What is the earthwork cut and fill haul volume calculator?
Site work before building a house often combines cut, where soil is excavated, and fill, where soil is placed to raise or level the ground.
The same soil occupies a different volume in the ground, when loosened onto a truck, and after it is placed and compacted.
Ignoring those differences can leave you short of fill or paying for more truck trips and haulage than the job needs.
This calculator turns surveyed end areas into segment cut and fill volumes with the average end area method and builds a ledger split into bank, loose and compacted states.
It allocates suitable cut to fill first, then reports surplus export, borrow import, truck trips and haul cost side by side with your quote.
It is designed for landowners checking whether the soil state written in a contractor’s quote matches the quantities.
This calculator is based on Korea-based site practice and 2026 Korean rules for its legal notes.
The earthwork formulas are international engineering methods, but permits, vehicle limits and waste rules shown here refer to Korean law and are not judged by the tool.
Key features
- Calculates segment volumes from 2–30 stations with distances and cut/fill end areas, and flags abrupt sections.
- Separates unsuitable soil and topsoil for export or on-site stockpiling, then lists reuse, surplus and shortage by state.
- Rounds up export and import truck trips using whichever governs: body volume or allowed payload.
- Shows haul cost for per-trip, bank, loose or compacted price bases, the quoted-quantity gap and the closest soil state.
- Provides a sensitivity table with site factors changed by 5% and a CSV quantity ledger.
Three soil states and the L and C factors
Bank
Undisturbed soil in the ground before excavation.
Cut volumes from survey sections are bank volumes.
Borrow pits sometimes sell soil on a bank basis.
Loose
Excavated soil loaded on a dump truck.
Air enters between particles, so the volume grows compared with bank.
Truck trips and load per trip are judged in this state.
Compacted
Soil placed as fill and compacted by rollers.
Fill areas on design drawings usually mean finished compacted volume.
Depending on the material it can end up smaller or larger than bank.
L = loose volume ÷ bank volume
C = compacted volume ÷ bank volume
If L is 1.25, excavating 100 m³ of bank soil fills 125 m³ of truck space; if C is 0.90, the same soil becomes 90 m³ once compacted.
To fill 90 m³ of compacted embankment you therefore need 100 m³ of bank soil, hauled as 125 m³ of truck load.
US Federal Highway Administration guidance and a Florida DOT study also treat bank-to-loose swell and bank-to-compacted shrinkage as separate factors; the observed 15–20% shrinkage and 25% swell describe those monitored projects, not a default for your site.
This calculator never inserts textbook values and asks you to enter field-test or design values.
Average end area volumes
V = L × (A1 + A2) ÷ 2
Here L is the distance between two stations and A1 and A2 are their end areas.
The average end area method multiplies the mean of two station areas by the distance and is the most common method on quantity sheets.
Cut and fill areas are calculated separately, so one segment can contain both excavation and embankment.
The sum of all cut segments is total bank cut, and the sum of fill segments is the compacted fill demand.
The method is simple and accurate enough in most cases, but it generally gives larger values than the true volume.
Overestimation grows in cut-to-fill transitions where one area drops to zero and where adjacent areas differ by a factor of two or more.
The calculator flags those segments as abrupt, and ticking the curve box adds a curvature-correction review.
When you see a flag, add intermediate stations or ask the surveyor for a prismoidal or curvature correction.
Preparing the inputs
- Survey sections: copy station names, distances from the previous station and cut/fill areas from the surveyor’s cross-sections or quantity sheet.
The first station is the starting point and has no distance.
- Unsuitable soil and topsoil: enter soil that will not be used as fill in bank cubic metres and choose whether to haul it away or keep it on site.
If you have verified there is none, enter zero.
- Site L and C: test values for the excavated soil.
Both the surplus/shortage decision and the export truck volume depend on them.
- Borrow L and C: needed only when fill is short; enter test values for the supplier’s soil.
- Truck data: enter body volume, the payload confirmed by the hauler and the bank unit weight of the soil, separately for export and import.
- Quoted prices and quantities: choose the quote’s price basis, then enter the unit price and quoted quantity in the same unit.
Every blank is treated as unknown, holds the result and stays distinct from zero.
Input ranges only prevent typing errors; they are not design or legal limits.
The fictional example button fills illustrative numbers, so replace them with your own site values.
Calculation steps
- Calculate cut (bank) and fill (compacted) volumes for each segment with the average end area method and add them up.
- Subtract the exclusion from total cut to get suitable cut.
- Divide fill demand by site C to convert it to bank, then reuse the smaller of suitable cut and that bank demand.
- Add leftover suitable cut and exported exclusions to get bank export, then multiply by L for loose export.
- Subtract the compacted volume supplied by reuse from fill demand to get the compacted shortage, divide by borrow C and multiply by borrow L for the truck import volume.
- Set the load per trip for each direction, round trips up and multiply the price-basis quantity by the unit price.
When cut exceeds fill, import is zero and only surplus export remains; when fill exceeds cut, export is only the excluded soil and the shortage is imported.
The loose volume of reused soil moved within the site is shown as a reference.
Fictional example: 760 m³ cut and 960 m³ fill
This fictional site is surveyed from station No.0 to No.5 at 20 m intervals.
The front is cut and the back is filled, and 60 m³ of topsoil is stripped and hauled away.
Site L 1.25 and C 0.90 and borrow L 1.20 and C 0.88 are illustrative numbers, not test results.
Fictional site segment distances and cut and fill volumes| Segment | Length | Cut area (m²) | Cut (bank m³) | Fill area (m²) | Fill (compacted m³) |
|---|
| No.0 → No.1 | 20 m | 12 → 18 | 300 | 0 → 0 | 0 |
| No.1 → No.2 | 20 m | 18 → 10 | 280 | 0 → 4 | 40 |
| No.2 → No.3 | 20 m | 10 → 4 | 140 | 4 → 14 | 180 |
| No.3 → No.4 | 20 m | 4 → 0 | 40 | 14 → 22 | 360 |
| No.4 → No.5 | 20 m | 0 → 0 | 0 | 22 → 16 | 380 |
| Total | 100 m | — | 760 | — | 960 |
The three segments from No.1→No.2 to No.3→No.4 start from or drop to a zero area, or change by a factor of two or more, so they are flagged for an abrupt-section review.
Removing 60 m³ of topsoil from 760 m³ of cut leaves 700 m³ of suitable soil; filling 960 m³ needs about 1,066.67 m³ of bank soil, so all 700 m³ is reused.
Fictional example ledger by soil state| Item | Bank (m³) | Loose (m³) | Compacted (m³) |
|---|
| Reused in fill | 700 | 875 | 630 |
| Topsoil export | 60 | 75 | — |
| Fill demand | 1,066.67 | — | 960 |
| Shortage → import | 375 | 450 | 330 |
Reused soil supplies 630 m³ of the 960 m³ compacted fill, leaving a compacted shortage of 330 m³.
Dividing by borrow C 0.88 gives 375 m³ at the borrow pit, and multiplying by L 1.20 gives 450 m³ of truck load to import.
Treating the full 960 m³ as the import or buying only 330 m³ would miss the real requirement by a wide margin.
Truck trips and haul cost: weight can govern before volume
Loose unit weight = bank unit weight ÷ L
Load per trip = min(body volume, allowed payload ÷ loose unit weight)
Trips = ⌈loose volume ÷ load per trip⌉
The fictional example uses a 12 m³ body, a 15 t allowed payload and a bank unit weight of 1.8 t/m³.
Exported soil weighs 1.44 t/m³ when loose, so each truck carries about 10.42 m³ and 75 m³ needs 8 trips.
Imported soil has L 1.20, a loose unit weight of 1.5 t/m³ and 10 m³ per trip, so 450 m³ needs 45 trips.
In both cases the payload, not the body volume, sets the limit.
When weight governs, trips equal bank volume × unit weight ÷ allowed payload and no longer depend on L.
Light soil fills the body first, so a larger L means more trips.
Pricing export at 250,000 KRW per trip and import at 25,000 KRW per loose cubic metre gives 2,000,000 KRW and 11,250,000 KRW, a total of 13,250,000 KRW.
These prices are fictional; real quotes change greatly with distance, disposal-site terms and whether equipment is included.
Checking a quote: state mix-ups and double-applied factors
If a fictional import quote lists 540 m³ loose, it is 90 m³, or 20%, above the calculated 450 m³.
540 m³ equals 375 m³ of bank soil multiplied by L 1.20 twice, suggesting the swell factor may have been applied twice.
At the same 25,000 KRW rate the quoted amount is 13,500,000 KRW, 2,250,000 KRW above the calculated haul cost.
For a cubic-metre price basis, the calculator compares the quoted quantity with the bank, loose and compacted quantities and reports the closest state; per-trip quotes are not compared with soil-state volumes.
If the closest state differs from the selected price basis, a warning asks you to check the soil state written in the quote.
For example, 375 m³ quoted on a loose-cubic-metre rate is closer to the bank quantity, so the truck import volume may have been understated.
A gap does not prove an unfair quote; ask the contractor for the state basis and the evidence behind their factors.
Reading the factor sensitivity
The table compares the base case with site L and C each lowered or raised by 5%.
The 5% step is a fixed scenario for gauging test uncertainty, not a tolerance standard.
Fictional example import volume, trips and total haul cost as site C changes| Scenario | Site C | Import (loose m³) | Import trips | Total haul cost |
|---|
| C −5% | 0.855 | 492.95 | 50 | 14,323,864 KRW |
| Base | 0.90 | 450 | 45 | 13,250,000 KRW |
| C +5% | 0.945 | 407.05 | 41 | 12,176,136 KRW |
A 5% lower site C means reused soil fills less compacted volume, so import rises by about 43 m³ and 5 trips and cost grows by more than one million KRW.
A 5% change in site L moves loose export to 71.25 m³ or 78.75 m³, yet the weight-governed per-trip quote stays at 8 trips and the same total.
Find which factor moves trips and cost the most and ask for extra testing or design confirmation of that factor first.
When to use it
Levelling before a new house
Check whether export trips and borrow volume in a site-levelling quote are reasonable.
Review earthwork quantities separately from the building cost estimate.
Comparing contractors
Quotes per trip, per bank cubic metre or per compacted cubic metre cannot be compared on price alone.
Align the states with one ledger, then compare unit prices.
Negotiating extra claims
When asked to pay for extra borrow mid-project, question the gap using your original shortage and test factors.
Discuss whether a new survey is needed.
The downloaded CSV ledger stores inputs, confirmation states, segment volumes, state quantities, trips, quote gaps and sensitivity together.
Before sending it to a contractor or surveyor, check that your notes contain no sensitive personal data.
Korean legal and site conditions to check before work
- Article 51(1)3 of the Enforcement Decree of the National Land Planning and Utilization Act makes land alteration by cutting, filling or levelling subject to a development permit.
Article 53(3)(a) treats cut or fill within 50 centimetres of height or depth (cumulative) as minor work, while allowing local ordinances to set different rules.
- Under Article 51(2) of the same Decree, farmland soil improvement that uses soil with pollution risks or involves cut or fill of 2 metres or more can fall outside the permit exemption.
- Article 79(2)1 of the Road Act Enforcement Decree lists vehicles exceeding a 10-tonne axle load or 40-tonne gross weight as subject to operating limits.
Article 77(3) of the Road Act prohibits shippers and others from instructing drivers to breach those limits or misreporting cargo weight.
- If soil is mixed with waste such as concrete fragments or scrap wood, confirm with the contractor whether it must be handled under Article 2(1) of the Construction Waste Recycling Promotion Act and Annex 1 of its Decree.
These provisions were checked as current on 2026-10-24 through the Korean national law information open API; the Road Act and National Land Planning decrees are the versions effective 2026-09-18.
The calculator does not use them to decide permits, overloading or waste status; it only points out what to confirm.
Slope stability, retaining walls and drainage need structural and geotechnical design, and quantity results do not replace it.
Frequently asked questions
Which soil state does a cubic metre in a fill quote use?
There is no fixed rule.
Borrow is often quoted per loose cubic metre or per truck, while placed fill is often quoted per compacted cubic metre, but contractors differ.
If the quote does not name the state, ask before comparing prices.
Where do the L and C factors come from?
Use field density tests, compaction tests, geotechnical reports or the earthwork factors in the design documents.
Textbook or overseas survey values change widely with soil type and moisture and cannot replace your site values.
This calculator does not prefill any default.
Can I estimate from lot area and height without a survey?
A rough box estimate is possible, but this tool assumes station end areas.
On slopes or irregular ground a section-free estimate carries large errors and is a weak basis for checking quotes.
Prepare the surveyor’s cross-sections or quantity sheet.
Why not fill the truck body to its volume?
Heavy soil reaches the allowed payload before the body is full.
The load per trip is therefore the smaller of the body volume and the weight limit.
Asking for overloading can breach the Korean Road Act, so use the payload confirmed by the hauler.
Can all excavated soil be reused as fill?
Organic topsoil, very wet soil or soil mixed with debris may be unsuitable for fill.
Entering it as an exclusion removes it from reuse and lets you haul it away or stockpile it on site.
Whether soil is reusable is a geotechnical decision.
What should I check if the calculated cost differs from the quote?
First confirm that the price basis uses the same soil state.
Then check the load per trip, the per-trip rate for the haul distance, and whether disposal-site fees and equipment are included.
Ask the contractor to explain any gap from a double-applied factor or a state mix-up using the ledger.
Does an abrupt-section flag mean the result is wrong?
No.
The average end area method tends to overestimate where one end area is zero or the areas differ greatly, so the flag recommends a review.
You can add intermediate stations or ask the surveyor for a prismoidal correction.
Does it tell me whether a land-alteration permit is needed?
No.
Permits depend on zoning, cut and fill height or depth, area and local ordinances, and the local government decides.
This calculator organises quantities and truck trips; it does not make permit, structural or waste decisions.
Sources and check date
Sources were checked on 2026-10-24.
The average end area method and soil-state concepts follow the engineering references below, and Korean law is used only for caution notes.
If laws change or your test values, trucks or disposal-site terms change, recheck earlier ledgers.
Build the quantity ledger before you accept a quote
Prepare survey sections, tested factors and truck data, and the calculator organises export trips and borrow shortage by soil state.
Ask which state each cubic metre in the quote uses and compare it with the ledger to avoid overpaying for haulage or running short of fill.
Confirm final quantities and permits with your surveyor, geotechnical engineer and local authority.