Earthwork Calculator
Draw a pond on your land. We read the real ground from USGS LiDAR and give you the dig: cut volume, haul-off, truckloads. Free.
Move the map to your site, then Drag a box to trace it, Tap corners to place them one by one, or Free draw freehand. Every point is draggable; tap one to remove it.
Draw the outline first; it ties into the existing ground at its edge. Then tap the map to drop spot elevations or trace grade lines. Enter +2 or -3 for feet above or below the ground, or a plain plan elevation in ft.
That depth is inside the slab itself, so there is nothing to add. Depth is measured from finished grade; make it deeper than the concrete thickness.
This digs more than 5 ft below the graded pad. An excavation that deep needs a protective system, and the quantities here are the neat line only, so any benching, sloping or extra width for a trench box is additional excavation and additional spoil that is not counted above.
This digs more than 5 ft below the graded pad, and an excavation that deep needs a protective system. The slope you entered is counted: the wall dirt is dug and put back after the pour, so it adds handling, not haul, and the spoil hauled off above is unchanged. Benching and extra width for a trench box are still not counted.
Pick what gets built here. A section area is only the material stack; without one there is nothing to take off.
Blackland clay swells about 30% when excavated, so loose haul-off volume runs well above the in-ground number. That is baked into the truck count.
Stripping is priced as its own stockpile. Respread on site it does not change the cut or fill.
Tap the map where the boring was drilled.
- Real ground from USGS LiDAR, not a flat assumption
- Cut and fill volume, haul-off tonnage, truckloads
- Bring your own survey: LandXML, DWG, DXF, drone points
- A branded PDF takeoff, CSV, and DXF/LandXML for machine control
Screening-level material classification, not a geotechnical report. Not a substitute for a licensed geotechnical engineer.
Off-site loads are measured to the gate pin. Drag it to your actual entrance.
Straight-line hauls, planning-grade production rates. Real haul roads, weather and soil moisture move these numbers.
Preview pricing. Internal placeholder rates, not quotes and not offers to sell.
Each point runs the full takeoff at that finished grade. The marker is your current design; the dot is the cheapest grade sampled. This shows what the dirt costs at each choice; it does not pick your grade.
Planning estimate from public LiDAR (about 1 m resolution), not a stamped survey. Confirm with a site survey before you dig or bid. Calculator Terms
Underground: pipe, bedding and spoil
Type a run the way the plans give it to you. The pipe falls at grade, so the trench is deepest where the ground is highest, and the stone under and over the pipe is material that has to be bought while the dirt it replaces has to leave. Nothing to draw.
Typical outside diameter for that system and size. The takeoff always uses the number in the box, so override it from the pipe schedule when you have one.
A flat typed depth is the usual way a hand takeoff comes up short: a line that falls under ground that does not fall with it gets deeper as it goes. Switch to By invert once you have the profile sheet.
Bedding, trench and backfill
Auto bottom width is the pipe outside diameter plus a foot of working room each side, never narrower than 24 in. Wall slope only applies above the height in the last box; below it the trench is a vertical box.
Add a run to see the takeoff.
You get excavation, the stone that goes under and over the pipe, the backfill that goes back in, and the spoil that has to leave, per run and for the whole network.
Planning estimate, not a stamped design. Trench geometry, bedding and protection of the excavation are the contractor's call and the engineer's. Confirm against the plans and the specification before you dig or bid. Calculator Terms
New here? The 30-second version
This is a free earthwork calculator. You trace the outline of a pond, pad, or excavation on a satellite map of any property, tell it how deep you want to go, and it tells you how much dirt you would move and how many truckloads that is. The trick is that it does not guess at the ground: it reads the real elevation of the land from public aerial-survey data, the same kind of data engineers pay thousands of dollars for. No account, no paywall, no catch.
- 1m LiDAR grid we read the ground at
- 30% heavy clay can swell when excavated
- $0 no account, no paywall, ever
How it works, in four steps
You trace your site
Find your property on the map (search the address or drop a pin), then draw the outline of your pond or dig. Tap corners one by one, drag a box, or free-draw the shape by hand. Every point is draggable, so you can fine-tune it until it matches your land.
We read the real ground
Behind the scenes we pull the actual ground elevation under your outline from USGS 3DEP LiDAR, a nationwide aerial laser scan of the United States. Airplanes fly the country firing laser pulses at the ground millions of times a second and measure how the surface rises and falls, down to about a one-meter grid. It is public and free. That is why the calculator knows whether your land is flat, sloped, or mounded, without you measuring a thing.
We identify your soil
At the same moment we look up your spot in the USDA-NRCS soil survey (SSURGO), the national soil map. It names the actual soil under your outline and its texture, which sets the right excavation swell for the haul-off, and it reports the soil's shrink-swell rating, a separate measure of how much that ground moves with moisture, so you can spot expansive clays. You can override the detected soil any time.
We do the dig math
We build a 3D model of your proposed pond (the rim, the sloped banks, the flat bottom) and subtract it from the real ground. Wherever the ground is higher than your design, that is dirt to dig out (a cut). We add up every bit of it for the total volume, account for the way soil puffs up when you dig it, and turn that into truckloads. This subtract-two-surfaces method is exactly what the professional programs do.
What am I looking at?
Every number on the result panel, in plain language.
Cubic yards to excavate
The headline number: the size of the hole, measured as it sits in the ground. A cubic yard is a block of dirt 3 ft by 3 ft by 3 ft, about what fits in a standard wheelbarrow nine times over.
Loose after swell
Dirt expands when you dig it up, because you are adding air. Packed clay can puff up 30% or more. So the loose pile you actually haul away is bigger than the hole. This is the number that decides how many trucks you need.
Truckloads to haul off
How many dump-truck trips it takes to move the loose dirt. We count by whichever runs out first: the truck's volume, or its legal weight limit. Heavy clay often hits the weight limit before the bed is full.
Tons
The weight of all that soil, shown as a range because soil weight changes with moisture. Useful when a hauler or disposal site charges by the ton.
Max depth & flat bottom
The deepest point of your dig, and how much flat floor it has at the bottom. If the flat bottom is zero, your outline pinched to a point before it reached your target depth (see the tips below).
The cross-section drawing
A side-on slice through your pond, like cutting a cake in half. It shows the existing ground line, the sloped banks with their ratio, and the depth. The vertical scale is exaggerated so shallow digs are still easy to read.
Plain-English glossary
- Cut
- Dirt you dig out and remove because the ground is higher than your design.
- Fill
- Dirt you bring in and add because the ground is lower than your design.
- Bank vs. loose
- "Bank" is dirt compacted in the ground. "Loose" is the same dirt after digging, when it has fluffed up with air. You haul loose, so loose volume is what fills trucks.
- Swell
- How much soil expands when excavated. Sand swells a little (about 12%), heavy clay a lot (about 30%).
- Bank slope (3:1)
- How steep the sides of the hole are. 3:1 means the bank goes out 3 feet for every 1 foot down. Lower numbers (2:1) are steeper; higher numbers (4:1) are gentler and safer.
- LiDAR
- Laser-based aerial surveying. It is how we know the real shape of your land for free.
- Cubic yard (cy)
- The standard unit for moving dirt: a 3 ft cube. Dump trucks are rated in cubic yards.
- Planning grade
- Accurate enough to scope a job, budget, and get quotes, but not a substitute for a stamped survey before you actually dig.
Tips for a good estimate
- Draw the top edge of the pond, where the water's edge will sit at ground level. The banks slope inward and down from there.
- If you see "pinches to a point," your outline is too small to reach the depth you set at that bank slope. Widen the outline, choose a steeper bank (like 2:1), or reduce the depth.
- Match the bank slope to your soil. Firm ground holds steeper banks; loose or sandy ground needs gentler ones for safety. 3:1 is a safe everyday default.
- Pick the right soil. In North Texas the ground is usually Blackland clay, which swells a lot, so it is the default. Change it if you know better.
- Zoom in and drag the corners to trace your land precisely. The closer the outline, the closer the number.
Is this really free? What's the catch?
It is genuinely free, and there is no login. We can do this because the heavy, expensive part, the survey of the ground, is already paid for by the public: the USGS flew the whole country and publishes the elevation data for anyone to use. We wrote the math that turns your outline plus that data into a real dig. The only thing we ask is the obvious one: if you need that dirt hauled off, or you need clean fill delivered, Soil Depot would love to quote it.
What it is: a fast, real, planning-grade estimate good enough to budget and get bids. What it is not: a stamped engineering survey. Before you dig or sign a contract, confirm with a licensed surveyor. We tell you the data resolution right on the result so you always know what you are working with.
Common questions
How accurate is it?
The ground data is about one-meter resolution with roughly 10 to 30 cm of vertical accuracy across most of Texas. The volume math itself is exact for the shapes you draw. So the estimate is dependable for planning and bidding; it is not a legal survey.
Do I need an account?
No. No sign-up, no email, no paywall. Draw and go.
Does it work outside Texas?
Yes, anywhere the USGS has elevation coverage, which is the entire United States. Coverage is finest (1 m) across most populated areas, including all of North Texas.
Why is my haul-off bigger than the hole?
Because soil swells when you dig it. The hole is measured packed-in-the-ground; the pile you truck away has air in it and takes up more room. We do that conversion for you.
Why didn't it reach the depth I set?
On a small pond with sloped banks, the two banks can meet before the floor reaches your target depth, so it bottoms out shallower in a V shape. Widen the outline, steepen the banks, or reduce the depth to get a flat bottom.
Can Soil Depot handle the dirt?
Yes. We haul off excavated material and deliver clean fill, topsoil, select fill, and sand across DFW, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. Hit "Soil Depot can haul this off" and your estimate comes with you.
How the earthwork calculator works
The earthwork calculator runs a real cut-and-fill takeoff from USGS 3DEP LiDAR elevation and USDA soil data for any site you draw on the map. Instead of estimating dirt by eye, you get cut volume, fill volume, and the net import or export in cubic yards, plus a color cut and fill heatmap and a pad-balance solver that finds the finished grade that balances the site. It is built for contractors, site supers, and developers scoping grading and haul before the dozers show up.
Knowing whether a site is net cut or net fill, and by how many yards, is what decides your trucking. A net-export site needs haul-off; a net-import site needs fill delivered. The takeoff gives you that number so you can plan loads and get a delivery or haul-off quote anywhere in Texas.
How to run a cut and fill takeoff
- Find your site. Search the address or drop a pin, then draw the boundary of the area you are grading.
- Let it pull terrain. The tool loads USGS 3DEP LiDAR elevation and USDA soil for the area automatically.
- Set your target grade. Enter the finished elevation, or let the pad-balance solver find the grade that balances cut and fill.
- Read cut, fill, and net. See cut and fill volumes, the net import or export in yards, and the heatmap, then export a takeoff PDF or send it to a quote.
Earthwork and cut/fill FAQ
What is a cut and fill calculation?
Cut is the soil you remove to lower ground to grade; fill is the soil you add to raise it. A cut-and-fill takeoff totals both across a site and reports the net, which tells you whether you are exporting or importing dirt and by how many yards.
Where does the elevation data come from?
The calculator uses USGS 3DEP LiDAR elevation and USDA-NRCS SSURGO soil data, the same public survey sources used in professional site work, so the takeoff reflects real ground rather than a guess.
How accurate is the earthwork takeoff?
It is a planning-grade estimate strong enough to scope haul and material and to compare grade options. For final quantities you still confirm against your surveyed grades, but it gets you a real number fast.
What is pad balance?
Pad balance is the finished elevation where cut volume equals fill volume, so you move dirt on site instead of hauling it in or out. The solver finds that grade for you, which can cut trucking cost significantly.
Can Soil Depot haul or supply the difference?
Yes. If your site is net export we haul off the surplus; if it is net import we deliver select fill or fill dirt by the truckload. Send the takeoff and we quote the trucking same-day.
See everything the calculator suite does, one guide to all four tools →