Ordering materials by volume

[RayCo]

Perhaps someone can explain this to me, since it has happened many, many times, and I cannot figure out why. I sometimes need to order various materials such as sand, screenings, mulch, wood chips, 2a stone, etc. Some of these things are often sold by volume where as others are sold by weight. My issue is with things that are sold by weight. For instances:

I have a 100' x 1' trench that I need to put 6" of screenings in, so about 2 cubic yards. I call the place and I ask, "what is the volume of one ton of screenings?" The answer isn't, "Oh, one ton's about .85 cubic yards." The answer is, "Uh, um, I don't know..."

I have a 10' x 10' pad that I'm building for a gazebo, and I need to put down 1" of sand below the pavers, or 8-9 cubic feet. But again, sand is sold by weight. As a consumer, I know the volume. I don't care what it weighs.

I understand why the places that sell it care about the weight, but for the consumer interface, things should be converted to the units the consumer would use.

Yes, I can look up tons/yard^3 for materials and get the answers myself, but just going to the Internet for this yields 20 different answers.

This is more of just a rant, but again, not in how things are sold, but more that when I ask, "What is the volume of one ton of screenings," the response I get gives me the impression that I'm the first person to have ever asked the question.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Where I live:
Most places selling mulch, top soil, etc. don't have scales to sell by weight, so it gets sold by volume, they use a yd bucket on a loader.
most places selling bulk sand, gravel, etc. have scales, and sell by weight, which is probably more accurate, and easier for them. Unfortunately wet sand / gravel weighs more than dry sand / gravel.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

I have been confused by this recently as well.

Frankly, the weight thing doesn't make sense to me, IMO.

Is there a formula to convert weight to yards....or vice versa.??

And, who can explain to me WHY this has changed from yards to weight.???? Kinda like going metric.

 

[wvpolekat]

Easy. By yards the price is fixed. By weight, they can make more money depending on moisture content and such.

 

[ToadHill]

I don't know if this is any help, but when I did landscaping we used the following rule of thumb for mulch and I think it would work for other things as well.

1 yard of mulch 3" thick will cover 100 sq ft.

 

[RayCo]

I don't know if this is any help, but when I did landscaping we used the following rule of thumb for mulch and I think it would work for other things as well.

1 yard of mulch 3" thick will cover 100 sq ft.

Yes, one cubic yard of anything, be it mulch, sand, water, nitrogen molecules, human hair, or dead chipmunks, will cover the same area at the same height. This is exactly why selling the material by the weight gets my goat.

One cubic yard of sand weighs much much much much more than a cubic yard of chipmunks, so without knowing the density of a given material, trying to determine how many tons will give you the volume you need is impossible.

 

[BobRip]

I agree with your issue. I have a feeling it is a legal issue. The scales can be certified and they can have a legal defense should there be any questions. It is also easy to weight things if you have a scale. Measuring by volume has a lot more variability. Settling can change the volume. If you measure it immediately after loading and then check it after you have driven to the sight, you will probably see it has settled. Then the customer will complain.

 

[RayCo]

I agree with your issue. I have a feeling it is a legal issue. The scales can be certified and they can have a legal defense should there be any questions. It is also easy to weight things if you have a scale. Measuring by volume has a lot more variability. Settling can change the volume. If you measure it immediately after loading and then check it after you have driven to the sight, you will probably see it has settled. Then the customer will complain.

That certainly could be the case, although one could make a stink about having a ton of material delivered to a different elevation above sea level and not getting a ton up there. They should sell by mass.

I mostly just can't understand why when I ask about the density of a material sold by weight, the response I get is that "you're the first person who ever asked this, so I have not idea" thing.

 

[Bird]

I mostly just can't understand why when I ask about the density of a material sold by weight, the response I get is that "you're the first person who ever asked this, so I have not idea" thing.

In my opinion, you get that answer for a very simple reason. If they just give the customer a number, and for any reason, moisture content, settling, or whatever, the customer finds that number to be off in any amount, even very small amounts, the customer is likely to accuse them of fraud, cheating, etc. So they save themselves a lot of headaches by saying they don't know.

 

[Duffster]

Weight of quarry products doesn't vary that much with moisture. When the product is in the pile it takes on vary little moisture, rain tends to run off and it dries vary little in the pile.

Weight is a legal measure volume is not.