Short answer: in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro, clean fill dirt costs $10 per cubic yard delivered, screened topsoil $17 per cubic yard, and structural or select fill $20 per cubic yard. Delivery is included in every one of those numbers — there is no separate haul fee, fuel surcharge, or gate fee. The minimum order is 10 cubic yards, which is one tandem dump truck load. A 10-yard load of clean fill delivered anywhere in DFW is $100.
That is the whole answer most people are looking for. The rest of this guide gives you the per-load math, the volume tiers, the city-by-city table, and a fully worked project example so you can budget a real job instead of a per-yard abstraction.
Texas Fill Dirt Prices Per Cubic Yard (2026)
Every price below is the delivered price in the DFW metro. Nothing is added at the curb.
| Material | Price Per Cubic Yard | What It Is | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clean Fill Dirt | $10/yd | Screened subsoil with rocks, roots, and debris removed | Pool removal, grade raises, general backfill, low spots |
| Screened Topsoil | $17/yd | Dark, organic growing layer, screened to under 1 inch | Lawns, sod beds, gardens, the final 4–6 inches |
| Structural Fill | $20/yd | Engineered material with controlled clay content | Foundations, driveway subbase, building pads, retaining wall backfill |
| Select Fill | $20/yd | Tested material with a specified plasticity index | Engineered pads and inspected commercial work |
| Sand | $22/yd | Construction, masonry, or washed play sand | Paver base, pipe bedding, under-slab bedding, drainage layers |
| Gravel & Crushed Rock | $25/yd | Crushed limestone, road base, pea gravel, #57 stone | Driveway surface, French drains, parking areas |
| Dirt Removal & Hauling | $15/yd | We haul your excavation spoils off site | Pool demo, foundation dig-out, excess grading material |
The single most expensive mistake in this table is buying up a grade you do not need. Topsoil costs 70% more than clean fill, and structural fill costs double. If the material is going to sit eight inches underground and nothing will grow in it and nothing will be built on it, it should be clean fill at $10.
Fill Dirt Cost Per Load (Truckload Pricing)
Dirt is quoted per yard but it arrives per truck. These are the four truck configurations we run and what a full load of each material actually costs delivered in DFW.
| Truck Type | Capacity | Clean Fill ($10/yd) | Topsoil ($17/yd) | Structural / Select Fill ($20/yd) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tandem dump truck | 10 cu yd | $100 | $170 | $200 |
| Tri-axle dump truck | 16 cu yd | $160 | $272 | $320 |
| End dump trailer | 18 cu yd | $180 | $306 | $360 |
| Side dump trailer | 18 cu yd | $180 | $306 | $360 |
Because delivery is already inside the per-yard price, a bigger truck does not lower your rate per yard — it lowers the number of trips, which matters for scheduling and for site disruption rather than for cost. The tandem is the right default for residential driveways. Move up to a tri-axle or end dump when you need 30+ yards and the site has room for a longer rig.
Delivery Fees: What the Market Charges vs What We Charge
This is where published Texas fill dirt prices get confusing. Most quoted "per yard" numbers are pit prices that do not include getting the material to you. Borrow Pit's Texas bulk fill dirt pricing guide puts material-only cost at roughly $5 to $15 per cubic yard, and delivered small residential loads at roughly $15 to $35+ per cubic yard — the gap between those two numbers is haulage. National cost guides including HomeGuide and Angi report separate delivery fees in the range of $50 to $150 per trip for loads up to about 15 cubic yards, and a typical dump truckload of fill dirt landing between $150 and $400 delivered.
| Cost Line | Typical Market Practice | Our DFW Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Material at the pit | ~$5–$15/yd (Borrow Pit, Texas) | Included |
| Delivery / haul fee | ~$50–$150 per trip (HomeGuide, Angi) | $0 — included |
| Fuel surcharge | Varies by supplier | None |
| Delivered price per yard | ~$15–$35+/yd (Borrow Pit, Texas) | $10/yd clean fill |
| Spreading & rough grading | ~$200–$400 (national cost guides) | Not included — we deliver, you place |
Those market figures are ranges reported by third-party cost guides for the industry generally, not our prices. We list them so you can compare like with like: when you get a competing quote, ask whether the number includes delivery, because that single question routinely moves a quote by $50 to $150 per load.
Volume Discount Tiers
Pricing is flat and published up to 50 yards. Above that, larger jobs get quoted as projects rather than as loads.
| Order Size | Tier | How It Is Priced |
|---|---|---|
| 10–49 cu yd | Standard | Published list price, delivery included |
| 50–99 cu yd | Multi-load | List price with coordinated multi-load scheduling to one site |
| 100–499 cu yd | Volume | Custom per-yard rate — text us the scope for a quote |
| 500+ cu yd | Builder / contractor program | Contract pricing with staged deliveries across the project timeline |
We do not publish a discount percentage because the honest answer is that it depends on the material, the haul, and the delivery window. A 500-yard job spread over six months prices differently than 500 yards that all has to land in one week. Send the scope and we will price the scope.
Fill Dirt Cost by DFW City
Pricing is flat across the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Whether you are in downtown Dallas or out in Weatherford, the per-yard number is the same — we do not run zone surcharges that quietly add $5 to $8 per yard the farther out you live. Here are 20 of the 116 DFW-area cities we deliver to.
| City | Clean Fill | Topsoil | Structural Fill | 10-Yard Load of Fill |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Fort Worth | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Arlington | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Plano | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Frisco | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| McKinney | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Denton | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Irving | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Garland | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Grand Prairie | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Mansfield | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Mesquite | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Richardson | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Allen | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Lewisville | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Carrollton | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Flower Mound | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Southlake | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Keller | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
| Rockwall | $10/yd | $17/yd | $20/yd | $100 |
Our standard service radius runs about 60 miles from Dallas or Fort Worth city center. Addresses outside that radius are still worth asking about — we quote them individually rather than refusing them.
Worked Example: Filling a 16 x 32 Pool in DFW
Abstract per-yard pricing is hard to budget against. Here is a complete real-world job, start to finish.
The project: a 16 ft x 32 ft in-ground pool, averaging 4 feet deep across the shallow and deep ends, being filled and converted to lawn.
Step 1 — bulk fill volume. Fill the bottom 3.5 feet with clean fill dirt: 16 x 32 x 3.5 = 1,792 cubic feet. Divide by 27 = 66.4 cubic yards.
Step 2 — compaction allowance. Clean fill placed in 12-inch lifts loses roughly 12% of its loose volume once compacted and settled. 66.4 x 1.12 = 74.4 yards. Round up to 80 yards, which is exactly five 16-yard tri-axle loads and avoids paying for a half-empty sixth trip.
Step 3 — the growing layer. The top 6 inches gets screened topsoil so grass will actually establish: 16 x 32 x 0.5 = 256 cubic feet, divided by 27 = 9.5 yards. Round to 10 yards, our one-load minimum.
Step 4 — the bill.
| Line Item | Quantity | Rate | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clean fill dirt | 80 cu yd | $10/yd | $800 |
| Screened topsoil | 10 cu yd | $17/yd | $170 |
| Delivery (6 loads) | — | Included | $0 |
| Total material delivered | 90 cu yd | — | $970 |
For comparison, the same 90 yards priced at the $15 to $35 per delivered yard range that Borrow Pit reports for Texas residential loads would run somewhere between $1,350 and $3,150. That spread is the entire argument for asking what a quote includes.
What this figure does not include: the pool demolition itself, which is a separate contractor and typically the largest line on the job, and compaction equipment if you are placing the fill yourself (a plate compactor rents for roughly $75 to $150 per day locally).
What Actually Moves Your Price
Material grade. The biggest lever by far. Clean fill to structural fill is a 100% price increase. Match the grade to the job and nothing more.
Quantity. Below 50 yards you pay list. Above 100 yards there is real room to negotiate, because a repeat haul to one address is far more efficient for us than 10 scattered single loads.
Site access. Access does not change the per-yard price, but it changes which truck can reach you. A gate narrower than 9 feet means the driver dumps at the curb and you move the pile, which is labor you are paying for in time even if not in dollars.
Season. Spring and early summer are peak construction season across North Texas and specialty grades like select fill can run a one- to two-day lag. Clean fill and topsoil stay available year-round.
How to Spend Less on Fill Dirt in Texas
Buy the cheapest grade the job allows. On the pool example above, using topsoil for the whole 90 yards instead of just the top 10 would have cost $1,530 instead of $970 — $560 wasted on organic content buried three feet underground where nothing will ever grow.
Measure before you order. Run your dimensions through our free calculator, or read our guide on how much fill dirt you need. Running short mid-project costs you a whole extra delivery day.
Round to full loads. Ordering 74 yards and ordering 80 yards both take five tri-axle trips. Round up to the load boundary and keep the extra rather than paying trip overhead on a nearly empty truck.
Confirm delivery is included. Every quote we give is the delivered, all-in number. Ask every competing supplier the same question in writing.
On a new-construction lot? The pricing above covers material cost. If you're grading a build lot rather than an existing yard, our DFW new-construction site guide covers rough-grade vs. pad-fill volumes, clay by submarket, and builder pricing.
Get an Exact Quote
Text us at (469) 253-2403 with three things — what you are doing, your delivery address, and roughly how many yards you think you need — and we will confirm the material, check the math, and quote a delivered price, usually within minutes during business hours. We are open Monday through Saturday, 7 AM to 5 PM. Same-day delivery is available on orders placed before 10 AM. We accept Zelle and Venmo. No forms, no waiting, no sales pitch.