Lawn Leveling - How much is the dirt?

[Apostle7550]

I need to buy some dirt to level a portion of my yard. How much is a truckload of dirt?

 

[Campus Loop(y)]

lemme know what you find out. also if buying in bulk is cheaper, maybe a few of us can go in on it.

 

[BigWill]

it's dirt cheap

 

[Craigcito]

Around $100 for a truckload (6-8 yards I think?) of sandy loam. Topsoil may be more if that's what you want. Keep in mind the dirt is the cheap part...the trucking is what costs you.

 

[HilltopHorn]

Not sure exactly how much you need to add, as in whether you have large potholes, or just shallow depressions to level out. Just be careful of the type of soil you use. If you are looking to just do some light leveling, then i would suggest you try one of the better places like gardenville, most of them have a yard top dressing that is a mixture of compost and sand. It will help your yard immensely. If you have larger deeper holes to fill, then you can use the less expensive stuff.

Just remember that the cost really is in the trucking. You get some soil with lots of weed seed or rhizomes in it for a few dollars less per yard, and you will be fighting weeds forever.

 

[slcskihorn2]

I thought about just throwing a tarp in the bed of my pickup and using that, instead of a dump truck.

Would that work??

 

[Sangre Naranjada]

Yes, but only if the bed of your pickup holds enough dirt to meet your needs.

And feel free to enjoy the HELL out of shoveling all that dirt out of your truck.

Dones pills, anyone?

 

[cbs]

I'm a lazy *** mother, but I'm also cheap. For soil, I unloaded a pick-up truck load of soil from Gardenville with little trouble (I think it was less than $50 for decent soil). When I built my kids' playscape, I got 3-4 pickup loads of pea gravel to go underneath. I think I knocked out most of that in about three hours, including driving back and forth to Austin Landscape way up north. It's not that hard to stand in the back of the truck, throw the dirt in a wheelbarrow, and push it a little ways.

 

[Brak]

I've had Garden-ville deliver several truckloads over the years . You buy soil or compost in cubic yard increments and a truck will hold something like 7 yards or more. They charged me $45 for deliver which for that much soil is better (for me) than making 7 trips and having to unload it.

A cubic yard of good garden soil is probably around $25-30. Fill dirt (no organic material added) would be cheaper if they carry it. However when you unload a cubic yard it doesn't cover that much ground so you probably want to estimate how much soil you are going to use. Garden-Ville

Although Garden-ville is probably the best know company for soil, keep in mind that they specialize in organic gardening and if you just want fill dirt there are many other companies that offer similar services and products.

 

[horn4life]

Either cook a big brisket and arm twist some buddies into giving you a hand, or go rent one of those stand up ride behind mini-loaders. They are friggin great! They have a little scoop on the front and i think they run about $65 a day or maybe that was 8 hours I can't recall. But they are small enough to fit through a gate and save a ton of labor if you are doing a dump truck load.