Gravel & Crushed Stone Calculator
How many cubic yards of gravel to order, what that weighs in tons, and what to say when you ring the yard. Handles crushed stone, road base, pea gravel, drainage rock and sand.
Material order
What is it for?
This sets a sensible depth and decides whether the stone gets compacted.
Measure the area
Add a shape for each part of the job. They are added together.
UnitsEnter the depth you want in place when the job is finished. Where the stone gets compacted, the order below already allows for the extra.
Price it, optional
Yards sell by the yard, by the ton or by the bag. Pick whichever way yours quotes.
What to say at the yard
Read this out or paste it into an email. It gives them everything they need in one go.
Assumptions used
So you can check them against what your supplier tells you.
Why this may change
Bulk weights vary by quarry and rise sharply when the stockpile is wet, so order by the cubic yard where you can and treat the tonnage as a cross check. Most yards have a minimum delivery and charge the same whether you take two yards or four. Ground that has been dug out and backfilled settles. And if the site is on a slope, stone creeps downhill, which is a reason for edging rather than for ordering more.
Common questions
How many cubic yards of gravel do I need?
Multiply the area in square feet by the depth in feet, then divide by 27. A 20 by 10 ft patio at 2 in deep is 200 sq ft times 0.167 ft, which is 33 cubic feet, or about 1.2 cubic yards. Add a waste buffer of around 10 percent for spillage and uneven ground, and more again where the stone is being compacted, since compacting it means ordering more than the finished depth suggests.
How many tons is a yard of gravel?
It depends on the stone. Crushed stone and pea gravel run about 2,800 lb per cubic yard, or 1.4 tons. Road base with fines is heavier at roughly 3,000 lb, and drainage rock lighter at about 2,700. These are the figures this calculator uses, and they are shown in the assumptions. Every quarry has its own numbers, and wet material weighs more, so confirm before you order by weight.
What is the difference between loose depth and compacted depth?
Gravel is sold loose and settles when you run a plate compactor over it. Angular stone with fines, such as road base or crushed stone, loses roughly 20 to 25 percent of its volume. So if you want 4 in of compacted base in the ground, ordering exactly 4 in worth leaves you about an inch short. This calculator adds the allowance wherever the project is a compacted one, and shows you both figures. Loose decorative stone such as pea gravel or river rock does not compact, so it gets no allowance.
How deep should gravel be?
Two inches for a decorative surface layer over an existing base. Four inches compacted for a shed pad or under pavers, six to twelve for anything cars drive on, and deeper again in clay or where the ground freezes. Drainage trenches are a separate case, since the depth is set by the water problem rather than by traffic. Going deeper than the job needs mostly wastes money, and going shallower shows up within a season.
Will it fit in my truck?
Probably not as much as you hope. A cubic yard of stone weighs about a ton and a half, which is over the payload of most half ton pickups even though it barely fills the bed. Weight is the limit, not volume. The results show a rough load count on that basis, but check your own payload rating, and remember that a yard of wet stone weighs noticeably more than the same yard dry.
Stone goes down, pavers go on top
If this gravel is the base for a patio, work out the pavers and the bedding sand in the same sitting.