Calculate-Compare-Decide
Work out how much gravel your project needs. Enter the area in feet and the depth in inches — mixed units are handled for you — and get cubic yards, tons, truckloads and cost for any gravel type.
Estimate from your inputs. Gravel compacts and settles — confirm with your supplier before ordering.
To work out gravel, multiply length × width × depth in feet and divide by 27 for cubic yards. Multiply cubic yards by about 1.4 for tons of typical gravel. A 12 × 50 ft driveway at 4 in deep needs 7.4 cubic yards, roughly 10.5 tons. Add 10–20% for compaction, because loose gravel loses volume once it is rolled or driven on.
Every figure on this page comes from the four steps below. Nothing is hidden.
The 27 is where most errors happen. People divide by 3 or by 9 and order a third of what they need. A yard is 3 feet, but a cubic yard is 3×3×3 cubic feet.
Worked example — a 12 × 50 ft driveway, 4 in of crushed stone. Depth = 4 ÷ 12 = 0.333 ft. Volume = 12 × 50 × 0.333 = 200 ft³. Cubic yards = 200 ÷ 27 = 7.41 yd³. At 100 lb/ft³ that is 20,000 lb, or 10.0 tons. Add 15% for compaction and order 8.5 yd³ / 11.5 tons — one dump truck load.
Real projects with volume and weight, calculated with the same formulas as the tool above. Figures are before your waste allowance.
| # | Project | Gravel | Area | Depth | Volume | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gravel driveway | Crushed stone | 12 × 50 ft | 4 in | 7.41 yd³ | 10.00 t |
| 2 | Long driveway | Crusher run | 12 × 100 ft | 6 in | 22.22 yd³ | 40.51 t |
| 3 | Short driveway | Pea gravel | 10 × 30 ft | 3 in | 2.78 yd³ | 3.94 t |
| 4 | Parking area | Road base | 30 × 40 ft | 6 in | 22.22 yd³ | 40.51 t |
| 5 | Garden path | Pea gravel | 3 × 40 ft | 2 in | 0.74 yd³ | 1.05 t |
| 6 | Walkway | Decorative | 4 × 25 ft | 2 in | 0.62 yd³ | 0.83 t |
| 7 | Patio base | Crushed stone | 16 × 20 ft | 4 in | 3.95 yd³ | 5.33 t |
| 8 | Shed base | Crushed stone | 10 × 12 ft | 4 in | 1.48 yd³ | 2.00 t |
| 9 | French drain | Drainage gravel | 2 × 40 ft | 12 in | 2.96 yd³ | 3.80 t |
| 10 | Retaining wall drain | Drainage gravel | 1.5 × 30 ft | 12 in | 1.67 yd³ | 2.14 t |
| 11 | Playground base | Pea gravel | 30 × 40 ft | 9 in | 33.33 yd³ | 47.25 t |
| 12 | Dog run | Pea gravel | 10 × 20 ft | 3 in | 1.85 yd³ | 2.63 t |
| 13 | Fire pit area | River rock | 12 × 12 ft | 3 in | 1.33 yd³ | 1.89 t |
| 14 | Landscape bed | Marble chips | 8 × 30 ft | 2 in | 1.48 yd³ | 1.90 t |
| 15 | Decorative border | River rock | 2 × 60 ft | 3 in | 1.11 yd³ | 1.58 t |
| 16 | Xeriscape yard | Granite gravel | 25 × 35 ft | 3 in | 8.10 yd³ | 11.27 t |
| 17 | Horse arena base | Crusher run | 60 × 120 ft | 4 in | 88.89 yd³ | 162.04 t |
| 18 | Baseball infield | Crushed limestone | 60 × 60 ft | 3 in | 33.33 yd³ | 45.00 t |
| 19 | Barn floor | Crusher run | 24 × 36 ft | 6 in | 16.00 yd³ | 29.17 t |
| 20 | Road base layer | Road base | 20 × 200 ft | 8 in | 98.77 yd³ | 180.04 t |
| 21 | Culvert bedding | Drainage gravel | 3 × 60 ft | 8 in | 4.44 yd³ | 5.70 t |
| 22 | Septic bed | Drainage gravel | 10 × 40 ft | 12 in | 14.81 yd³ | 19.00 t |
| 23 | Trench backfill | Class 5 gravel | 2 × 80 ft | 18 in | 8.89 yd³ | 15.60 t |
| 24 | RV pad | Crusher run | 12 × 40 ft | 6 in | 8.89 yd³ | 16.20 t |
| 25 | Boat ramp | Crushed stone | 12 × 30 ft | 8 in | 8.89 yd³ | 12.00 t |
| 26 | Greenhouse floor | Pea gravel | 14 × 30 ft | 3 in | 3.89 yd³ | 5.51 t |
| 27 | Pool surround | Marble chips | 20 × 30 ft | 2 in | 3.70 yd³ | 4.75 t |
| 28 | Driveway (metric) | Crushed stone | 3.5 × 15 m | 100 mm | 6.87 yd³ | 9.27 t |
| 29 | Path (metric) | Pea gravel | 1.2 × 20 m | 50 mm | 1.57 yd³ | 2.22 t |
| 30 | Yard base (metric) | Road base | 10 × 12 m | 150 mm | 23.54 yd³ | 42.92 t |
Weights are US short tons at typical densities and vary with moisture and particle size. Add your compaction allowance before ordering.
Most suppliers sell bulk gravel by the cubic yard and deliver in half- or quarter-yard increments. This is the number to give them.
Many yards price by the ton instead, especially for crushed stone. Weight also decides whether your driveway and vehicle can take the load.
Delivery is charged per trip, so an order that spills slightly into a second load is disproportionately expensive.
A quick sanity check. One ton of gravel covers roughly 100 ft² at 2 in, 70 ft² at 3 in, or 50 ft² at 4 in.
4 in of large base stone, 4 in of middle-grade, then 3–4 in of surface gravel. A single deep layer of one size never compacts properly.
Yards know the weight per yard of what is in their bin. It varies by source and moisture more than any published table.
If you are just over a truckload, trimming the depth slightly is usually cheaper than paying a second delivery charge.
A dump truck needs headroom to tip and firm ground to stand on. The drop point decides how far you will be barrowing.
The most common reason a finished driveway sits an inch below where it should. Loose gravel is not compacted gravel.
They are different units. A yard of crusher run is 1.8 tons; a yard of pea gravel is 1.4. Always confirm which one a quote uses.
Pea gravel and river rock do not lock together, so they migrate under tyres and end up on the lawn.
Without geotextile between soil and stone, the base sinks into the subgrade and you lose depth within a year or two.
Each swatch below is drawn to the typical particle size and shape for that material, so you can see the difference between angular and rounded stone at a glance.
| Gravel | lb/ft³ | Tons per yd³ | ft² per ton @2″ | ft² per ton @4″ | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marble chips | 95 | 1.28 | 126 | 63 | Decorative beds, borders |
| Drainage gravel (#2) | 95 | 1.28 | 126 | 63 | French drains, culverts |
| Crushed stone (#57) | 100 | 1.35 | 120 | 60 | Driveways, patio base, drainage |
| Crushed limestone | 100 | 1.35 | 120 | 60 | Paths, base layers, arenas |
| Granite gravel | 103 | 1.39 | 117 | 58 | Paths, xeriscape, decorative |
| Pea gravel | 105 | 1.42 | 114 | 57 | Playgrounds, paths, dog runs |
| River rock | 105 | 1.42 | 114 | 57 | Dry creek beds, decoration |
| Class 5 gravel | 130 | 1.75 | 92 | 46 | Compacted base, rural roads |
| Crusher run | 135 | 1.82 | 89 | 44 | Driveway base, compacted pads |
| Road base | 135 | 1.82 | 89 | 44 | Roads, heavy-load bases |
Typical estimating values. Wet aggregate can weigh 10–25% more than these dry figures, and density varies by quarry source.
| Application | Depth | Gravel to use | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Decorative bed / border | 2–3 in | River rock, marble chips, granite | Use fabric underneath to suppress weeds |
| Garden path / walkway | 2–3 in | Pea gravel, crushed stone | Edging stops migration onto the lawn |
| Dog run / play area | 3–4 in | Pea gravel | Rounded stone is kinder underfoot |
| Patio / paver base | 4–6 in | Crushed stone, crusher run | Compact in 2 in lifts, then 1 in of sand |
| Driveway surface layer | 3–4 in | Crushed stone (#57), crusher run | Angular stone only — rounded migrates |
| Driveway full build | 8–12 in | Layered: large base, middle, surface | Three separate layers, each compacted |
| Parking area | 6–8 in | Road base, crusher run | More depth for heavy or frequent loads |
| French drain | 12+ in | Drainage gravel (#2), washed stone | Washed, angular, no fines — fines clog it |
| Shed / hot tub base | 4–6 in | Crusher run | Compact thoroughly and check it is level |
| Rural road base | 8–12 in | Road base, Class 5 | Follow local DOT specification |
| Vehicle | Typical load | Roughly | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Half-ton pickup | 1–1.5 tons | ~1 yd³ | A full yard of wet gravel exceeds most pickup payloads |
| Small dump truck | 5–7 tons | 4–5 yd³ | Good access for tight residential sites |
| 10-wheeler dump | 12–15 tons | 8–11 yd³ | The standard residential delivery vehicle |
| Tri-axle dump | 18–22 tons | 13–16 yd³ | Needs room to manoeuvre and tip |
| Semi trailer | 22–25 tons | 16–18 yd³ | Bulk deliveries; requires good site access |
Capacities vary by jurisdiction and axle configuration. Confirm with your supplier, and check overhead clearance and ground firmness before a delivery.
Most jobs are several areas at once — a driveway, a turning circle and a path. Add each rectangle here for one combined order, using the gravel type and compaction allowance set in the calculator above.
Gravel is loose rock fragments, either dug from natural deposits where water and ice broke rock down over millennia, or manufactured by crushing quarried stone. That distinction matters more than most people realise, because it determines the shape of the individual pieces, and shape determines whether the material locks together under load or rolls apart.
Naturally deposited gravel — pea gravel, river rock — has been tumbled smooth. Crushed gravel comes out of a crusher with sharp faces and edges. Both are sold as "gravel", both cost roughly the same, and choosing the wrong one is the single most common reason a driveway fails within a year.
Aggregate is sorted by particle size, and in North America the common shorthand is a number system that describes which sieve sizes the material passes through. A #57 stone is roughly three-quarter-inch material with the fines screened out. A #2 stone is considerably larger, around two to two-and-a-half inches, used where water needs to move freely. A #411 or crusher run contains a full range of sizes right down to stone dust.
The key distinction is graded versus washed. Graded material contains a spread of particle sizes including fines, which fill the gaps and let the material compact into a solid mass. Washed material has the fines removed, leaving voids between the stones so water can drain through. You want graded material for anything structural and washed material for anything that has to drain.
Pea gravel is small, rounded, smooth stone around three-eighths of an inch. Comfortable underfoot, attractive, and completely unsuitable for driveways because it will not stay put. Crushed stone, usually #57, is the workhorse: angular, three-quarter-inch, good for driveways, patio bases and drainage. Crusher run mixes crushed stone with stone dust so it compacts into a near-solid base — the standard choice under a driveway or a shed. River rock is larger rounded stone for dry creek beds and decoration. Marble chips and granite gravel are decorative materials chosen for colour. Road base and Class 5 are engineered blends specified by transport departments for compacted bases under roads.
This is the thing to understand before you order anything. Angular stone has flat faces and sharp edges, so when it is compacted the pieces interlock and resist movement — the pile behaves almost like a solid. Rounded stone has no edges to interlock, so it behaves like ball bearings: apply a load and it moves sideways.
The practical consequence is simple. Anything that carries weight — driveways, parking, bases under pavers and slabs — needs angular crushed material. Anything decorative or walked on gently, or that needs maximum void space for drainage, can use rounded stone. Putting pea gravel on a driveway produces ruts, migration onto the surrounding lawn, and stones flung by tyres, usually within one season.
Bulk gravel is sold by the cubic yard or by the ton, and which one your supplier uses varies by region and sometimes by material. Both refer to the same pile, connected by density: one cubic yard of typical gravel weighs about 1.4 tons, while denser compacted blends like crusher run run closer to 1.8 tons per yard.
Always confirm which unit a quote is in before comparing prices, because a price per ton and a price per yard are not directly comparable. If a supplier quotes tons and you calculated yards, multiply by the tons-per-yard figure for your material — this calculator shows both simultaneously for exactly that reason.
Density is what converts a volume into a weight, and it varies meaningfully between materials. Lightweight decorative aggregates sit around 95 pounds per cubic foot, standard crushed stone around 100, pea gravel and river rock around 105, and compacted blends like crusher run and road base up to 135. That range means the same volume can vary by more than a third in weight.
Moisture changes everything again. Saturated aggregate can weigh 10 to 25 percent more than the dry figure, which is why suppliers who sell by weight often weigh loads at the yard rather than applying a fixed conversion. If you are close to a vehicle's payload limit, assume the wet figure.
Gravel is delivered loose and ends up compacted, and the difference between those two states is where most ordering errors come from. Rolling or driving on gravel typically reduces its volume by 10 to 20 percent as the particles rearrange into a tighter packing. Order exactly the calculated loose volume and your finished depth ends up short.
The allowance depends on the material and the method. Crusher run and road base under a plate compactor lose the most, so allow 20 percent. Decorative gravel raked into a bed barely compacts at all, so 5 to 10 percent for spillage is enough. This is why the calculator's default sits at 15 percent rather than the 10 percent typical of other materials.
A driveway that lasts is built in layers, not poured in one go. Start by excavating to the full depth and laying geotextile fabric over the subgrade — this is the cheapest insurance you can buy, because it stops the stone working down into the soil. Then build up in three stages.
The base layer is 4 inches of large angular stone, often #3 or #4, compacted. The middle layer is 4 inches of a smaller graded material such as #57, compacted again. The surface layer is 3 to 4 inches of crusher run or a decorative angular stone. Each layer is compacted separately, because a deep single lift never compacts through its full thickness.
Total depth for a residential driveway is typically 8 to 12 inches. Crown the surface slightly — an inch or two higher in the centre — so water sheds to the sides instead of pooling and washing out the surface.
Paths are far less demanding: 2 to 3 inches of material over compacted subgrade and fabric is plenty for foot traffic. Edging matters more than depth here, because without a physical edge the gravel migrates into the surrounding beds and lawn within a season. Steel, timber or paver edging all work.
Pea gravel is popular for paths because it is comfortable to walk on, though it does shift underfoot and is difficult for wheels and mobility aids. Crushed stone with fines compacts into a firmer surface that is easier to walk and push a barrow on, at the cost of looking less decorative.
Under pavers, the base is doing structural work and needs 4 to 6 inches of compacted crushed stone or crusher run, laid and compacted in 2-inch lifts. Above that goes about an inch of coarse bedding sand, screeded flat. Skimping on base depth is the reason most paver patios develop dips and rocking stones after a couple of freeze-thaw cycles.
Drainage is the one application where you want the opposite of compaction: maximum void space for water to move through. Use washed, angular, single-sized stone — #2 or #57 — with the fines removed. Fines are the enemy here, because they migrate into the voids and progressively clog the drain.
A French drain is typically a trench 12 inches or more deep, lined with filter fabric, with a perforated pipe bedded in washed stone and the fabric wrapped over the top before backfilling. The fabric is what keeps soil out of the stone, and it is the component people most often skip and most often regret.
Decorative gravel is chosen for colour, size and texture rather than performance. River rock, marble chips, granite gravel and coloured decorative blends all serve here. Depth of 2 to 3 inches is enough to cover the ground completely, and weed fabric underneath saves a great deal of maintenance.
Two practical points. Larger stone looks better in large areas and disappears in small ones. And light-coloured gravel reflects heat noticeably, which is welcome in a cool climate and less so next to a south-facing wall in a hot one.
Anything carrying repeated heavy loads — farm access, commercial yards, rural roads — moves into engineered territory. Transport departments specify graded blends with defined particle size distributions and compaction requirements, because the performance of a base under load depends on getting the gradation right rather than simply using more stone.
Depths of 8 to 12 inches are typical, built in compacted lifts, over prepared and drained subgrade. For anything that will see genuinely heavy or frequent traffic, the local specification is worth following rather than approximating.
Measure the actual area rather than the plan, break irregular sites into simple shapes and add them up, and round to the increment your supplier sells in — usually a quarter or half yard. Tell them what the material is for, because they will often recommend a different grade than you asked for and they are usually right.
Before delivery, check three things: overhead clearance for a truck to raise its bed, whether the ground where the truck will stand is firm enough, and exactly where you want the pile dropped. That last one determines how far you will be moving material by barrow, and a pile in the wrong place can add a day of work.
Material cost per ton is driven by the type and by how far the quarry is from you, since haulage is a large share of the delivered price of a low-value bulk material. Decorative stone costs several times more than crusher run. Delivery is usually charged per trip rather than per ton, which means part-loads are poor value and an order slightly over a truckload is disproportionately expensive.
If you are near a load boundary, it is worth asking whether trimming the depth slightly or adjusting the area brings you under. Saving a whole delivery charge often outweighs the small reduction in material.
Excavate to full depth, remove soft spots, and compact the subgrade before anything else. Lay geotextile fabric — non-woven for drainage applications, woven for load-bearing separation. Spread in lifts no deeper than 2 to 4 inches and compact each one with a plate compactor or roller rather than trying to compact the full depth in one pass.
Rake to a consistent depth as you go, checking with a stick cut to the target depth rather than by eye. Crown or slope surfaces so water runs off, and install edging anywhere the gravel meets a soft boundary.
Gravel surfaces need occasional attention. Rake potholes and ruts flat before they deepen, because water collecting in a low spot accelerates the damage. Expect to top up a driveway with an inch or so of surface material every few years, as stone is gradually carried away on tyres and displaced to the edges.
Keep drainage clear: a blocked side drain will do more damage to a gravel surface over one wet season than a year of traffic. And control weeds early, since roots break up the compacted structure you paid to create.
Aggregate gradation and testing are covered by established standards, with ASTM specifications defining sieve analysis and the size designations behind the number system, and state transport departments publishing their own base course specifications for road work. Industry bodies such as the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association publish guidance on aggregate use and properties.
For domestic projects these matter mainly as a shared vocabulary — asking for "#57 washed" gets you a defined material anywhere in the country. For anything structural, load-bearing or subject to inspection, the local specification governs, and your supplier will know which one applies.