Square Feet to Square Yards

Common questions

How many square feet are in a square yard?

Nine, exactly. A yard is exactly 3 feet, and squaring both sides gives 3 times 3, so a square yard is 9 square feet with nothing rounded away. Both units are defined from the metre here: a square yard is exactly 0.83612736 m² and a square foot exactly 0.09290304 m², and the first divides by the second exactly 9 times. Type 9 in the From box and the headline reads 1 square yard, not 0.99999.

How do I convert square feet to square yards?

Divide by 9. A 100 square foot area is 11.1111111111 sq yd, 500 sq ft is 55.5555555556 sq yd, and 1,200 sq ft is 133.333333333 sq yd. Going the other way multiplies by 9, so 20 square yards is 180 square feet. The swap button between the two boxes flips the pair when you want to type square yards instead, and the answer updates as you type.

My room is 12 feet by 15 feet. How many square yards is that?

Multiply the sides first: 12 times 15 is 180 square feet, which this page converts to exactly 20 square yards. A 10 by 12 foot room is 120 sq ft, or 13.3333333333 sq yd, and a 12 by 9 foot room is 108 sq ft, or exactly 12 sq yd. The converter takes an area rather than two sides, so the multiplication is yours to do. The square footage calculator does that step for you, room by room, and totals the result.

Is a square yard the same as a cubic yard?

No, and this is where an order goes wrong. A square yard is an area, 9 square feet of floor. A cubic yard is a volume, 27 cubic feet, and it is what concrete, mulch, gravel and topsoil are sold in. Carpet, turf and paving are sold by the square yard. Turning an area into a cubic yard figure needs a depth as well, which this page does not ask for: the concrete slab calculator and the volume calculator take that third number.

Why does 1 square foot come out as 0.111111111111 square yards?

Because it is one ninth, and one ninth in decimal is 0.111 repeating for ever. The page prints twelve significant digits and stops there, which is well inside what the arithmetic carries. Areas that land on a whole number of square yards still come back clean: 9 sq ft reads 1, 90 sq ft reads 10 and 900 sq ft reads 100, because the converter divides by the exact unit definitions rather than by a rounded 0.1111.

How do I convert square yards back to square feet?

Press the swap button between the two boxes and the page becomes a square yards to square feet converter: 1 yd² gives 9 ft², 10 yd² gives 90 ft² and 100 yd² gives 900 ft². The two unit menus stay open as well, so the same number will go from square yards to square metres, acres or square inches without leaving the page.

Carpet is priced per square yard. How many yards do I need for 500 square feet?

55.5555555556 square yards by the arithmetic, which is a starting point rather than an order quantity: carpet comes in fixed roll widths, and offcuts, pattern matching and a waste allowance all sit on top of the bare area. Measure each room separately, convert each one, and take the supplier's advice on how much to add for the shape of the job.

Can I see the same area in square metres?

Yes, without changing anything. Square metres are one of the rows under the result, so 500 sq ft reads 46.45152 m² and 1,200 sq ft reads 111.483648 m², and choosing Square metre in either box makes it the headline instead. Square centimetres, square inches, hectares, square kilometres, acres and square miles are listed at the same time. Square millimetres are the only area unit hidden by default, behind the Show 1 more switch in the readout, because nobody floors a room in them.

Is the area I type sent anywhere?

No. The conversion is one multiplication and one division against a table of unit definitions that ships with the page, so it runs in your browser and keeps working with no network once the page has loaded. The number you last typed is kept on your own device so the page can restore it, and Start over at the top of the page clears it. This page also leaves the main unit converter's own pair alone: go back to it and it is still set to whatever you left it on.