The Amount of Sand Required for a Sandbag Dike calculator computes the volume of sand needed for sandbag dike (3x1) based to height (H) and length (L) of the dike.
INSTRUCTIONS: Choose the preferred units and enter the following:
- (H) This is the height of the dike needed to protect from flooding.
- (L) This is the length of the dike needed to protect from flooding.
Volume of Sand (V): The calculator returns the volume of sand needed for the dike in cubic yards. However, this can be automatically converted to other volume units (e.g. cubic meters, cubic feet) via the pull-down menu.
Sandbag Calculators:
- Compute the number of sandbags for flood dike
- Compute the amount of sand needed for a flood dike
3X1 (Base to Height) of a sandbag dike - Compute the number of sandbags for a one bag deep wall
- Compute the amount of sand needed for a one bag deep wall
- Compute the time (labor hours) to fill and stack sandbags
- Compute the weight of an number of filled sandbags.
- Compute the weight of a volume of sand (wet, dry, loose, packed)
The Math / Science
The recommended dimensions for the cross section of a sandbag dike is three to one (3x1) for the base verses the height respectively. This equation returns the approximate volume of material (e.g. sand in bags) needed based on the ratio assumption and the height(H) and length (L) of the dike. Note: the height should be at least one foot above the expected level of water.
The Sand Required for a Sandbag Dike calculator helps you estimate the amount of sand you will need on site to build a sandbag dike. It's based on the paper Sandbagging for Flood Protection by Dr. Hellevang captured in the Sandbag Wall Calculator.
To be prepared for a flood with a sandbag dike, you need:
- a good plan to build a sandbag dike,
- to estimate the number of sandbags you will need to build the dike,
- to estimate how much sand you need to fill the sandbags,
- to have the materials on site, and
- to estimate how much time it will take to build the sandbag dike with the help you have.