Screened vs Unscreened Topsoil: Which Should You Buy?
Screened topsoil has been run through a mesh to take out the stones, roots and clods. Unscreened topsoil is what came out of the ground. Same material, one processing step between them — and that step is the difference between soil you can rake level and soil you will be picking rocks out of all weekend.
It is also the single most common cause of arguments about a delivery, because "topsoil" on its own does not tell you which one you are buying.
The difference in one table
| Screened | Unscreened | |
|---|---|---|
| What is in it | Soil only, graded to the screen size | Soil, stones, roots, clay lumps, the occasional brick |
| Spreads level | Yes, with a rake | Not without picking it over first |
| Typical price | 25–50% more per yard | Cheapest soil a yard sells |
| Good for | Lawns, seed beds, topdressing, raised beds | Filling, grading, building up levels under something else |
| Wrong for | Nothing, except your budget on a big fill | Anything you will seed, mow or plant into directly |
What "screened" actually means
The soil is tipped over a vibrating or rotating mesh. What passes through is sold as screened; what does not goes on a waste pile. The mesh size is the part worth asking about, because yards screen to different grades and all of them call the result "screened":
- ¼ inch — very fine. Seed beds, topdressing, anything going through a spreader.
- ½ inch — the common grade. Fine enough for lawns and beds, and what most yards mean by screened topsoil.
- 1 inch — takes out the big stones and roots but leaves gravel. Fine under turf, gritty in a vegetable bed.
If you are buying for a lawn, ask for the screen size rather than the word. Half an inch or finer is what you want.
When unscreened is the right buy
Unscreened soil is not bad soil. It is unprocessed soil, and for a lot of jobs the processing is money you do not need to spend.
- Bulk filling. Raising a level, backfilling a wall, building up a bank. Nobody is planting into it and nobody can see it.
- Under a screened layer. The usual professional approach on a big job: unscreened to bring the level up, four to six inches of screened on top to plant into. You buy one expensive load instead of ten.
- Rough grading before turf. If a few inches of screened soil are going over it anyway, the stones underneath do not matter.
On a large fill the saving is real. Twenty yards of unscreened against twenty screened is often several hundred dollars, and on soil nobody will ever touch.
When screened is worth the money
- Anything you are seeding. Seed needs contact with fine soil. A stone is a dead patch.
- Topdressing an existing lawn. Unscreened soil will not spread thin, and the stones will find your mower blade. See putting topsoil over grass for how thin that layer needs to be.
- Raised beds and vegetable plots. You will be digging in this by hand for years.
- Anywhere a rake has to leave a flat finish.
How to tell what you have been sold
Look at the pile before it is tipped, or at the first bucket:
- Grab a handful. Screened soil is uniform and crumbles. Unscreened has lumps that hold their shape and grit you can feel.
- Look for roots. Any root longer than a finger means it has not been through a fine screen.
- Check for stones over half an inch. A few are normal in 1-inch screened. A lot means it is unscreened or screened coarse.
- Squeeze it. If it stays in a tight ball and shines, it is wet and heavy in clay, whether or not it was screened. Wet soil will not spread thin at any grade.
What to ask when you order
Three questions save almost every dispute:
- Is it screened, and to what size?
- Is it screened topsoil or a blend? A blend has compost or sand added — often better for planting, and a different product at a different price. Blended vs screened covers that choice.
- How wet is the current stock? Soil screened last month and rained on since behaves like unscreened soil until it dries.
Cost, and how to split the order
Screened soil typically runs 25–50% more per cubic yard. On a topdressing job that is a few dollars. On a 30-yard fill it is the difference between one budget and another.
The split most yards will quote happily, and most homeowners never think to ask for:
- Unscreened for everything below the top six inches.
- Screened for the top six inches, where the roots and the rake go.
Work out both volumes with the topsoil calculator — the area and depth of the screened layer, then the rest as fill — and ask for the two materials on the same delivery. Many yards will bring both on one truck.
Common questions
Is unscreened topsoil bad quality?
No. It is unprocessed, which is a different thing. The soil itself may be excellent; it simply has everything in it that was in the ground.
Can I screen it myself?
For a wheelbarrow or two, yes — a length of mesh over a frame and a shovel. For anything approaching a yard, the labour is worth more than the price difference.
Why did my screened topsoil still have stones in it?
Most likely it was screened to one inch rather than half. Ask the grade before you order rather than after it is tipped on your drive.
Does screening change the nutrient content?
Barely. Screening removes stones and roots, not nutrition. What changes nutrition is whether compost has been blended in.
Screening tells you what was taken out, not how good what is left is. For that, what good topsoil looks like has the four checks you can do at the pile.