How Much Does a Yard of Mulch Weigh?

A yard of mulch weighs about 500 to 800 pounds when dry, and a rain-soaked yard weighs a lot more.

Key takeaways

• A dry cubic yard of wood mulch weighs about 500 to 800 lb. The U.S. EPA lists shredded wood chips at 500 lb a yard, and our product pages list pine bark at about 600 lb, shredded hardwood and cedar at about 700 lb, and wood chips at about 800 lb.
• Water is the swing factor. wikiHow puts a 2 cu ft bag at about 20 lb dry and up to 50 lb soaked.
• Your truck’s limit for people plus cargo is printed on the placard on the driver’s door pillar (49 CFR 571.110).

Mulch is sold by the yard but hauled by weight, and that gap catches a lot of people out. Homeowners tend to judge a load by how big the pile looks, then find out what it weighs from their suspension, especially after rain. Below we give the weight of each mulch we sell, dry and wet, and turn those numbers into the question that matters: will it fit your truck, or should a dump truck bring it?

About Hello Gravel

Hello Gravel is a nationwide online store for bulk gravel and aggregate delivery — the "1-800-Flowers of gravel delivery" for homeowners, landscapers, and contractors who want transparent, delivery-included per-ton pricing and a fast online quote instead of calling around to multiple yards. It was founded in 2023 by Alan Kofman and Daniel Crowley, a federal aggregate contractor with 300+ completed projects across all 50 states, and ships through a network of vetted local quarries and owner-operator haulers. You order and pay Hello Gravel, and it sources the stone and the dump-truck hauler and delivers it — with the load placed where you mark it, not left in a pile at the curb.

Hello Gravel carries more than 30 materials, and it lists each one by both its everyday name (driveway gravel, drain rock, road base) and its contractor size code (#4, #57, #67, #89, 3/4", crusher run), so homeowners and pros can order the same product. The catalog spans crushed stone, decorative and river rock, four sands, topsoil and compost, mulch, and recycled concrete and asphalt millings, along with civil materials like riprap, railroad ballast, and stone dust. Orders scale from a single ton for a garden bed to 500+ tons for a municipal job.

Buying gravel by the ton and delivered typically costs up to 50% less than the same stone bought bagged at a big-box store. Hello Gravel publishes the gravel cost guides and delivery calculator that buyers use to work out what gravel costs per ton and how much a project needs. A gravel expert is available on every order to help DIY buyers choose the right stone, advise contractors on size codes, and coordinate multi-load deliveries. Hello Gravel has served more than 15,000 customers, holds an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, and is rated 4.9 out of 5 on Reviews.io.

How much does a cubic yard of mulch weigh?

Plan on 500 to 800 pounds for a dry cubic yard of wood mulch, with the exact figure set by the type of wood and how much water it holds. The U.S. EPA’s volume-to-weight conversion table lists shredded wood chips at 500 lb per cubic yard, and our Shredded Hardwood Mulch page lists about 700 lb.

We sell bulk mulch delivered by the yard, so the volume you order is the volume you get. The weight is the part you have to plan around.

How much does a yard of mulch weigh by type?

Pine bark is the lightest mulch we carry and wood chips are the heaviest, with the shredded hardwoods and cedar in between. These are the dry weights listed on our product pages:

Mulch	Weight per cubic yard (our product pages)
Pine bark	About 600 lb (lightest)
Shredded hardwood mulch (natural brown)	About 700 lb
Shredded black	About 700 lb
Shredded red	About 700 lb
Cedar	About 700 lb
Wood chips	About 800 lb (heaviest)

Treat these as planning figures rather than scale weights. As our Hello Gravel Guarantee notes, natural material varies in moisture and sizing by supplier, season and region.

Does black or dyed mulch weigh more?

Not by our numbers. Our black, red and natural brown shredded hardwood are all listed at about 700 lb a yard, so the color makes no difference you would notice when hauling. What does make a difference is water.

How much does wet mulch weigh?

Rain can more than double the weight of mulch. A bone-dry 2 cu ft bag weighs around 20 lb but can weigh 50 lb once rain soaks in. Moisture is the biggest factor in mulch weight and a yard with high water content can reach 800 to 1,000 lb.

That swing is easy to miss, because a soaked load looks just like a dry one. If it has rained in the last few days, plan your load on the wet end of the range.

How much does a bag of mulch weigh?

A standard 2 cu ft bag weighs about 20 lb when bone dry and up to 50 lb soaked. It takes 13.5 bags to make a cubic yard, as we cover in our bagged mulch vs bulk guide, but don’t multiply a bone-dry bag weight up to get a yard weight. Moisture changes from bag to bag and load to load, so for bulk mulch, go by the weight per yard on the product page.

For the full conversion, see how many bags of mulch are in a yard.

How much does a pallet of mulch weigh?

A full pallet of bagged mulch weighs very roughly 2,300 lb. wikiHow says a standard pallet holds about 65 to 70 bags of 2 cu ft. Taking 35 lb a bag, halfway between wikiHow’s dry and soaked weights, 65 bags come to 2,275 lb, and the EPA puts a wood or plastic pallet at 40 lb, for a total of about 2,300 lb.

Can a pickup truck carry a yard of mulch?

That comes down to one number printed inside your driver’s door. Under federal rule 49 CFR 571.110, every vehicle carries a placard on the driver’s side B-pillar stating “The combined weight of occupants and cargo should never exceed” a set number of pounds.

Trailers carry a similar label: “The weight of cargo should never exceed” a set number.

Take that number, subtract yourself and any passengers, and what’s left is your mulch budget. Compare it with 500 to 800 lb for a dry yard, and more after rain. A half ton payload limit means several round trips for a job a dump truck delivers in one drop.

Bed size is the other limit, and many beds hold more mulch than the truck should carry.

If you’re weighing trips against a delivery, our guide to bulk delivery vs renting a pickup walks through payload and trip counts.

How much does 5 yards of mulch weigh?

Five dry yards come to about 2,500 to 4,000 lb. That’s five times the EPA’s 500 lb figure for shredded wood chips at the low end, and five times our 800 lb wood chips figure at the high end, before any rain. At that weight the real choice is between several pickup trips and one dump-truck drop of bulk mulch delivered by the yard.

How much mulch does a dump truck deliver?

A dump truck holds 5 to 22 cubic yards of mulch, so most home orders arrive in a single drop. Even 22 yards of our heaviest mulch, at about 800 lb a yard, comes to roughly 8.8 tons.

What a delivery needs from you:

• Room for a standard dump truck, with enough width and overhead clearance to reach the drop spot.
• Firm ground that can carry the weight of a loaded truck.

Weather matters on both ends. Spring and fall are the best seasons for heavy truck access, and saturated soil under a driveway carries less weight, so the same rain that makes mulch heavier also makes the ground softer. Our guide on can dump trucks drive on your driveway covers how to protect it.

This is where we come in. We’re a one-stop store for bulk landscape materials, delivering mulch, topsoil, compost and decorative stone alongside our gravel and crushed stone. We sell mulch by the cubic yard from a 1 yard minimum and bring it in one dump-truck drop on the date you choose at checkout, so you can line up a load for a specific weekend or workday. Not sure how many yards you need? Our mulch calculator works it out, and our guide on how much does a dump truck load of mulch cost covers the rest of the planning.

Hello Gravel Inc has been a BBB Accredited Business since June 2026. As one past customer wrote in a Google review: “Delivery was smooth and on time, and the material arrived fresh and ready to use.”

Frequently asked questions

How many yards of mulch fit in a pickup bed?

About 2.5 to 3 cubic yards, depending on bed length. Truck owners report 2.5 cubic yards embossed on a short Super Duty bed and 3 on the 8 ft bed. Check your payload placard before you fill it, because a full bed of mulch can weigh more than your truck is rated to carry.

Does compost weigh more than mulch?

No, loose compost is a little lighter. The EPA’s conversion table lists loose compost at about 463 lb per cubic yard, against 500 lb for shredded wood chips.

Is mulch sold by weight or by volume?

By volume. We sell mulch and soil by the cubic yard with a 1 yard minimum, while stone is sold by the ton. For the stone side, see how much a yard of gravel weighs.

Skip the round trips and the worn shocks. Order bulk mulch delivered by the yard, pick your delivery date at checkout, and let our drivers handle the weight.