FREE FIELD CALCULATOR
Stockpile volume calculator
Measure a pile’s footprint and height to estimate loose yards, weight and truckloads.
What you’ll need
- Base length and width, or base diameter for a cone
- Height above the base
- The shape that fits the pile best
- Loose density, truck capacity and payload limit, for hauling
Start with the pile dimensions.
This is a dimensional estimate on a level base. For survey CSV or LandXML quantities, use Measured quantities in the surface workspace.
Try it with these numbers
- Choose Triangular windrow · flat ends and enter base length 30, base width 18 and height 6. Give the pile a name.
- Set allowance to 0, density to 1.5 and truck capacity to 12. Leave payload blank. Calculate: expect 60 loose yd³, 90 short tons and 5 loads.
- Enter payload 15 and calculate again. Weight raises the haul to 6 loads.
- Try allowance 10 and rate 20 dollars per loose yard. Planning quantity becomes 66 yd³, with an estimated cost of $1,320.
Reading your result
Loose yards are the dimensional pile estimate. The allowance stays separate; weight, loads and an entered price use the planning quantity including that allowance.
A pile is already loose—do not add excavation swell again. A triangular windrow uses half its bounding box; a pyramid uses one third; a cone uses its circular base. A custom factor is an assumption, not a measurement.
Where this goes wrong on site
- Getting the base wrong. Most of a pile sits low. In a cone or pyramid, the bottom fifth of the height holds almost half the volume (48.8%); in a windrow, over a third (36%). Measure height from where the pile actually starts, and on a sloping yard use the ground level all the way around it, not the low side.
- Rounding the height up. On the 30 × 18 ft windrow above, calling a 6 ft pile 6½ ft adds 5 yd³, about 8%, before a truck is loaded.
- Measuring the highest point and treating an uneven pile as a uniform windrow.
- Counting swell twice on material that is already loose in a pile.
- Ignoring sloping ends, hollows left by a loader, or material spread outside the footprint you measured.
How the math works
Custom factor: length × width × height × factor ÷ 27. Triangular windrow: factor 1/2 with a constant section and flat ends. Rectangular pyramid: factor 1/3. Cone: π × diameter² × height ÷ 12 ÷ 27. Planning quantity adds the separate allowance; no further swell is applied.
Keep the number with the job
Calculate above, then download a Letter or A4 PDF, copy the result or share it from your phone. The result sheet keeps your inputs and assumptions. Changing an input means you need to calculate again before exporting.
Open the private field workspace for saved jobs and reports across your phone and computer, or read the free-calculator guide. Tell Jesse what would make this easier on your job.
Useful on your job?
Share this free calculator with someone who could use it, or tell Jesse what needs improving.
Shares the tool link only, without your measurements. https://driftlesssolutions.us/tools/stockpile-volume/