Estimating loam needs for lawn repair

Anonymous Poster · Apr 14, 2003

I'm pretty new to all this landscaping business. I just bought a Kubota BX2200 with fel and one of the missions of the new tractor is lawn repair/ regrade. I have several areas that need to be filled and smoothed with loam and I need help in determining how much loam to order. The area I'm interested in improving is no bigger than 1/3 acre and won't all need to be covered. There is a 40x20 foot area where an above ground pool stood many years ago that needs to have the stone dust scraped out and filled up to the level of the rest of the lawn. Then there are some other areas that have sunk over the years that need spot filling.

I think that loam comes by the cubic yard but I don't really have a great feel for how far a cubic yard will spread. Any helpful tips or hints would be appreciated!

Darren · Apr 14, 2003

You'll have to do the figuring yourself but it isn't hard. A cubic yard is equivalent to a cube 3'x3'x3' or 27 cubic ft. For the area where the pool stood you have an area of 40x20 = 800 square ft. If you need to fill a hole one foot deep over the whole pool area after removing the stone, you'd need 1' x 800 square ft or 800 cubic feet or 800/27 = 29.62 cubic yards of material.

You can ratio that to get the actual amount of material you need. If the hole left after the stone is only six inches, order half as much material. If it's only four inches, order a third as much. Since the material will settle over time, you might want to add 20% to the number you calculate.

Figure your other areas accordingly. I wouldn't try to get it all in one shot. Go for the pool area first and it will give you a feel about the other areas. I've never bought loam so I don't know how it's sold. When I buy stone, I buy by the ton so I'm sure I'm not overweight. The guy loading usually has a good feel for how much stone is in the loader bucket eventhough the buckets as a practical measure are sized in cubic yards.

What I'm saying is don't expect to order by the yard and get exactly the yardage you need. You'll get something close but you'll never know. If you know the density of the loam you can convert the yardage to tons and the seller might be able to show you a weigh ticket unless he sells strictly by the yard because there's no available scales.

Anonymous Poster · Apr 15, 2003

Darren,

Thanks for the info. You may have a point about selling by the ton as opposed to by the yard. I'll have to check some local suppliers to find out.

Soundguy · Apr 15, 2003

Darren has good info. I'm a CE at a road construction co, and we usually figure up to 1/3 fluff for fill material when beeing dug and loaded.. i.e. a miniwheeler dump truck carrying 18cy ( which is common ).. and yes.. that is usually refered to as truck measure.. when dumped out and compacted, an in place measurement could yeild as low as 12cy. Fill densities and physical properties will vary.. but you can guess that a cy of material is going to weight just over a ton. Moisture, and organic content will cause variances.

Soundguy

Anonymous Poster · Apr 15, 2003

Soundguy,

Thanks for the extra details. Very helpful if you don't sound like a total idiot when you call these places. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

I didn't realize that a cubic yard of loam would weigh so much! Guess that just shows what a newbie I really am. Sure am glad I got the fel now! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I think I'll start with the 18 cy truck load you talked about and go from there.