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How this calculator works
Three steps, and the middle one is the step most calculators skip.
- Volume. Length × width × depth, converted to cubic yards. Straight geometry, and there is nothing to argue with.
- Compaction allowance. Stone settles once traffic runs over it. Order the in-place volume and you finish short, so we add an allowance — 8% for rounded pea gravel up to 22% for crusher run, which has fines that pack down hard.
- Weight. Quarries sell by the ton, not the yard. We convert using the published bulk density for your material, given as a range because moisture and gradation genuinely move it.
Order to the top of the range. Being half a ton over means a small pile left in the corner of the lot. Being half a ton short means paying a second delivery charge to finish the last twenty feet.
What the inputs mean
Driveway length
Measure the driving surface, not the property line. Pace it if you have to — a normal stride is close enough to three feet.
Width
Ten feet is a comfortable single lane. Twelve gives you room to open a door without stepping in mud, and is the usual choice on rural lots.
Depth of stone
Four inches is a light-duty surface course. A driveway that will carry concrete trucks or a loaded dumpster wants eight to twelve inches, usually in two different stone sizes.
Stone type
Rounded stone rolls under a tire and migrates. Angular stone with fines locks together. That difference matters more than the price per ton.
Your price per ton, delivered
Leave blank if you do not have a quote yet — the tonnage is the part you need. For reference, stone runs $10–$50 a ton and delivery adds $10–$25, often free within about five miles on a five-ton minimum. Past 10–15 miles from the pit the haul can cost as much as the stone, which is why we would rather you called the quarry than used a national average.
Why we do not guess your stone price
Because delivered stone is priced by haul distance more than by anything else. The same ton of #57 can differ by a factor of three between a lot ten minutes from the pit and one an hour away, and no national average survives that.
So the tonnage is ours and the rate is yours. Call the nearest quarry, ask for a delivered price per ton on the material you picked, put it in the box, and the cost line appears.
What this estimate does not include
- Excavation, grading or the crown that keeps water off the surface
- Geotextile fabric under the stone, which soft ground usually needs
- Culverts and edging
- Machine time to spread and compact, if you are not doing it yourself
Picking the right stone matters more than the price
The commonest expensive mistake on a gravel driveway is not ordering too little — it is ordering the wrong material. Rounded stone never locks together, so it migrates under tires and ends up in the grass. Angular stone with fines binds into a surface that holds.
Which size does which job, what a base course is for, and why one stone size the whole way up performs worse than two, are all covered in our guide to choosing driveway gravel.
What comes next?
Land preparation runs in a sequence. Getting the order wrong is the most expensive mistake on a raw lot — grading before the septic is sited means paying to move the same dirt twice.
Frequently asked questions
How many tons of gravel do I need for a driveway?
Multiply length by width by depth in feet, divide by 27 for cubic yards, add a compaction allowance, then multiply by roughly 1.3 to 1.5 tons per cubic yard.
A 100 by 12 foot driveway at 4 inches deep works out at about 15 cubic yards in place, near 17 once you allow for settling, and roughly 22 to 24 tons of crushed stone.
How deep should gravel be on a driveway?
Four inches for a light-duty surface on ground that already drains. Eight to twelve inches where anything heavy will drive on it.
Below four inches, stone works down into the subgrade instead of staying where you put it. Above about six inches you should be building in two layers — large base stone underneath, smaller surface stone on top — rather than running one size all the way up.
How many cubic yards are in a ton of gravel?
Roughly 0.7 cubic yards per ton, or the other way round, about 1.3 to 1.5 tons per cubic yard.
It varies with material and moisture. Crusher run with fines packs heavier than clean rounded pea gravel, and wet stone weighs more than dry. That is why this calculator gives you a range instead of a single figure — and why ordering to the top of it is the safer mistake.
Is crusher run better than #57 stone for a driveway?
For the base layer, usually yes. For the surface, it depends what you want to look at.
Crusher run contains fines that lock the stone together into a firm surface. Clean #57 has no fines, so it drains beautifully but stays loose underfoot and rolls under tires.
A common answer is crusher run as a base with a thin #57 top coat, accepting that the top coat needs raking now and then.
How much area does a truckload of gravel cover?
A typical tandem dump carries around 12 to 15 tons, which is roughly 8 to 10 cubic yards of stone.
Spread 4 inches deep, that covers about 650 to 800 square feet — call it 55 to 65 feet of a 12-foot-wide driveway.
Order in full loads where you can. A part load usually carries the same delivery charge as a full one, so the last few tons are the cheapest ones you will buy.