Soil Depot · Site Tools
La Suite de Calculadoras de Soil Depot
Four free calculators, one earthwork engine. Draw or upload a jobsite and get real cut, fill, haul, and truckload numbers, measured against real ground, right in your browser. Pipe trenches, concrete, and the old pavement that comes out first are counted too. No sign-up, on the phone or the desktop, in English or Spanish.
The suite at a glance
One engine, four ways in. Start with the tool that fits the job, they share the same map, the same 3D look, and the same honest math.
Earthwork
Draw or import a site, measure it against real ground, and get cut, fill, haul distance, and truckloads with a 3D model and a PDF report.
Open → BuilderPad & Lot
Size a pad or a lot layer by layer and get the fill or export volume and the loads to move it, drawn or typed.
Open → FastQuick Estimate
Say the size in plain English and get a material volume and truckloads in one line, no map required.
Open → MaterialsFull Calculator
Pick a Soil Depot material, set the area and depth, and get cubic yards and tons for the order.
Open →Inside the Earthwork Calculator
The flagship runs the same core calculation a professional takeoff uses: it subtracts the proposed grade from the real existing ground, cell by cell, and returns the cut, the fill, and everything that follows. Here is everything it does, grouped the way a job actually runs.
01Define the site
- Address search with live suggestions, down to rural county roads.
- Four ways to draw: pan, box, tap corners, or freehand, with square footage and acres shown live.
- Fully editable outline with numbered, draggable points.
- Drag and drop any file onto the tool and it routes itself by contents.
02Import engineering files
- Six formats in: DWG (Civil 3D), LandXML, DXF, XYZ/CSV, GeoTIFF, and PDF plan sheets.
- Surface picker & role toggle: choose a surface and tag it existing ground or proposed design.
- Coordinate systems sorted out across US State Plane and UTM grids, with override.
- Reads the engineer's own triangles and measures against them directly.
03The ground it measures against
- Public USGS 3DEP LiDAR loads free the instant there is an outline.
- Your own survey (the two-file unlock): measure the design against your existing-conditions survey, not remote sensing.
- Drone DEM from Propeller, DroneDeploy, or Pix4D, on the datum you confirm.
- A source badge names exactly where the ground came from, every time.
04Shape the design and its section
- Pond, level pad, trench, or custom grade, built by hand.
- Whole-site plans: combine regions, each with its own breakdown.
- Daylight to grade and auto-balance: cut against fill for zero haul.
- A section per region: building pad, heavy or light paving, sidewalk, landscape, or dirt only, each layer counted as itself.
- Demolition comes out first: existing concrete or asphalt, at the thickness you give, removed before the new section goes in.
- Strip and stockpile topsoil, and see the section drawn as an overlay on an imported design.
05Underground utilities
- Pipe runs by system: PVC SDR 35, HDPE N-12, RCP Wall B, or ductile iron.
- By depth or by invert elevation at each end of the run.
- Bedding under the pipe, stone over it, and the compaction shrink on the backfill.
- Walls vertical, shored or boxed, or laid back from 0.5:1 to 2:1 above the height you set.
- Manholes by diameter, rim, and invert.
- Trench width figured for you: the pipe outside diameter plus a foot of working room each side, never under 24 in.
06Concrete and perimeter elements
- Thickened slab edges and interior grade beams, by width and depth.
- Spread footings by size and count.
- Curb and gutter around the full perimeter or along a frontage length you set.
- The spoil those elements dig, not just the concrete they place, which a slab-only takeoff hides.
- Spread the beam trench spoil on site instead of hauling it off.
07Soil intelligence
- Automatic USDA soil lookup: series, texture, and shrink-swell.
- Layer by layer, not one blob: the cut split through the real horizon stack.
- Real boring logs you type in override the survey.
- Fill suitability: each layer judged reusable structural fill or poor clay.
08Haul planning & outputs
- A real mass-haul plan with free-haul, overhaul, and a gate pin.
- Trucks, machines & time: loads by truck type, the machine mix, and working days.
- Interactive 3D model, cross-sections, branded PDF takeoff, and CSV export.
- Machine-control (GPS) export and a share link that carries the survey and the utility runs with it.
It never invents dirt.
Where a survey has no data, the calculator leaves that area out of the number and says so, right on the result: "covers 87% of the design, the rest is not included." It will not bridge a hole and quietly hand back a bigger, wrong number. A cross-section engine independently re-derives the volumes as a second check, and every result is marked a planning estimate from public data. Honest beats impressive, every time.
It also tells you what it left out. When a design digs more than 5 ft below the graded pad, it says an excavation that deep needs a protective system, and it names what is not in the quantity: sloping, benching, and trench-box over-width. When an entry lands outside the range the tool can stand behind, a banner says so beside the numbers rather than instead of them. And when the elevation service is having a bad day, it announces the failure rather than quietly handing back a worse answer.
The tools around it
The earthwork tool digs. These three deliver, and each does something the others do not.
Pad & Lot Builder
- Builds a footprint up in real lifts: a material and a thickness per layer.
- Layer-cake 3D and smart truckloads that share delivery across layers.
- Presets for a pad, lot, gravel drive, road, or fill-and-level.
Quick Estimate
- No map required: type "300 by 80, 8 inches of select fill" and it computes.
- Delivered loose yards, tons as a range, and truckloads.
- One tap to a bid sheet, email, or a Soil Depot quote.
Full Calculator
- Six shapes: map, rectangle, circle, triangle, acreage, or square footage.
- Eight project presets plus waste, compaction, and truck type.
- Add up many zones into one order with a grand total.
Calculator suite FAQ
Are the calculators really free?
Yes. All four run free in your browser with no sign-up and nothing to install. They are built to help you plan a job and order the right amount of material, then hand the numbers to Soil Depot for a quote.
What is a cut and fill takeoff?
Cut is the soil you remove to lower ground to grade; fill is the soil you add to raise it. The Earthwork Calculator totals both across your site from real USGS LiDAR elevation and reports the net import or export in cubic yards, so you know whether you are hauling dirt off or bringing it in, and by how much.
Can I use my own survey or grading plan?
Yes. Upload the engineer's existing-conditions survey and the proposed grading plan (DWG, LandXML, or DXF), say which is which, and the tool differences one against the other, measuring your design against your own ground instead of remote sensing. Where the survey has no data, that area is left out of the number and disclosed on the result.
Can it estimate pipe trenches and utilities?
Yes. Add a run, pick the system (PVC SDR 35, HDPE N-12, RCP Wall B, or ductile iron), and set it by depth or by the invert elevation at each end. The trench bottom width is figured from the pipe outside diameter plus a foot of working room each side, never under 24 inches, and you choose whether the walls are vertical and shored or laid back from 0.5:1 to 2:1. You get the bedding under the pipe, the stone over it, the backfill with its compaction shrink, and the spoil you have to move. Manholes are counted by diameter, rim, and invert, and the whole run list travels on the share link and into the PDF report.
Does it count the concrete, not just the dirt?
Yes. Thickened slab edges, interior grade beams, spread footings, and curb and gutter each get their own quantity. Curb can run the full perimeter or a frontage length you set. Just as importantly, the calculator bills the trench spoil those elements dig out, which a slab-only takeoff quietly hides, and you can choose to spread that beam trench spoil on site instead of hauling it off.
What happens when the design digs deep?
The calculator says so rather than letting you assume. Once an element digs more than 5 ft below the graded pad, it tells you an excavation that deep needs a protective system, and it spells out what is not in the number: sloping, benching, and trench-box over-width are not priced. Depth alone is not a hazard rating, so treat it as a prompt to involve your competent person, not a substitute for one.
How accurate is the result?
Every result is a planning estimate generated from public data, strong enough to scope haul, compare grade options, and size an order. It is not a survey or an engineering document. Confirm final quantities with a licensed surveyor or engineer before bidding, purchasing, or construction.
Does the estimate include a price?
No. The calculators count the work, the quantities, truckloads, tonnage, and a planning range for equipment time, and hand the price to Soil Depot. Every estimate ends with a one-tap hand-off that carries your numbers to a quote.
Take the guide with you
A printable overview of everything the suite does, in one PDF.
Every result from these tools is a planning estimate generated from public data, not a survey, a geotechnical report, or an engineering document, and is subject to the Calculator Terms of Use. Confirm quantities with a licensed surveyor or engineer before bidding, purchasing, or construction.