How much does fill dirt cost in Louisiana?

One national cost guide puts fill dirt at $5 to $25 a cubic yard delivered. Sold by the ton, it runs $4 to $15. The same guide prices a dump truck load of fill dirt at $150 to $400 delivered. That load is about 10 to 14 cubic yards.

A second national guide puts the 2026 average for a fill dirt project at $842. Most homeowners pay between $344 and $1,339. Those are market numbers, not our price list. What you pay comes down to the kind of dirt and how far it hauls.

What does fill dirt cost per yard and per ton?

Dirt is sold by the cubic yard or by the ton. The two national guides publish these ranges.

Some of those prices include delivery and some do not, so ask what a quote covers. The first guide says a cubic yard of dirt weighs 1.05 to 1.75 tons, so per-ton and per-yard prices differ. Before you order fill dirt delivered to your property, ask which unit the price is in.

How much does a dump truck load of fill dirt cost?

The first guide’s $150 to $400 price for a load of fill dirt assumes about 10 to 14 cubic yards. The same guide says the average commercial dump truck holds 8 to 12 cubic yards. Dump trucks pulling a trailer carry 15 to 25.

The first guide puts dirt delivery at $50 to $150 a trip. Past the first 5 miles, some add hauling fees of $10 a mile. The second guide notes spreading and compacting may be billed separately.

Which kind of fill dirt does your job need?

Plain fill dirt is inorganic subsoil, a mix of broken-down rock, clay and sand. Clean fill has been screened to take out organic matter and debris.

Select or structural fill is screened dirt that packs down hard. The second guide calls structural fill the right choice under foundations or roads. It is the dirt that goes into house pad and site prep work.

Topsoil is the dark top layer, for lawns and gardens. Keep it out from under a building: the second guide warns that fill with organic material can settle unpredictably.

Clay dirt is subsoil with more than 25 percent clay. The first guide says screened pure clay is not for construction, because it will not drain groundwater. Sand is the fast-draining option.

How do you figure how much fill dirt you need?

Multiply length by width by depth, all in feet, then divide by 27 for cubic yards. A fill dirt calculator runs the same math. Add 5 to 10 percent for waste and spills, as the first guide says, and round up.

Say a low corner of your yard is 30 by 40 feet and needs 9 inches of fill. Nine inches is 0.75 feet, so 30 by 40 by 0.75 is 900 cubic feet. That is about 33 cubic yards.

Add 5 to 10 percent and you order 35 to 37 yards. At 10 to 14 yards a load, that is three or four truckloads. At $150 to $400 a load, the dirt lands near $450 to $1,600 delivered.

Fill dirt can settle or shift over time, the second guide says. So on a pad, we place the fill in lifts and compact each one. Our house pad cost guide works through how much extra dirt that takes.

Why do fill dirt prices vary so much in Louisiana?

Louisiana’s own highway bids show how wide the spread can run. On April 15, 2014, LA DOTD opened bids on a drainage job on LA 585 in West Carroll Parish. Five bids came in on its 50 cubic yard borrow dirt line, from $20 to $72 a cubic yard.

The high bid was more than three times the low one. The bid is more than ten years old, so read it as a spread, not a price.

On a home job, the first guide ties the price to the type of dirt, the volume and the distance. The second guide says buying in bulk often lowers the per-yard rate. Limited or difficult access adds cost, and a loaded dump truck should not cross a ditch or a culvert.

Bastrop gets 58.39 inches of rain in a normal year, by NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals. Winter and spring each bring about 16 inches, and fall is the driest season at about 13.

Heavy clay makes wet weather worse. The Perry soil series takes its sample profile from Morehouse Parish. The soil survey calls it poorly drained and very slowly permeable. It floods for short periods nearly every year unless levees protect it.

The first guide says to keep a loaded dump truck off your yard when the ground is wet. On a wet clay yard, the truck may have to dump at the edge. Moving the dirt the rest of the way is extra machine time.

Do you need a permit to bring in fill dirt?

Sometimes, and the rules come from your city or parish. The first guide notes that some cities want a permit once you move 50 cubic yards of dirt.

The federal flood insurance program’s rules count filling and grading as development. A special flood hazard area is land with a 1 percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year.

Inside a mapped flood zone, fill generally needs the city or parish floodplain permit first. Ouachita Parish’s permit office says to contact it before you build, alter, grade or place fill on your property. The parish also says any development in the floodplain without a permit is illegal.

The City of Monroe publishes a Flood Plain Development Permit form. Other towns and parishes run their own process, so call before the dirt is ordered. This is general information, not legal advice, and we can point you to the right office.

What will fill dirt cost on your property?

Dupree’s Dirt and Excavation is based in Bastrop. We haul fill dirt, select fill, topsoil and sand by the load in our own dump truck. We work Bastrop, Monroe and about 60 miles around.

The skid steer can spread and grade the dirt once it is down, if you want it finished. If the low spot is a yard that holds water, land grading sets the slope so water runs off.

We look at the site before we price it, and the estimate is free. Call (318) 614-2073, or see how our fill dirt delivery works.