About Foot & Yard
Free calculators for the measuring and ordering part of home, yard and land projects.
Who runs it
Foot & Yard is a small independent site run by Adeen, who builds and maintains the calculators. It isn't owned by a supplier or a contractor, and no manufacturer pays to be mentioned. We're not engineers or licensed contractors, and the site doesn't pretend otherwise: it does the arithmetic carefully and shows its working, so you can check it.
Where the numbers come from
- Bag yields come from manufacturers' published data sheets. For example, the concrete calculator uses the yields QUIKRETE prints for its Concrete Mix (No. 1101).
- Code limits, like maximum stair riser height, come from the International Residential Code. Each page notes which section, and reminds you that local codes can differ.
- Material densities (tons per cubic yard of gravel, sand or topsoil) come from aggregate suppliers' published calculators and density charts. These vary by quarry, so the calculators that use them let you enter your supplier's figure instead.
- Unit conversions follow NIST Handbook 44.
Each calculator lists its sources and assumptions at the bottom of the page, with the date it was last reviewed.
How the calculators are checked
Every formula lives in one shared file that all the pages use. Each page's guide includes a worked example done by hand, and the same example runs as an automated test against the code before every release. If a change breaks a result, the site doesn't get published.
Bags, blocks and pavers are always rounded up to whole numbers, because running short halfway through a job costs more than one spare bag.
What the calculators don't do
They estimate materials. They don't design structures, replace a site survey, or tell you what your local building department will approve. For foundations, retaining walls, structural stairs or anything a permit covers, use the numbers here as a starting point and check them with a qualified professional. See the terms and disclaimer.
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