Topsoil for beds, lawns and grade repair

Why is topsoil more expensive than fill dirt?

Topsoil is the top layer and it is thin. On a lot of ground it is a few inches deep, and on ground that has been farmed or scraped it can be close to gone. Every cubic yard sold came off the top of somewhere else. That scarcity, not any processing cost, is why it is the dearest of the 3 materials we carry.

It is also why topsoil quality varies more between sources than fill does. Fill is fill. Topsoil can be dark and rich or light and sandy depending on the ground it came off, which is worth knowing before you order enough of it to cover a yard. Tell us what you are growing and we will tell you what we can source for your area.

Topsoil runs finer than fill by nature, and it is a powdery, sandy material rather than a chunky one. It is the one material on this site you can genuinely move with a wheelbarrow and a rake, which is part of why homeowners buy it in small quantities and end up paying bagged prices for it.

How deep should topsoil be laid?

For a new lawn going down over prepared subgrade, 4 to 6 inches of topsoil is the usual target. Less than about 4 inches and the grass roots hit dead ground in the first dry spell, which is the most common reason a new lawn browns off in its first summer while the neighbour's holds.

For raised beds and vegetable gardens, 8 to 12 inches gives roots somewhere to go. For top-dressing an established lawn to smooth out low spots, a quarter to half an inch per pass, repeated across seasons. Bury a living lawn in several inches of soil in one go and you smother it.

Work out the volume before you call. One cubic yard covers roughly 108 square feet at 3 inches deep, 81 square feet at 4 inches and 54 square feet at 6 inches. A 1,000 square foot lawn at 4 inches deep is about 12.5 cubic yards, which is under our 20 cubic yard minimum, so it is worth checking the whole area you want to cover before you order.

Why does topsoil settle, and how much do I order?

Topsoil does not compact, it consolidates. A pile of loose topsoil that gets spread, watered and walked on will end up noticeably lower than the level you raked it to. If you have a finish level you care about, meeting a patio edge or matching a driveway lip, order enough to place it slightly proud and let it settle in. A 10 percent margin is a fair starting point.

The corollary is that topsoil is never structural. Do not build a pad out of it, do not use it as backfill behind a wall, and do not put it under anything that has to stay level. It has organic content in it, organic content breaks down, and material that breaks down loses volume. A hole filled with topsoil sinks, and it keeps sinking for years.

Is topsoil the same as a garden blend?

No. Screened topsoil is soil. A garden mix or planting blend is soil with compost and sometimes sand blended into it at a ratio, and it costs considerably more per cubic yard. If a landscape plan calls for a blended planting medium, that is a different product and you should order it as one by name.

For most jobs, raising a bed, filling a low corner of the yard, prepping for sod, straight topsoil with your own compost worked into the top few inches does the job for a fraction of the cost. Buy the bulk material from us and buy the amendment locally in the quantity you actually need.

How do I spread topsoil?

This is the one material you can genuinely move by hand. It is light compared to clay fill and it does not clump. For a bed or a small yard, a weekend and a couple of people is enough. A cubic yard is about 9 to 14 wheelbarrow loads, allowing for the fact that nobody fills a barrow to its rated capacity with wet soil.

For anything over roughly 20 or 30 cubic yards, get a machine. At 1.5 tons a yard, a 30 yard load is 45 tons, and the shovelling stops being fun a long way before the pile runs out. Rake to a consistent depth rather than chasing a level with your eye, and water it in before you seed or lay sod so the settlement happens before the grass does.

What are the working properties?

How does it behave across our markets?

Topsoil demand is the most regionally variable of the 3 materials, because it depends on how much usable soil the local ground already has. In the drier markets it is the most common order we take, because there is barely any usable soil in the ground to begin with.

How many cubic yards will I need?

Multiply the area in square feet by the depth in feet, then divide by 27. For a 1,500 square foot lawn at 4 inches, that is 1,500 by 0.333 divided by 27, which is about 18.5 cubic yards. At 6 inches the same lawn takes about 27.8 cubic yards.

Add roughly 10 percent for consolidation, because spread, watered and walked-on topsoil ends lower than the level you raked it to. That 18.5 yard lawn wants about 20 cubic yards delivered, which lands exactly on our minimum order.

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