How Much Does Fill Dirt Cost in North Carolina?

Published cost data from HomeAdvisor’s June 2026 guide puts fill dirt at about $5 to $30 per cubic yard. A delivered truckload sits in a normal range of about $344 to $1,339, with an average of $842. Lawn Love’s land grading guide, updated December 2025, is tighter. It puts the dirt alone at $6 to $17 per cubic yard.

Those are national numbers. What a load costs in Pender, New Hanover, Onslow, Brunswick or Duplin County depends on the haul. It also depends on how wet the ground is, and on who spreads the dirt once it lands.

The Short Answer on Fill Dirt Prices

Fill dirt is the cheapest soil you can put in a hole. HomeAdvisor’s table puts it at $5 to $30 per cubic yard. Topsoil runs $12 to $55 and sand $15 to $40. Lawn Love’s $6 to $17 per yard covers the dirt alone, without the spreading fee.

By the load, HomeAdvisor’s normal range is $344 to $1,339, with homeowners spending anywhere from $125 to $3,000. That range is wide because a truckload is not a fixed amount of dirt.

The Upfit Insider’s March 2026 capacity chart puts a tandem axle dump truck at about 10 to 16 cubic yards. A tri axle can go above 20. On our jobs it shows up as fill dirt hauled in and spread by our dump truck and machines. The load and the spreading are one number.

What Moves the Price of a Load on This Coast

Haul distance is the biggest lever. Lawn Love’s pea gravel guide says delivery fees can add $5 to $10 per mile. HomeAdvisor says charges climb for large loads and hard access.

Wet ground is next. The Upfit Insider says wet dirt runs 2,800 to 3,400 pounds per cubic yard. Dry dirt runs 2,000 to 2,500 pounds. A truck hits its legal weight before the bed fills, so the same pile takes more trips.

Access sets the rest. HomeAdvisor says a delivery fee covers one dump in a spot the truck can reach. That means solid, dry ground at least 15 feet from overhead trees. On a wooded lot that spot does not exist yet, which is where clearing the land first comes in.

Spreading is priced on top of the load. HomeAdvisor tells readers to budget a little more if they want the dirt rough spread after the dump.

How Many Yards of Fill Dirt Does a Job Take?

HomeAdvisor’s method is short. Measure length and width in feet and multiply them. Multiply that by the depth in feet, then divide by 27.

Say a low spot runs 20 feet by 30 feet and needs 6 inches of fill. That is 600 square feet times 0.5 feet, or 300 cubic feet. Divide by 27 and you get about 11 cubic yards. At the published tandem capacity, that is one load.

Thin layers cover far more ground. HomeAdvisor says one cubic yard of soil covers 324 square feet at one inch deep. At three inches it covers about 100 square feet.

Lawn Love puts a yard of topsoil at 81 square feet at 4 inches deep. Order a little more than the math says, because loose dirt loses volume once it is packed.

Fill Dirt, Fill Sand, Screened Topsoil and ABC Stone

Figures from HomeAdvisor’s June 2026 soil delivery guide, except the screened topsoil row, from Lawn Love’s December 2025 topsoil guide.

Fill dirt goes in the hole. HomeAdvisor calls it the layer below topsoil with the organic matter skipped. That is why it stays where you put it. Fill sand goes where water has to move, around pipe and in damp low ground.

Screened topsoil is the growing layer, so it belongs on top and never under a pad. ABC stone carries weight. That is why it goes under parking areas and under a gravel driveway built on packed stone.

Bulk Loads or Bagged Soil from the Store?

For anything bigger than a raised bed, bulk wins. HomeAdvisor says bulk delivery almost always wins on price, and that bags cost more per cubic yard.

Lawn Love prices bagged topsoil at $2 to $5 a bag. That works out to about $68 to $170 per cubic yard. Bulk topsoil on the same page runs $10 to $50 per cubic yard.

Bags fit a raised bed. A low spot that takes 11 yards needs a load.

Do You Need a Permit to Bring In Fill Dirt?

Sometimes, and it turns on where the dirt lands. Pender County’s planning department says all building in the floodplain will require a flood development permit. The same page says to check with the permitting office first. That goes for anyone who plans to build on, alter, degrade or add fill soil.

Wetlands are a federal matter. The EPA says Section 404 of the Clean Water Act covers fill in waters of the United States. Wetlands are included, and it takes a permit. The Army Corps of Engineers runs the program day to day.

CAMA covers this coast. Under North Carolina General Statute 113A-103, development in an area of environmental concern includes excavation, dredging, filling and dumping. Pender County says there are 20 CAMA counties in the state.

The fill material is regulated too. North Carolina’s beneficial fill rule is 15A NCAC 13B .0562. It says fill cannot go in waters of the State, or at or below the seasonal high groundwater table.

The state’s solid waste rules define inert debris waste as asphalt, cured concrete, brick, concrete block, gravel and rock. Clean soil from a property with no known release of contaminants is not regulated as solid waste.

Why Fill Gets Spread and Packed in Layers

Good fill goes down in layers. NCDOT’s embankment spec spreads material in successive, approximately horizontal layers of not more than 10 inches, measured loose. Each layer is compacted to at least 95 percent of the density of a lab sample of the same material.

That is why depth costs more than width. A deep fill is several layers, each one packed before the next lands. Skip that and the pad settles, usually after the concrete is down.

Material matters as much as method. NCDOT calls for loose, friable, sandy material free of subsoil admixtures, refuse, stumps, rocks and root mats. That is the same reason topsoil never goes under a pad.

An old pad is its own job. The slab or piers come out, the debris gets hauled off, then the hole gets filled in layers. That work starts with taking an old mobile home down and clearing the pad.

We haul the loads in our dump truck and spread them with an excavator or the tracked skid steer. When a whole lot has to shed water, that is grading and dirt work that reshapes a lot to drain. The estimate is free and comes from looking at the property. Call (910) 512-9578 with how deep the low spot runs and how wide.