Sand Calculator: Boxes, Pool Bases and Leveling Work
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Sand goes onto awkward ground in this state. A pool base sits on prairie clay that holds water under it all winter; a sandbox goes in a corner of an Ozark yard where chert comes up as fast as you dig; a leveling course on Bootheel silt is flattening ground that was drained swamp before it was lawn. Every one of those is the same sand calculator and a different depth, and the depth is the part that decides the order.
Depths for a Box, a Pool Ring and a Leveling Pass
Start here, then measure.
| Job | Depth | Sand |
|---|---|---|
| Lawn leveling worked into the surface | 1/4 to 1/2 inch | Washed sand |
| Setting an above-ground pool, screeded flat | 2 inches | Mason sand |
| Paver bedding course | 1 inch, fixed | See the paver sand page |
| Sandbox | 6 inches | Washed sand |
Two of those have no tolerance at all. A pool base has to be dead flat and free of stones against the liner. A paver bed is exactly one inch and gets deeper only at the cost of pavers that move later. Lawn leveling is the opposite: a quarter inch worked in, repeated over seasons, does more than a thick layer laid on in one go, and on clay a solid blanket of sand can stop roots crossing it altogether.
Putting a Round Pool Base and a Sandbox Through the Tool
The form offers a rectangle, a circle, or up to five areas that get added together. Length, width and diameter go in as feet and depth in inches, from 0.25 to 24, which is enough range to cover a half-inch leveling pass and a six-inch box on the same page. Pick the sand from the material list, leave the optional five percent for compaction and spillage ticked if you want cover for what falls off the wheelbarrow, then calculate for cubic yards, tons and cubic feet. An email field will send the figures on.
Use circle mode for a pool, entering the distance straight across, and add a foot to the diameter so the base runs past the ring rather than stopping under it. For a lawn split by a drive or a bed, run the pieces as separate areas rather than one rectangle with the obstruction inside it.
Mason Sand Under a Liner, Washed Sand in the Box
Hypothetical sizes, not customer jobs.
A sandbox, 6 by 8 feet filled to six inches with washed sand.
- 48 sq ft x 6 / 12 = 24 cu ft
- 24 / 27 = 0.89 cu yd, which at 1.35 is 1.2 tons
An 18-foot round pool, on two inches of mason sand with a foot of margin, so a 20-foot circle.
- 314.2 sq ft x 2 / 12 = 52.4 cu ft
- 52.4 / 27 = 1.94 cu yd, or 2.6 tons
Leveling 1,500 square feet of lumpy back lawn at half an inch.
- 1,500 x 0.5 / 12 = 62.5 cu ft
- 62.5 / 27 = 2.31 cu yd, or 3.1 tons
Mason Sand is the finer, more uniform material, which is why it goes under a liner and into mortar. Washed Sand has had the clay and silt rinsed out of it, which suits bedding, boxes and mixes. For an on-site concrete blend, allow roughly a ton of sand to every seven or eight bags of cement and follow the ratio the mix calls for; mortar for a hundred-block wall takes about a third of a ton of mason sand.
About 2,700 Pounds in a Cubic Yard, Either Sand
Both sands are figured at the same weight here, so switching between them does not change the tonnage, only the product page you order from. Cubic yards come from the area in square feet times the depth in inches divided by 12, all divided by 27; tons are those yards times 1.35.
A yard covers 324 square feet at one inch, 162 at two, 108 at three and 54 at six. A ton covers roughly 240, 120, 80 and 40 square feet over those same depths. Order against the dry weight. Rain makes a pile heavier to shovel and harder to screed without changing how far it goes, so tarp what is left standing on site.
The One Patio Job That Belongs on Another Page
If sand is going under pavers, leave this tool. The bedding course is a fixed one inch over a compacted stone base, the area includes the skirt that runs past the paver edge, and the joints are a bagged product counted in bags rather than tons. All of that is set out on the paver sand calculator, with the layer underneath it on the paver base calculator. This page is for the jobs where you choose the depth yourself.
Screenings come up as the other candidate for a bedding or leveling layer. They compact firmer than sand and are figured heavier, at about 2,900 pounds a yard, and they are sized on the stone calculator. Play sand is neither: it is rounded and fine, and it stays in the box.
Running Short Halfway Through a Screed
A short sand order is more annoying than a short stone order because a screeded surface set in two sessions shows the seam. Round up to the next quarter ton on anything being leveled in one pass, and remember that a delivered ton of sand is about three-quarters of a cubic yard, so the heap always looks smaller than the number sounds.
With the tonnage settled, choose the quantity and a delivery date on the product page. Delivery is arranged at checkout by ZIP code and the truck needs clear access to a dump spot, so pick a firm, flat corner and put a tarp down first.
Common questions
Where does the area stop against a sandbox wall or a pool ring?
At the inside face, because the sand fills what the wall holds and nothing beyond it. A pool is the exception worth a margin: run the base a foot past the ring so the frame lands on leveled sand rather than on the edge of it. Over a lawn there is no boundary at all, so enter the whole patch you intend to work across.
I need compacted stone under the sand. Is that this calculator twice?
No, that is two tools. Size the stone layer on the stone or paver base calculator at its own depth, then come back and size the sand at its own. Adding the two depths together in one run gives you the right volume of the wrong material.
The pool corner of the yard is a curve with no straight side anywhere. What do I enter?
Break it into two or three rectangles that fit inside the shape without overlapping, enter them under multiple areas, then add a little for the bits of curve left over. A circle that is nearly round is better entered as a circle using the average of two measurements across.
The sandbox is half full already. How do I measure a top-up?
Measure the gap, not the box. Take the distance from the current sand surface to where you want it in a few places, average them, and enter that as the depth. A 6 by 8 box that is two inches low needs 0.30 cubic yards, about 0.4 tons.
What happens if I come up short?
On a mix or a sandbox, nothing much; add a wheelbarrow later. On anything screeded flat, a second delivery means re-screeding the joint between the old sand and the new, and on a pool base it means lifting a ring that was already leveled. Those are the two jobs to round up on.
Related calculators
Two sands, one free truck.
Mason and washed sand by the ton, delivered free across Missouri.
