Concrete › Gravel calculator
Gravel calculator: how much gravel do I need in cubic yards and tons?
Enter the area as a rectangle, a circle or a square-foot figure, the finished depth of stone, a compaction allowance and the density your quarry quotes, and get the gravel, crushed stone or rock to order in cubic yards and tons, with one-ton bulk bags, the in-place volume, and a depth-by-use table recomputed for your area. Free, no signup, printable.
Gravel in place = area × depth ÷ 12 ÷ 27, then add compaction, then waste. The default 20 × 10 ft at 4 in is 200 × ⅓ = 66.67 cubic feet, 2.47 cubic yards in the ground; with the 20 percent compaction allowance that is 2.96 loose, and with the 10 percent waste the headline reads 3.26 cubic yards to order, which at the tool's 1.4 tons-per-yard placeholder is 4.56 tons (9,126 lb), or 5 one-ton bags. Change the density to the figure on your supplier's ticket and the tons change with it; the density section shows the arithmetic.
The calculator works the quantity side: volume, compaction, weight, depth. It does not pick a stone product, count paver base by course, or put a dollar figure on anything. For #57, crusher run, stone dust and the clean-versus-dense compaction switch use the crushed stone calculator; for a paver bed the paver calculator; for the job-by-job answer to how much gravel a walkway, a drive or a French drain takes, how much gravel do I need.
How to use this gravel calculator
Shape of the area has three settings. Rectangle takes length and width in feet and inches, so 12 ft 6 in can be typed as 12′ 6″ or 12.5; Circle takes a diameter, for a fire-pit ring or a tree well; I already know the area takes square feet straight from a plan or from the square footage calculator, which is how an L-shaped drive or a path around a bed goes in: split it into rectangles, add them, type the total. Depth of stone is the finished, compacted depth, in half-inch steps from ½ to 48 in, not the loose depth off the truck; the tool works out the loose figure for you.
Compaction allowance defaults to 20 percent, the middle of the 15 to 25 percent that angular stone with fines loses under a plate compactor, and can be set to 0 for clean stone that does not compact. Density is quoted in switches between tons per cubic yard, the way a quarry talks, and pounds per cubic foot, the way a spec sheet or a bag talks; Material density defaults to 1.4 tons per yard as a placeholder inside the 1.3 to 1.5 range the tool's own help text gives for most crushed and washed stone, and should be replaced by the number on your ticket. Set it to 0 and the weight rows disappear rather than guess. Waste allowance is the site-wide 10 percent for spillage and an uneven subgrade, added after compaction, and only ever to the quantity you buy. Every result prints its assumptions and saves as a PDF; how every figure on this site is checked is on the methodology page.
| Row | What it is | Allowances inside? |
|---|---|---|
| Gravel to order | Loose cubic yards with the compaction allowance inside and the waste added by the site core; the headline | Yes, and compaction |
| Area | Square feet of the rectangle, the circle, or the figure you typed | No |
| Compacted volume in place | Cubic feet of the finished layer: area × depth ÷ 12, nothing added | No |
| Loose volume to order | The same cubic feet with compaction and waste added; the row label prints both percentages | Yes, and compaction |
| Weight | Loose cubic yards × the density you entered, as tons and pounds; blank at density 0 | Yes, and compaction |
| One-ton bulk bags | Tons rounded up to the next whole bag; a 50 lb bag row appears under half a ton | Yes, and compaction |
| Depth table | The four trade depths recomputed for your area, compaction, waste and density; your depth is highlighted | Yes, and compaction |
What the calculator warns and notes
Three warnings. A density typed in tons per yard outside 1.1 to 1.8 trips a unit check, because 105 lb per cubic foot typed under the tons-per-yard unit would print 342.22 tons for the default apron. A depth under 2 in warns that the stone will not stay put and will show tyre and foot tracks within a season. A compaction allowance of 0 warns that the figure is now the volume of the hole, not the volume you have to buy, which is right for clean #57 and wrong for crusher run.
Five notes follow every result. The first prints the in-place arithmetic, 66.67 cu ft and 2.47 cu yd for the default, before either allowance. The next four are the same on every result and say what the tool will not pretend to know: depths are trade practice because the IRC prescribes no base depth for a driveway, patio or path; stone laid on soft or organic subgrade keeps sinking whatever the depth; compaction is not waste; and the weight is only as good as the density you entered, which belongs to your quarry, your product and how wet it was when loaded.
How to calculate gravel by hand: area × depth, then compaction, then tons
Three steps, and the middle one is the one most calculators skip. Step one, the hole. Area in square feet × depth in inches ÷ 12 = cubic feet in place; ÷ 27 = cubic yards in place. For 200 sq ft at 4 in: 200 × 4 ÷ 12 = 66.67 cu ft, ÷ 27 = 2.47 cu yd. A circle is π × (diameter ÷ 2)²: a 10 ft ring is 78.54 sq ft, 19.63 cu ft at 3 in. An odd shape is rectangles added together, and the trench for a drain is length × width × depth like any other box.
Step two, the truck. Loose stone off a truck settles under a plate compactor, so the volume you buy is bigger than the hole: in-place × (1 + compaction). At 20 percent, 66.67 becomes 80 cu ft, 2.96 cu yd. Then waste, on that figure: × 1.1 = 88 cu ft, 3.26 cu yd to order. That chain, 2.47 in place, 2.96 loose, 3.26 to order, is what the tool's headline, note and loose-volume row print, and the depth section walks it in full. A concrete slab on the same footprint is a different number, 2.72 yards on the concrete yards calculator, because concrete has waste and no compaction.
Step three, the weight. Cubic yards to order × density in tons per cubic yard = tons. 3.26 × 1.4 = 4.56 tons. If the density is quoted in pounds per cubic foot, multiply by 27 and divide by 2,000 first: 105 lb per cu ft × 27 = 2,835 lb per cu yd = 1.4175 tons per yard, which is why the tool's two unit settings give 4.56 and 4.62 tons for the same hole. The density is the only number in the chain that is not arithmetic, and it is not the calculator's to assert; the next section but one explains where it comes from.
How deep should gravel be? Depth by use, and why the order is bigger than the hole
No section of the residential code sets a base depth for a driveway, a patio, a path or a shed pad, so every depth figure on this page and in the tool is trade practice, and the site says so where it uses one. The four the tool carries are the ones people actually ask about: 2 in for a walkway or garden path on firm ground, 4 in for a patio or shed base over a firm subgrade, 6 in for a car driveway built up new, and 8 in where trucks run or the subgrade is soft. Frost depth, soil and traffic move the real number locally; the FHWA Gravel Roads Maintenance and Design Manual, written for public roads rather than drives, works from the strength of the subgrade up, and says in as many words that the depth of material needed to carry today's heavier trucks must be considered. Deeper than one lift of dense-graded stone has to go down in layers, which is on the crushed stone calculator.
| Typical use (trade practice) | Depth | Cu yd to order | Tons at 1.4 t/yd |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walkway or garden path | 2 in | 1.63 | 2.28 |
| Patio or shed base, over a firm subgrade | 4 in | 3.26 | 4.56 |
| Driveway, cars only, new build-up | 6 in | 4.89 | 6.84 |
| Driveway, trucks or soft subgrade | 8 in | 6.52 | 9.13 |
One hole, three volumes: in place, loose, and to order
Take the default: 200 sq ft at a finished 4 in. In place the layer is 66.67 cubic feet, 2.47 cubic yards; that is the hole, and it is the only figure most calculators give you. Loose, the same stone as it comes off the truck occupies about 20 percent more, 80 cubic feet, 2.96 yards, because the fines have not yet been driven into the voids by the plate; the FHWA manual puts the shrinkage from ordinary compaction on a gravel road at 30 percent or more, and notes that material in a stockpile is very loose and very low in density. To order is the loose figure plus the 10 percent waste for spillage and a subgrade that is not dead flat: 88 cubic feet, 3.26 yards, 4.56 tons at 1.4. Ordering the in-place 2.47 instead is a 32 percent shortfall before anyone spills a barrow, and it is the single most common reason a delivered load stops a few feet short of the end of the drive.
The reverse mistake is real too. Clean stone, #57 or ¾ in washed, has had the fines screened out and sits at its packed density the moment it is placed, so a 20 percent compaction allowance on it over-orders by a fifth. That is why the allowance is a field you can set to 0 here, and why the crushed stone calculator switches it off automatically by product. Waste stays on either way, because a barrow tips over regardless of gradation.
Tons per cubic yard of gravel: turn the density on the ticket into weight
A cubic yard of gravel does not have one weight. Density is a property of the pit, the product and the moisture on the day: a dense-graded limestone with fines packs heavier than a washed pea gravel, and the same stone loaded after rain carries water that shows up on the scale as tons you did not get. One rural crew read for this page figured a 325 × 8 ft drive at 4 in as about 32 yards, multiplied by the 1.5 tons per yard their quarry quoted, ordered 50 tons and had the stone run out about 5 ft past the end of the drive; another was told to figure up to 2 tons a yard if it had rained before loading, or wait for it to dry. The first number worked because it was the quarry's, not a calculator's. The tool's 1.4 is a placeholder inside the 1.3 to 1.5 tons-per-yard range its help text gives for most crushed and washed stone, and the FAQ covers what a yard weighs in those terms; nothing on this page asserts the density of a material it has never seen.
What the page can do is the arithmetic. A density in pounds per cubic foot becomes tons per cubic yard by × 27 ÷ 2,000, and yards per ton is the reciprocal. The first table runs the figures a spec sheet or a bag might print; the second runs the figures a quarry might quote.
| lb per cu ft | Tons per cu yd | Cu yd per ton | lb per cu yd |
|---|---|---|---|
| 90 lb | 1.22 | 0.82 | 2,430 |
| 95 lb | 1.28 | 0.78 | 2,565 |
| 100 lb | 1.35 | 0.74 | 2,700 |
| 105 lb | 1.42 | 0.71 | 2,835 |
| 110 lb | 1.49 | 0.67 | 2,970 |
| 115 lb | 1.55 | 0.64 | 3,105 |
| 120 lb | 1.62 | 0.62 | 3,240 |
| Quoted density | lb per cu yd | lb per cu ft | Cu yd per ton |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.2 t/yd | 2,400 | 88.89 | 0.83 |
| 1.3 t/yd | 2,600 | 96.3 | 0.77 |
| 1.4 t/yd | 2,800 | 103.7 | 0.71 |
| 1.5 t/yd | 3,000 | 111.11 | 0.67 |
| 1.6 t/yd | 3,200 | 118.52 | 0.62 |
| 1.8 t/yd | 3,600 | 133.33 | 0.56 |
Read it the way a phone call goes. The plan says 3.26 yards to order; the pit sells by the ton at 1.5; 3.26 × 1.5 = 4.89 tons. Or the pit sells 15 tons on a tandem and you want yards: 15 × 0.67 = 10 yards at 1.5, 10.71 at 1.4. Convert once, with their number, and order in whichever unit the ticket is written in; the calculator prints both so the two figures on the phone are the same stone.
How much does a yard or a ton of gravel cover?
Coverage per cubic yard is exact arithmetic: 27 cubic feet × 12 ÷ depth in inches = 324 ÷ depth square feet. A yard covers 162 sq ft at 2 in, 81 at 4 in and 54 at 6 in, in place, before compaction. Coverage per ton needs the density, so the table shows it at the tool's 1.4 placeholder only: a ton at 1.4 covers about 116 sq ft at 2 in and 58 at 4 in, and a heavier stone covers less. Both columns shrink by the compaction percentage once the plate has been over the layer, which is why a delivered yard of crusher run never quite covers the 81 sq ft the formula promises at 4 in.
| Depth | Sq ft per cu yd | Sq ft per ton at 1.4 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 in | 324 | 231.4 |
| 2 in | 162 | 115.7 |
| 3 in | 108 | 77.1 |
| 4 in | 81 | 57.9 |
| 6 in | 54 | 38.6 |
| 8 in | 40.5 | 28.9 |
| 12 in | 27 | 19.3 |
The same numbers run backwards for a sanity check on a bid: a contractor who says three yards will do a 12 × 20 drive at 4 in is describing 240 sq ft against 243 sq ft of coverage, in place, with no compaction and no waste, and the drive will finish thin. The concrete slab calculator prints the equivalent coverage table for concrete, where the 81 sq ft holds because nothing compacts.
Gravel for common jobs: driveway, walkway, patio base, shed pad, drainage trench
Every row below is the tool at its defaults, 20 percent compaction, 10 percent waste, 1.4 tons per yard, so the figures are what the calculator prints when you type the shape; change any of the three and the row moves. Two things to read across. A single-car drive 10 × 40 ft at a car-only 6 in is 9.78 yards and 13.69 tons; the same drive at a patio's 4 in is 6.52 yards and 9.13 tons, because depth is the input that scales everything. And the 10 ft fire-pit ring at 3 in is under a yard and under two tons, which is bag or pickup territory; the tool adds a 50 lb bag row under half a ton.
| Job | Sq ft | Depth | Cu yd to order | Tons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walkway 3 × 30 ft, 2 in | 90 | 2 in | 0.73 | 1.03 |
| Garden path 4 × 50 ft, 2 in | 200 | 2 in | 1.63 | 2.28 |
| Patio base 12 × 12 ft, 4 in | 144 | 4 in | 2.35 | 3.29 |
| Shed pad 10 × 12 ft, 4 in | 120 | 4 in | 1.96 | 2.74 |
| Single-car apron 10 × 20 ft, 4 in | 200 | 4 in | 3.26 | 4.56 |
| Single-car driveway 10 × 40 ft, 6 in | 400 | 6 in | 9.78 | 13.69 |
| Driveway 12 × 50 ft, 6 in | 600 | 6 in | 14.67 | 20.53 |
| Double driveway 20 × 40 ft, 6 in | 800 | 6 in | 19.56 | 27.38 |
| Farm drive 12 × 200 ft, 8 in | 2,400 | 8 in | 78.22 | 109.51 |
| Drain trench 50 ft × 12 in, 12 in deep | 50 | 12 in | 2.44 | 3.42 |
| Fire-pit ring 10 ft circle, 3 in | 78.5 | 3 in | 0.96 | 1.34 |
Tonnage decides the truck count, and the truck is weight-limited, not volume-limited. Crews in the threads read for this page corrected each other on it: a tandem dump truck runs to about 54,000 lb gross on the road and carries roughly 15 tons of stone, so the 24 tons that sometimes gets quoted for one load is a belly-dump or end-dump semi, and a pickup carries about a yard. Those are trade figures that vary by state weight law and by truck; ask the pit what one load weighs before you assume the double driveway's 27.38 tons is two trucks. A drive that needs lifts is placed in two deliveries anyway, which the concrete driveway calculator and shed base calculator pages take up for their own bases.
Gravel, crushed stone, pea gravel, river rock, road base: what the names mean when you order
The FHWA manual defines gravel as a mix of stone, sand and fine-sized particles, and adds that in some regions it may simply be called aggregate; a crew in Maine reading a forum thread put it more bluntly, that what television calls gravel they call crushed rock, and what they call gravel is bank run with sand in it. The word settles nothing on the phone. What decides the order is three properties. Source: bank run or pit run is dug and sold as it comes, screened to a top size or not; crushed stone has been through a crusher, so its faces are fractured and angular and lock together under load, which the FHWA manual calls the benefit of crushing; river rock, creek stone and pea gravel are water-rounded and roll rather than lock, so they migrate under tires and need raking back. Fines: dense-graded stone keeps the sand and dust, compacts hard and sheds water, which is why crusher run, DGA, ABC, quarry process, 21A, Item 4, road base and #411 are base materials; clean or washed stone has had the fines screened out, drains freely, and does not compact, which is why #57, #8 chips, ¾ in clean and rip-rap are drainage and bedding materials. Top size: the numbered sizes, ¾ in, 1½ in, 2 in, and the quarter-minus or screenings at the small end.
Those three properties are also what the density and compaction fields on this page stand in for. A dense-graded base takes the 15 to 25 percent allowance and packs heavy; a clean stone takes 0 and packs lighter; a rounded decorative gravel takes 0 and needs an edge to stay put. The crushed stone calculator makes the choice a product select and switches the compaction field off for clean stone; this page leaves it to you.
Pea gravel calculator
Pea gravel is small, rounded, washed stone, roughly ¼ to ⅜ in, so it does not compact and the allowance belongs at 0; a 2 to 3 in layer over fabric is the usual decorative depth, and 4 in where it will be walked on hard. The tool runs it as any other shape: 100 sq ft at 2 in with no compaction is 0.68 yards to order with waste, 0.95 tons at 1.4, and pea gravel often quotes lighter than that, which is the density field again. It rolls underfoot and under wheels, so it is a poor driveway surface without a binder or a grid.
River rock and landscape rock calculator
River rock is the same water-rounded stone in larger sizes, 1 to 3 in and up to cobbles, and covers less per ton as the pieces get bigger because of the air between them; run it at 0 compaction and a depth of at least the largest stone size plus an inch, 3 in for 2 in rock, so the fabric never shows. Decorative rock is sold by the ton and by the bag, and the bulk-bag row here counts the one-ton sacks a landscape yard delivers.
Road base and crusher run calculator
Road base, crusher run and the regional names above are dense-graded and are the material the 20 percent default and the 6 and 8 in driveway rows were written for. Placed in lifts and plated wet, they build the compacted layer a driveway or a paver patio sits on; the lift count and the per-product allowance are on the crushed stone calculator, and the sand bed and paver count on top of that base are on the paver calculator and in how many pavers and how much sand.
Subgrade, fabric and compaction: what decides whether the depth holds
The tool assumes a firm subgrade because it cannot see yours, and the note on every result says so. Topsoil and anything organic come off first; the FHWA manual's advice for a pit applies to a driveway, that organic matter is never good for a road surface. On clay or silt, a geotextile separation fabric between the soil and the stone stops the fines pumping up into the base under load, the failure the manual describes on soft subgrades, and it is the difference between a 6 in drive that lasts and one that sinks a little every spring. Strip, fabric, then stone.
Dense-graded stone is placed in lifts and each lift is plated before the next goes down; a single deep pour compacts on top and stays loose underneath. The one lift figure in the residential code is for crushed-stone footings, not driveways: IRC 2021 R403.4.1 has clean crushed stone consolidated with a vibratory plate in lifts of not greater than 8 in, and it is quoted in full below. Trade practice on a drive is thinner lifts than that, 3 to 4 in, with the stone damp; the manual's term is optimum moisture, the water content at which the material compacts to its greatest density, and the crews in the threads read for this page said the same thing in fewer words, that it packs better wet. A smooth-drum vibratory roller does the job on a long drive, a plate compactor on a pad or a path.
Water is the last item. A gravel drive is crowned so it sheds rain to both edges; the FHWA figure for a road is about ½ in of crown per foot on the cross slope, roughly 4 percent, and the residential code's own grading rule, R401.3, wants the ground to fall 6 in in the first 10 ft away from the house. Standing water in the base is what turns compaction into rutting, and no allowance in the calculator covers a drive that holds a puddle.
Six ways a gravel estimate goes wrong
Each of these was found on a published calculator page or in a forum thread while researching this page, and each is a unit or an allowance rather than the area arithmetic. The first two are mirror images: a compaction allowance added to clean stone that cannot compact, and none added to a base that will lose a fifth of its volume under the plate. The third is the quiet one, measuring the loose depth after raking and calling it the finished depth. The fourth is a single density used for every product on every day; one widely used calculator lists a yard of gravel at 2,400 to 2,900 lb in one answer and uses 2,832 lb in the next, which is the reason this site makes density a field rather than a fact.
- Compaction on clean stone. The allowance is for dense-graded material; set it to 0 for #57, chips and river rock.
- No compaction on base. Crusher run ordered at the in-place volume comes up short by the allowance.
- Loose depth. The depth field is the plated depth; the tool works back to the loose figure.
- Assumed density. The ticket, the product and the moisture set the weight; the 1.4 is a placeholder.
- Truck volume. Loads are weight-limited; ask the pit what one load weighs.
- Square yards. Dividing square feet by 9 gives area, not volume; gravel is cubic.
| Mistake | Wrong | Right |
|---|---|---|
| Compaction on clean stone | #57 ordered with 20 percent extra | Set the allowance to 0; clean stone does not compact |
| No compaction on crusher run | 2.47 cu yd ordered for a 200 sq ft base at 4 in | 3.26 cu yd: 32 percent more, compaction then waste |
| Loose depth measured | 4 in of stone raked out, then plated to 3¼ in | Enter the finished depth; the tool adds the loose allowance |
| One density for all gravel | 1.4 t/yd assumed for a wet dense-graded load | The ticket figure; crews allow up to 2 t/yd after rain |
| Yards per truck | 24 tons assumed on a tandem | About 15 tons on a tandem by road weight law; 24 is a semi |
| Square feet ÷ 9 | 200 sq ft ÷ 9 = 22.22 (square yards) | 200 × ⅓ ÷ 27 = 2.47 cu yd in place at 4 in |
What the IRC says about gravel, and what it leaves to you
The residential code mentions gravel where it carries a house, drains a footing or sits under a slab, and nowhere does it size a driveway, a patio or a path. Under wood foundations, R403.2: Gravel shall be washed and well graded. The maximum size stone shall not exceed 3/4 inch (19.1 mm). Gravel shall be free from organic, clayey or silty soils. and, of the crushed-stone alternative, Crushed stone shall have a maximum size of 1/2 inch (12.7 mm). Under precast foundations, R403.4.1: Clean crushed stone shall be free from organic, clayey or silty soils. Crushed stone shall be angular in nature and meet ASTM C33, with the maximum size stone not to exceed 1/2 inch (12.7 mm) and the minimum stone size not to be smaller than 1/16 inch (1.6 mm). and Crushed stone footings shall be consolidated using a vibratory plate in not greater than 8-inch (203 mm) lifts. Those are pages 4-13, 4-14 and 4-23 of the Chapter 4 PDF of the 2021 Seattle Residential Code, which reprints the IRC text on those pages without local amendment.
Table R401.4.1 on page 4-1 gives sandy gravel and gravel, the GW and GP soil classes, a presumptive load-bearing value of 3,000 pounds per square foot, which is what a footing on a gravel subgrade is sized against on the concrete footing calculator. Under a slab, R506.2.2 asks for a 4 in base of clean graded material only where the slab is below grade, and the concrete slab calculator quotes that section in full. R405.1 covers the gravel or crushed stone drain at a foundation footing; its text was not checked against a source PDF for this page, so no figure from it is printed here, and the section is listed with the others in concrete footing and slab code. For a driveway, a patio, a path or a shed pad there is no IRC base depth, gradation or compaction rule at all; the depth table, the allowances and the naming on this page are trade practice and are labelled as such wherever they appear.
Which gravel or base calculator do you need?
Every aggregate tool on this site starts from the same area × depth; each one adds the input its job turns on. Use this page when the question is how much stone; move across when the question is which product, what sits on top of it, or whether it should be concrete instead.
| Job | Use | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Gravel, stone or rock by area and depth | This page | Compaction and waste, tons from your density, depth by use, bulk bags |
| #57, crusher run, stone dust, rip-rap by product | Crushed stone calculator | Product select switches compaction on or off; lifts to place |
| Paver patio or walk | Paver calculator | Paver count, sand bed, base on top of this page's stone |
| Retaining wall base | Retaining wall block calculator | Block count and the base trench |
| Concrete instead of stone | Concrete calculator | Cubic yards for eight shapes, bags, weight |
| Ready-mix order and trucks | Concrete yards calculator | Quarter-yard rounding, truck loads |
| Slab base and thickness | Concrete slab calculator | R506.2.2 base, thickness by use, joints |
| Post in a hole | Post hole concrete calculator | Subtracts the post from the hole; bags per hole |
| Driveway, patio, sidewalk, shed pad | Driveway, patio, sidewalk, shed base | The slab and its base by use |
| Job-by-job gravel answers | How much gravel do I need | Walkway, drive, French drain, dog run, with worked figures |
| All of them | Concrete calculators hub | Every concrete and base tool on the site in one place |
Gravel calculator FAQ
How much gravel do I need for a 10 x 20 driveway apron at 4 in?
About 3.26 cubic yards to order, 4.56 tons at 1.4 tons per yard. The apron is 200 sq ft; at a finished 4 in that is 66.67 cubic feet, 2.47 cubic yards in place. Dense-graded stone loses about a fifth of its loose volume under the plate, so the loose figure is 2.96 yards, and the site's 10 percent waste takes the order to 3.26. At a car-driveway 6 in the same apron is 4.89 yards and 6.84 tons; the tool's depth table prints all four depths for any area you enter.
How many tons is a cubic yard of gravel?
Whatever the density on the ticket says, and it is usually between 1.3 and 1.5 tons for crushed and washed stone, the range the tool's help text gives for its 1.4 placeholder. The figure is a property of the pit, the product and the moisture on the day: dense-graded limestone with fines packs heavier than washed pea gravel, and crews allow up to 2 tons a yard for a load taken after rain. Convert a pounds-per-cubic-foot figure by multiplying by 27 and dividing by 2,000; 105 lb per cubic foot is 1.42 tons per yard.
How many yards are in a ton of gravel?
The reciprocal of the density: 1 ÷ tons per yard. At 1.4 tons per yard a ton is 0.71 cubic yards; at 1.3 it is 0.77; at 1.5 it is 0.67; at 1.8, the top of the range the tool warns above, it is 0.56. So 15 tons on a tandem truck is about 10.71 yards at 1.4 and 10 at 1.5. Ask the quarry which density they work to before turning a tonnage into coverage; the density table above runs both directions.
How much does a yard of gravel weigh?
Between about 2,600 and 3,000 lb for most crushed and washed stone, 1.3 to 1.5 tons, the range the tool's own help text quotes; the exact figure is your supplier's. The density section converts any quoted figure.
How deep should gravel be for a driveway?
Six inches of compacted dense-graded stone for a car driveway built up new, and 8 in where trucks run or the subgrade is soft, both trade practice; the IRC sets no driveway base depth at all. On a weak or wet subgrade the depth alone does not fix it: strip the topsoil, lay a separation fabric, and place the stone in lifts, plating each one. A 10 by 40 ft drive at 6 in is about 9.78 cubic yards to order and 13.69 tons at 1.4 tons per yard, with the tool's compaction and waste inside.
Why does the calculator order more gravel than the hole holds?
Because loose stone shrinks when it is compacted, and a little is lost on the way. The default hole is 2.47 cubic yards; the tool adds a 20 percent compaction allowance, the middle of the 15 to 25 percent that dense-graded stone loses under a plate, and then 10 percent waste for spillage and an uneven subgrade, so the headline reads 3.26. The FHWA gravel roads manual puts the shrinkage on a road at 30 percent or more. Order the in-place figure and the load stops short of the end of the drive.
Is compaction the same as waste?
No, and the tool keeps them apart on purpose. Waste is stone that never reaches the finished layer: a tipped barrow, a low spot in the subgrade, the last of the pile. Compaction is stone that reaches the layer and then occupies less space once the fines are driven into the voids by the plate; nothing is lost, the volume simply drops. The compaction allowance depends on the product, 15 to 25 percent for dense-graded material and 0 for clean stone, while the waste allowance is the same whatever you spread.
How much area does a ton of gravel cover?
Coverage per ton is 324 divided by the depth in inches, divided by the density in tons per yard. At 1.4 tons per yard a ton covers about 116 sq ft at 2 in, 58 at 4 in and 39 at 6 in, in place, before compaction; a heavier stone covers less and a lighter one more. Per cubic yard the figure is exact and needs no density: 162, 81 and 54 sq ft at those depths. The coverage table above runs both columns from 1 to 12 in.
How much gravel do I need?
Area × depth ÷ 12 ÷ 27, plus compaction for dense-graded stone, plus waste, then times the density for tons; the tool does all four. The job-by-job answers, walkway, driveway, French drain, patio base and more, are in how much gravel do I need.
Do I order gravel by the yard or by the ton?
In whichever unit the pit writes the ticket, which is by the ton at most quarries and by the yard at many landscape yards and for small loads. The job is volume, so figure it in cubic yards first, then convert once with the supplier's density; the calculator prints both so the phone call and the plan describe the same stone. Ordering by the ton has one advantage: the truck is weight-limited, so a tonnage tells you the load count directly, about 15 tons on a tandem by the weight laws crews quoted.
How many tons of gravel fit in a dump truck?
Roughly 15 tons on a tandem-axle dump truck, which runs to about 54,000 lb gross on the road, and 20 to 25 tons on a tri-axle or a belly-dump semi; a pickup carries about a cubic yard. Those are trade figures from crews and vary with state weight law, the truck and the material, so ask the pit what one load weighs. A 20 by 40 ft double driveway at 6 in is about 27.38 tons at 1.4 tons per yard on this page, which is two tandem loads, not one.
Does wet gravel weigh more?
Yes, and the extra weight is water you paid for as stone. Moisture sits inside the density figure, so a load taken from a pit after rain can read well above its dry figure on the scale; one crew's rule was to allow up to 2 tons a yard after rain or wait for it to dry. It cuts both ways: stone near its optimum moisture compacts better, which is why a base is plated damp. For ordering, use the density the supplier quotes for the product as it is loaded today, not a dry figure from a spec sheet.
What is the difference between gravel and crushed stone?
Crushed stone has been through a crusher and is angular; gravel in the trade sense is a natural mix of stone, sand and fines, often rounded, and the words swap by region. The ordering difference is fines and compaction, worked product by product on the crushed stone calculator.
How much pea gravel do I need?
Run the shape with the compaction allowance at 0, because rounded washed pea gravel does not compact. A 10 by 10 ft area at 2 in is 16.67 cubic feet, 0.62 cubic yards in place and 0.68 to order with waste, 0.95 tons at 1.4; pea gravel often quotes lighter, so enter the supplier's figure. Use 2 to 3 in over fabric for a decorative bed and 4 in where it is walked on, and give it an edge, since it rolls under feet and wheels and needs raking back.
Does the IRC require a gravel base under a driveway?
No. The residential code has no base depth, gradation or compaction rule for a driveway, patio, path or shed pad; its gravel provisions are for foundations and slabs, quoted in full above: washed, well-graded gravel under wood foundations, angular ASTM C33 crushed stone consolidated in 8 in lifts under precast foundations, and a conditional 4 in base under a below-grade slab in R506.2.2. Driveway depths are trade practice, which is how the tool labels them. Local jurisdictions can add their own; check before you build.
How much gravel for a 12 x 12 patio base?
About 2.35 cubic yards to order and 3.29 tons at 1.4 tons per yard for a 4 in compacted base of dense-graded stone, from 1.78 yards in place plus the 20 percent compaction and 10 percent waste. A paver patio then needs its sand bed and the pavers themselves, which the paver calculator counts; a concrete patio needs a base only where the slab is below grade under R506.2.2, and its own concrete is on the concrete slab calculator. Six inches of base on soft ground is 3.52 yards.
Source and verification of these gravel figures
Every cubic-yard, cubic-foot, coverage and ton figure on this page is regenerated from the same arithmetic the calculator runs, area × depth ÷ 12 ÷ 27, times the compaction allowance, times the waste, times the density, and checked by script against the copy before publishing; if a number here disagrees with the tool at the same inputs, the tool is right and the page has a typo. No density is asserted for any material: 1.4 tons per yard is the tool's placeholder and every weight on the page says so. The code sentences are IRC 2021 R403.2, R403.4.1 and Table R401.4.1 from the Chapter 4 PDF of the 2021 Seattle Residential Code, pages 4-1, 4-13, 4-14 and 4-23, with no local amendment in the lines used; R405.1 is named but not quoted because it was not checked against a source PDF for this page. Shrinkage, optimum moisture, crown and the definition of gravel are from the FHWA Gravel Roads Maintenance and Design Manual (November 2000), written for public roads. Depths, compaction percentages, truck payloads and regional product names are trade practice, paraphrased from public forum threads with no names, and labelled as such. How every figure on this site is checked is on the methodology page; who builds it is on the about page.