sand for pool bases, mortar and joint work, and Washed Sand for play boxes, bedding and mixes. Set the quantity and a delivery date on the listing, and leave the driver firm ground within wheelbarrow distance of the job.
Related calculators
Two sands, one free truck.
Mason and washed sand by the ton, delivered free across Florida.
