There are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard. A yard is 3 feet, so a cubic yard is 3 × 3 × 3 = 27 cubic feet — picture a cube as tall, wide, and deep as a kitchen counter is high.
The conversions you actually use
| 1 cubic yard equals | Amount |
|---|---|
| Cubic feet | 27 |
| Cubic inches | 46,656 |
| Cubic meters | 0.765 |
| 2 cu ft mulch bags | 13.5 |
| 0.75 cu ft (40 lb) soil bags | 36 |
| 5-gallon buckets | ~40 |
| Standard wheelbarrow loads (4 cu ft) | ~7 |
The 5-gallon bucket and wheelbarrow rows explain why bulk delivery exists: moving one yard of material by bucket means 40 trips.
Going from measurements to cubic yards
Landscape materials are quoted in cubic yards but you measure your space in feet and inches. The conversion is one line:
cubic yards = length (ft) × width (ft) × depth (ft) ÷ 27The trap is depth: it is usually in inches, so divide by 12 first. A 10 × 20 ft area at 3 inches deep is 10 × 20 × 0.25 = 50 cubic feet, and 50 ÷ 27 ≈ 1.85 cubic yards.
Every calculator on this site — mulch, topsoil, gravel, and the rest — runs this conversion for you and adds the material-specific extras like tons and bag counts.