Excavation Calculator — swell, haul and backfill
Bank, loose and compacted volumes for an excavation: how much you dig, how much you haul, and why the hole will not fill itself.
Excavation Calculator — swell, haul and backfill
The hole, the truck and the backfill are three different volumes of the same dirt. Soil expands when you dig it and shrinks when you compact it, and both directions cost money.
| Bank volume (the hole) | — |
|---|---|
| Loose volume (on the truck) | — |
| Truck loads out | — |
| Backfill needed, compacted | — |
| Bank volume to supply that backfill | — |
| Net import / export | — |
Three volumes, one pile of dirt. Bank is soil in the ground — the
hole you measured. Loose is the same soil after digging, which occupies more space: that is
swell, and it is what you pay to haul. Compacted is soil placed and rolled back down, which
occupies less than bank: that is shrinkage, and it is why filling a hole takes more dirt than came
out of it.
Swell and shrinkage figures vary widely with soil, moisture and compaction effort — the values here
are ordinary planning ranges, not measurements of your site. On anything where the earthwork balance
matters, use the factors from your geotechnical report. Truck loads assume about 12 yd³ per load,
which changes with the truck and with local weight limits.