Topsoil calculator

Defaults match common retail guidance: area in square feet and depth in inches, with optional area_unit and depth_unit when your plan is already in square metres, centimetres, feet, or metres. The same pure function powers the free browser tool and the paid API, so a phone estimate matches the line item a script posts later. Zero or negative area or depth is rejected with a clear invalid_input message instead of a silent nonsense volume.

How topsoil volume is computed from area and depth

Explicit area_unit values are square feet or square metres; depth_unit values are inches, feet, centimetres, or metres. Conversion uses fixed international-foot constants so identical inputs always produce identical JSON: zero point three zero four eight metres per foot, zero point zero two five four metres per inch, and one cubic yard equal to twenty-seven cubic feet. Intermediate fields area_sq_ft, area_m2, depth_ft, depth_m, and volume_ft3 are returned so you can audit the unit path against a supplier quote. Area and depth must both be strictly positive: zero or negative values are rejected with invalid_input because a non-positive footprint or layer thickness makes volume non-physical or zero.

What you send and what you get back

Send two required finite numbers: area for the coverage footprint and depth for the desired topsoil thickness. Classic checks include one thousand square feet at two inches: about six point one seven cubic yards and about four point seven two cubic metres. Another useful check is fifty square metres at ten centimetres with metric units: volume is five cubic metres and the cubic-yard figure follows from dividing by the fixed yard-to-metre-cubed constant. Optionally send area_unit as sq_ft or sq_m and depth_unit as in, ft, cm, or m; omitted units default to square feet and inches. Missing required fields, non-numeric strings, NaN, and Infinity fail with invalid_input and are not charged. When area or depth is zero or negative the request fails with a message that the dimension must be positive, so clients can correct the measurement before retrying instead of receiving a zero or negative volume. On success the response echoes cleaned inputs and resolved units, plan area in both square feet and square metres, depth in feet and metres, volume in cubic feet, volume_yd3 for cubic yards, volume_m3 for cubic metres, a cross-check volume_yd3_from_m3 from the SI path, a unit_note reminder of the defaults and formulas, and a short formula string for documentation. Pricing for successful API calls is the published base of $0.002 per item; validation failures do not consume prepaid balance.

Where topsoil calculators show up in real work

Homeowners regrading a lawn, topping a vegetable bed, or filling a new patio planter need a trustworthy cubic-yard figure before calling a landscape supplier, especially when bulk delivery has a minimum load and bags are expensive once opened. Garden centres and e-commerce product pages often embed a volume helper next to bulk topsoil SKUs so shoppers convert square footage and inches into the unit the product is sold in. If you later need bag counts from a specific bag yield, waste percent as a separate field, circular beds, mulch-only coverage tables, or grading cut-and-fill earthwork, treat those as separate search intents and landings rather than overloading this topsoil area-and-depth volume calculator page. Landscape crews build material take-offs from measured footprints and design depths; a single deterministic endpoint that reports both cubic yards and cubic metres reduces spreadsheet drift between the estimator and the purchasing clerk when one job is quoted in US units and another on a metric drawing set. Property managers renovating multiple courtyard beds feed each area-depth pair through the API and attach volumes to purchase orders so overstock stays intentional rather than guessed. Because this capability is a pure parse engine, API pricing is the published base of $0.002 per successful item and failed validation does not consume balance.