Cubic yards to an order — 45 bags a yard, or ready-mix concrete past about 1 cubic yard

What this diagram shows

A diagram converting a volume in cubic yards into a purchase. On the left, bags per cubic yard, because a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet: an 80-pound concrete bag yields 0.60 cubic feet, so 27 divided by 0.60 is 45 bags; a 60-pound bag yields 0.45 cubic feet, 60 bags; a 40-pound bag yields 0.30 cubic feet, 90 bags. For bagged soil, mulch, or gravel, a 2.0-cubic-foot bag makes 13.5 bags a yard, a 1.0-cubic-foot bag 27, and a 0.5-cubic-foot bag 54. On the right, the buying decision along a roughly one-cubic-yard line: under about one cubic yard, bag it, because fewer than about 45 80-pound bags is practical to mix by hand and beats a short-load ready-mix charge; at or above about one cubic yard, order ready-mix concrete, which is sold by the yard under ASTM C94, or bulk delivery, because mixing 45 or more bags by hand is impractical. A caution notes this is geometric volume only with no compaction — for a compacted gravel or road base, use the Gravel calculator.