Enter your area and pick a depth. We'll convert it to bulk bags, tonnes and small bags — and flag the bag-size traps that catch people out.
Quick answer: Topsoil weighs about 1.5 tonnes per cubic metre. A 750L bulk bag (a big builder's sack, craned off the lorry) covers roughly 15m² at 50mm deep. In 2026, value screened topsoil costs £55–£90 per bulk bag. A loose load — soil tipped straight off the lorry, no bag — drops to £25–£50 per tonne, and is the cheaper way for anything over 3m³.
Prices checked July 2026 · how we check them · how we work it out
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Includes 20% for settling — fresh topsoil compacts noticeably in the first weeks (raised beds settle nearer 25%).
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Prices checked July 2026 · how we check them · how we work it out
These figures are planning estimates. 'Bulk bag' is not a standard size — brands range from 500L to 1,200L, so always compare litres, not bag counts. Weight varies with moisture (roughly 1.2–1.7 tonnes per m³).
There are two completely different shopping trips hiding in one word. For a bed, some borders or dressing the lawn you want topsoil by the litre, delivered. For a new lawn or levelling a garden you want a bulk bag or a loose load — four to five times cheaper per litre. Buy the wrong format and you either pay a fortune in bags or store half a tonne of soil you didn't need. Where a cheaper option is a false economy, we say so.
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£14.69 for 25L up to £67.75 for 125L at Elixir (about £0.54/litre); free UK delivery
The honest pick when a bulk bag is overkill. You order the exact litres — 25, 50, 75, 100 or 125 — so nothing rots by the shed, and it turns up graded and screened, no stones or roots to fish out. Free delivery means no pallet surcharge either. The catch, stated plainly: per litre it's about four to five times a bulk bag, so it only makes sense under ~150L. Above that, take the bulk-bag route below.
Screened topsoil at Elixir Garden Supplies →Under about 150 litres — a bed, some borders, or dressing the lawn: Order screened topsoil by the exact litre and have it delivered. A bulk bag is 600–750L; buying one to spread 80L means paying to store half a tonne by the shed for a year. Bagged costs more per litre, but you buy only what you'll use — and it arrives screened, no stones or roots to pick out.
Over about a cubic metre — a new lawn, levelling, or filling several beds: A value bulk bag or a loose tipper load is roughly four to five times cheaper per litre than bags. Size it with the calculator above, then compare a bulk bag (kerbside pallet, about £55–£90 per 750L) against a loose load (needs tipper access, about £25–£50 a tonne). Above ~3m³ the loose load wins.
Beds, borders & lawn dressing
One bed or a bald lawn patch
A whole lawn or levelling
The mix that actually grows
Reviving soil you already have
Prices checked July 2026 · how we check them · how we work it out
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A bulk bag is a big builder's sack of soil, delivered on a lorry and lifted onto your drive by a small crane.
A loose load is the same soil tipped straight off the lorry in a heap — no bag at all.
The soil itself is the same either way — the choice is about how it arrives, and loose gets much cheaper once the job gets big.
Topsoil is simple maths: length × width × depth. Then add one thing everyone forgets: settling — the soil sinks as it packs down. Fresh screened soil (soil passed through a mesh to take out stones and roots) is fluffy when it arrives. It sinks by about a fifth in the first few weeks — raised beds nearer a quarter — so we build 20% into the numbers for you. For weight, plan on 1.5 tonnes per cubic metre for normal, slightly damp soil. Wet soil is heavier.
The buying trap is the phrase "bulk bag". It sounds like a fixed size. It is not. Brands sell anything from 500 to 1,200 litres under that name, at very different prices per litre. Always compare litres, never bag counts. And for anything over about 3m³, get a price for a loose load (priced per tonne) before you order bags — that is where the real savings are.
Prices checked July 2026 against Rolawn, The Compost Shop, Wickes, B&Q, Travis Perkins and loose-load suppliers. Rounded ranges, not quotes.
| Material | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Value screened topsoil (600–750L bag) | £55–£90 |
| Mid-range screened / peat-free (600L bag) | £90–£110 |
| Premium blended loam — a rich, crumbly soil mix (500–750L bag) | £100–£200 |
| Lawn dressing — a fine 70/30 mix for lawns (750L bag) | £120–£175 |
| 25L small bag | £4–£4.50 (3 for £10) |
| Loose load, per tonne (screened) | £25–£50 |
| Loose load, per tonne (premium / London) | £50–£90 |
| Labourer/landscaper day rate | £150–£250 |
The same product can cost very different amounts in different shops. One branded 500L dressing bag sells for £175 direct from the maker and £230 at a DIY store. Two minutes of comparing saves real money on soil.
| Job | Volume (with settling) | Typical cost |
|---|---|---|
| Level a 50m² lawn, 20mm | ~1.2 m³ | £150–£250 in bags |
| Fill a 2.4×1.2m raised bed, 30cm | ~1.1 m³ | £110–£200 (less with the 7:3:2 soil, compost and sand mix) |
| Bed for a 50m² new lawn, 100mm | ~6 m³ (≈9 tonnes) | £190–£360 loose vs £500–£600 in bags |
Look at the last row. At new-lawn amounts, soil tipped loose costs about a third of the price of soil in bags. Add 1–2 days of labour (£150–£250/day) if you'd rather not move nine tonnes by wheelbarrow yourself.
• Bag size — "£90 a bulk bag" tells you nothing until you know whether the bag holds 500L or 1,200L. Always work out the price per litre.
• Grade — ordinary screened topsoil does 90% of jobs. Save the dearer blended loams for beds where you want the soil to feed plants — not for raising levels.
• Bags vs loose — a loose load halves the price above ~3m³, as long as you have somewhere for the lorry to tip it.
• Access — soil is the heaviest thing most gardens ever buy. A bag craned onto the drive beats 200 wheelbarrow trips through the house.
• Region — London and the South East cost 10–20% more. Big national suppliers often deliver free; local firms may charge £40+.
Value screened topsoil (soil passed through a mesh to take out stones and roots) costs £55–£90 per bulk bag (600–750L). Mid-range is £90–£110, and premium blended loams (rich, crumbly soil mixes) are £100–£200. Small 25L bags cost £4–£4.50 (often 3-for-£10), but litre for litre they work out several times dearer. For big jobs, a loose load tipped straight off the lorry at £25–£50 per tonne is by far the cheapest way.
First trap: 'bulk bag' is not a size. Brands sell anything from 500L to 1,200L per bag under that name, so always compare litres, not bag counts. As a rough guide, 1 cubic metre = 1,000L = about 1.5 tonnes. A 750L bag covers about 15m² at 50mm deep, or 7m² at 100mm deep. Our calculator counts both 750L and 600L bags for you.
Under new turf: 100mm minimum, 150mm ideally. New beds and borders: 150–200mm. Root vegetables like carrots need 300–400mm to grow down into. Levelling a lawn you already have: no more than 20mm at a time — any deeper smothers the live grass underneath. Routine top-dressing (spreading a thin layer of soil over a lawn to feed and level it) is thinner still — about 3mm per pass.
Above roughly 3m³, loose wins — £25–£50 per tonne tipped straight off the lorry, against £90–£150+ per m³ in bags. The catches: you need somewhere for the lorry to tip it (a driveway you don't mind sweeping afterwards), and it all has to be moved by wheelbarrow the same weekend. Bags cost more, but they arrive craned into place and sealed, so you can work at your own pace.
About 1.4–1.5 tonnes per cubic metre when normally damp — wet soil pushes 1.7+. That's why the calculator shows tonnes: a '50m² lawn at 100mm' sounds small until you see it means 7+ tonnes of soil — roughly 200 wheelbarrow loads. Work out how you'll get it into the garden before you order, not after it lands on the drive.
No — pure topsoil sets hard and drains badly. The RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) recipe is roughly 7 parts topsoil : 3 parts compost or organic matter : 2 parts sharp sand (a gritty sand that helps water drain). It grows better and costs less than soil alone. Fill to about 5cm below the rim, press it down, then leave it a couple of weeks and top it up — the soil in raised beds sinks by around 25% as it settles.
Every price band on this page traces to a source we checked ourselves, with the date we checked it. Prices move — if one of these looks out of date, tell us and we'll recheck it.
We'll carry this over — your planted borders and the size you just worked out — and you can add anything else you're thinking about: clearance, paving, decking, fencing, lawn, driveways, planting. You end up with one brief to send to three landscapers, so they all price the same job and you can see which one has quietly left something out.
Doing it yourselves? It sizes your materials list too. Already holding a quote? It gives you the same numbers we'd check it against.
