Reference data
Mulch coverage and bag counts
Square feet a cubic yard covers at every depth, bags to a yard and to a pallet, and what each mulch weighs dry and soaked.
Written and edited by Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Last reviewed 2026-09-16
How many bags of mulch are in a cubic yard, and how much does a yard cover?
13.5 bags, because a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet and the standard bag is 2. And a cubic yard covers 324 square feet at one inch deep — the one figure worth memorising, because every other depth is that number divided by the inches.
The rest of this page is those two facts applied, plus the one nobody publishes: how much depth a mulch loses in a year, which is what decides how much you actually need to buy.
Coverage by depth
| Depth | ft² per yd³ | ft² per bag | ft² per pallet | yd³ per 500 ft² | Bags per 500 ft² |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 in | 648 | 48.0 | 3120 | 0.77 | 11 |
| 1 in | 324 | 24.0 | 1560 | 1.54 | 21 |
| 1.5 in | 216 | 16.0 | 1040 | 2.31 | 32 |
| 2 in | 162 | 12.0 | 780 | 3.09 | 42 |
| 2.5 in | 130 | 9.6 | 624 | 3.86 | 53 |
| 3 in | 108 | 8.0 | 520 | 4.63 | 63 |
| 4 in | 81 | 6.0 | 390 | 6.17 | 84 |
Note the depth column carefully. It is the depth you are adding, not the finished depth of the bed. On an established bed with an inch or two of last year’s mulch still in it, those are very different numbers, and the difference is usually half the order.
Packaging
| Unit | Volume | Per cubic yard | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard bag | 2 ft³ | 13.5 | 27 ÷ 2. Buy fourteen for a yard with a little spare. |
| Large bag | 3 ft³ | 9 | Less common. Always check the bag before comparing two prices per bag. |
| Pallet | ~130 ft³ | ~4.8 yd³ | About 65 bags. Usually priced close to bulk and delivered on a forklift. |
| Bulk cubic yard | 27 ft³ | 1 | Tipped loose. Cheapest per yard, plus a delivery charge that does not scale. |
| Half-ton pickup | ~2 yd³ | — | Of bark, dry. Less after rain, and far less of anything heavier. |
Weight and decomposition by mulch
| Mulch | Usual depth | Lost a year | Dry | Soaked | yd³ in a pickup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shredded hardwood bark | 3 in | 1 in | 450 lb | 800 lb | 1.3 |
| Pine bark nuggets | 3 in | 0.7 in | 400 lb | 700 lb | 1.4 |
| Cedar or cypress | 3 in | 0.6 in | 380 lb | 650 lb | 1.5 |
| Dyed wood mulch | 3 in | 1 in | 500 lb | 900 lb | 1.1 |
| Straw | 4 in | 2.5 in | 120 lb | 350 lb | 2.9 |
| Rubber mulch | 2 in | none | 800 lb | 850 lb | 1.2 |
That last column is a cubic yards figure for a thousand pounds of payload — a fair allowance for a half-ton pickup once you have accounted for the fact that half-ton is a class name rather than a rating. It is worth reading before deciding to collect rather than have it delivered, particularly if the mulch has been sitting outside in the rain.
The number that actually changes the order
Every figure above is arithmetic except one: the depth an organic mulch loses in a year. Shredded hardwood gives up roughly an inch, the coarser barks a little less, straw a great deal more.
It matters because it means a bed mulched to three inches last spring is at about two this spring, and wants one inch rather than three. Calculators that ask only for a finished depth quietly sell twice the mulch — and, worse, a bed that gets a full three inches added every year is four or five inches deep within a few seasons, which is past the point where mulch helps and into the range where it sheds water and starves roots of air.
Depth limits
2 to 4 inches is the working range. Below 2, light reaches the soil and weed seed germinates. Above 4, water runs off the surface rather than through it and the soil beneath goes anaerobic. And against a trunk, at any depth, mulch piled against a trunk keeps the bark permanently wet, which rots it and invites insects and rodents into the one part of the tree that cannot be replaced. Pull it back so the flare of the trunk is visible — a ring, never a cone.
Using it
The mulch calculator subtracts what is already in the bed, handles rings round trees as well as rectangles, and works out whether bagged or bulk is cheaper at your volume — the break-even is around 4.1 cubic yards.
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About the author
Pablo Ruiz Quintero — Editor
Editor of MaterialsEstimator. Decides which documents count as a source, what every default value is, and where the line sits between what the reader parses and what the engines compute.
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