Bulk is the cheapest way to buy 3.0
A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet. Here is what a cubic foot of 3.0 costs depending on how you buy it. The savings are real, and so is the freight, so read all the way down before you order.
- 1 cu ft bag
- $55.00per cubic footFree shipping
- Full pallet, 70 bags
- $34.00our best bag priceFree shipping
- 1 cubic yard tote
- $12.5963% below the pallet rateFreight quoted at checkout
That is the honest trade. Bags ship free. Bulk does not, and freight on 750 pounds is not cheap. But one cubic yard of 3.0 costs $918 in bags at our best pallet rate, and $340 in a tote. That is a $578 head start, and for most people it is bigger than the freight bill. Read the next two sections and decide for yourself.
Order in twos. It is the single biggest thing you can do about freight.
Bulk ships in one-yard totes. Two totes double stack and wrap onto a single pallet, so ordering in 2-yard increments gets you the most out of every pallet you pay to move. Add yards to your cart and our shipping calculator will show you the real freight cost, so you can see your true landed cost per yard before you commit.
1 yard
Ships fine. You are just paying a full pallet rate to move half a pallet.
Best value
2 yards
Double stacked and wrapped onto one pallet. This is the sweet spot, and every even increment after it works the same way.
4, 6, 8, 10, 12
Two totes per pallet, all the way up. Predictable per pallet freight, and the per yard cost keeps improving.
Over 12 yards? Talk to us first.
Past 12 yards you leave the range where standard pallet freight makes sense, and the automated quote stops working in your favor. At that volume we can usually put together a custom rate that beats what the cart would charge you. It costs you one email to find out.
See how to get a custom quote →
The end of the road
44 yards: a full truckload
At 44 cubic yards you leave pallet freight behind entirely and move to truckload freight, which is the lowest cost per yard we can get you. The soil is $14,960, the same $340 per yard you pay for a single tote. Freight on a load this size is quoted by us, not by the cart.
Read this before you order a truckload →
Before you order: three things to be honest with yourself about
A cubic yard tote of 3.0 runs around 750 pounds and arrives on a pallet, 48 by 40 by 30 inches. You cannot lift it, drag it, or carry it through a gate. Most of our unhappy bulk customers were not unhappy about the soil. They were unhappy because nobody told them this part.
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1
Can a semi or a box truck actually reach you?
Freight comes on a big truck. Narrow roads, low branches, steep or unpaved driveways, tight cul-de-sacs and gated communities are all real problems. If the driver cannot get there, the shipment goes back and that gets expensive. When in doubt, use a commercial address, a friend's shop, or ask us and we will help you think it through.
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2
Can you move 750 pounds once it is off the truck?
However it comes off the truck, getting it from there to where you actually want it is on you. A tractor with forks, a skid steer, a pallet jack on flat pavement, or a few hours with a shovel and some friends. Sort this out before you order, not on delivery day.
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3
Are you actually going to use a full yard?
A cubic yard is a lot of soil. If you are filling a single tent, bags may genuinely be the better call even at the higher price per cubic foot. Run the numbers first.
Run it through the soil calculator →
The one thing that actually matters on delivery day
Freight is unpredictable. The truck, the equipment, the driver and the drop all vary, and anyone who promises you exactly how it will go is guessing. What does not vary is this: at some point a truck shows up, and somebody hands you a delivery receipt.
Do not sign it clean without looking. Signing the delivery receipt tells the carrier your order arrived complete and undamaged. Walk around the pallet first. Look at the tote, the wrap and the pallet itself. If anything is off, write it on the receipt before you sign and take photos right there while the truck is still in front of you. Once it is signed clean, a damage claim gets very hard. This is true of all freight everywhere, not just us.
What a cubic yard fills
27 cubic feet goes further than most people expect, but beds eat more than people think. The bed numbers below assume an 18 inch Grassroots living soil bed filled to 16 inches, which is how most growers run them, leaving 2 inches of headroom.
27
7 gallon pots, roughly. One cubic foot fills about one 7 gallon pot.
13
15 gallon pots, which is the size we recommend for the Classic setup.
4x4
A 4 by 4 bed at 16 inches takes 21 cubic feet, so one yard fills it with room to spare.
Running a 4x8 bed? You want 2 yards. A 4 by 8 filled to 16 inches takes about 43 cubic feet, which is 1.6 cubic yards. One yard leaves you well short. Two yards fills it with plenty extra for pots and top dressing, and 2 yards happens to be the increment that double stacks onto a single pallet. The right amount of soil and the right freight are the same order.
"I decided to purchase a cubic yard for my 4x8 tent and have plenty left over after filling a 3x3 bed and 4 15G pots."
Mitch, verified buyer
Get an exact number for your space →
Full truckload: 44 cubic yards
$14,960 for the soil, which is the same $340 per yard as a single tote. The cart will not quote you freight on a truckload, because truckload freight moves too much to price automatically. If you want a truckload, talk to us and we will build the quote with you.
Come to us before you plan anything
Freight, scheduling, the type of truck and how it gets unloaded are all things we work out with you directly on a load this size. You will need real equipment on your end, and there are options worth talking through, including a flatbed that can be unloaded from the sides with a forklift. One conversation saves you a lot of money and a lot of grief.
Out of stock does not mean unavailable. We manufacture this ourselves. If truckloads are showing sold out, we can scale up a batch and make your soil to order. Ask us for a lead time.
Or call 855-877-7645.
Independent head-to-head test
26 bagged soils went to the lab. 3.0 came first.
SoiLab, the lab-backed channel run by MySoil, put 26 soils through the same analysis in their Know Before You Grow series. Viewers picked the soils. Nobody sponsored it. They scored each one on smell, look and feel, nutrients and pH, and whether it would actually grow.
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1BuildASoil 3.09.0
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2Fox Farm Ocean Forest8.6
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3Roots Organic Lush8.4
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22 more, all the way down to 4.5
On top of that, we send every batch we make to an independent lab and publish the full result. Organic inputs fluctuate, so no two batches are ever identical. What does not move is the target range we build to, and every batch lands inside it.
What is in it
The same 3.0 you get in the bag. Nothing about the recipe changes at bulk scale. We use pumice instead of perlite on purpose, because perlite crushes to dust and floats, while pumice holds its shape run after run. That is what lets this soil last forever instead of getting replaced.
Full ingredient list
Compost, Worm Castings, Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, Pumice, Rice Hulls, Chunky Basalt, Fine Basalt, BIG 6 Trace Minerals, Fish Bone Meal, Rice Bran, Kelp Meal, Mustard Seed Meal, Gnarly Barley Organic Pre-Sprouted Seed Flour Blend (organic barley, organic lentil, organic corn), Gypsum, Oyster Shell Flour, Calcium Silicate, Biochar (charged).
Your soil is alive. We do not sterilize our compost or potting soils. The life in the tote is the entire point.
Freight questions
Why is freight so expensive?
Because you are moving 750 pounds of soil on a pallet, on a freight truck, to a residential address. There is no cheap version of that. What we can tell you is that the soil itself is $12.59 a cubic foot instead of $34.00, which is what the same soil costs at our very best bag price. That is a $578 gap on a single cubic yard, and for most people it is bigger than the freight. Run your own numbers before you decide. If freight kills the math for you, that is a real answer and we would rather you know now.
How much do I need for my bed?
Multiply length by width by depth, all in feet, and you have your cubic feet. Then divide by 27 to get cubic yards. Most growers run an 18 inch Grassroots bed filled to 16 inches, which is 1.33 feet of depth. So a 4 by 8 bed is 32 square feet times 1.33, or about 43 cubic feet, which is 1.6 cubic yards. A 4 by 4 is about 21 cubic feet. If you would rather not do the math,
run it through the soil calculator.
Can I pick it up instead?
Yes. Pickup at our Montrose factory store is free and ready within 24 hours. Bring something that can carry 750 pounds and something to move it with. If you are anywhere near western Colorado this is by far the cheapest way to do it.
Is there a dealer closer to me?
Possibly, and it may well beat freight.
Check the store locator before you order. We would rather you buy it locally than pay us to truck it across the country.
What if it shows up damaged?
Note it on the delivery receipt before you sign, photograph everything, and keep the packaging. Then email support@buildasoil.com with photos of the damage, the packaging and the labels. Claims for damage or missing items are accepted within 60 days of delivery. Do not throw anything away, because the carrier may want to inspect it. Shipping Protection at checkout is a low cost add-on that fast-tracks all of this.
What if the truck cannot reach my house?
Talk to us before you order, not after. A commercial address, a business you know, or a friend with a shop and a forklift will save you money and hassle. Email support@buildasoil.com or call 855-877-7645 and we will help you figure out the best way to get it to you.
How is a tote different from a pallet of bags?
A pallet of bags is 70 individual cubic foot bags at $34 each, which you can move one at a time by hand. A tote is one 750 pound super sack with a spout on the bottom, and works out to $12.59 a cubic foot. The tote is far cheaper. The pallet is far easier to handle without equipment. If you have no way to move 750 pounds, a pallet of bags may still be the smarter buy for you even though it costs more.
