Gravel Calculator

It depends entirely on which gravel. There is no single answer, and any page that gives you one without asking what you are buying is guessing. A cubic yard of pea gravel runs about 2,800 lb, which is 1.4 tons. Crushed stone #57 is close to 2,700 lb, or 1.35 tons. Crusher run with the fines still in it packs tighter and runs about 3,000 lb, or 1.5 tons.

Go outside stone and the spread gets wider. A cubic yard of screened topsoil is around 2,200 lb, about 1.1 tons. A cubic yard of bark mulch might be 600 lb, only 0.3 tons. The rule of thumb worth remembering is that most stone sits near 1.4 tons per cubic yard, but use your supplier's own figure when you have it.

At a depth of D inches, one cubic yard covers 324 / D square feet. That is 324 sq ft at 1 inch, 162 at 2 inches, 108 at 3 inches, 81 at 4 inches and 54 at 6 inches. The number comes straight from the geometry: 27 cubic feet divided by the depth in feet.

Coverage is pure volume, so this table is identical for gravel, sand, topsoil and mulch. Weight is the part that changes with the material, not coverage.

Because they weigh the truck. A yard sells by weight for the same reason a grocer sells apples by weight: it is measurable and it does not depend on how loosely the material was piled. Volume is what you need for the job, weight is what is easy to bill, and the two are connected by a density that changes with the product and with the weather.

Practically, this means you should calculate in cubic yards, order in whatever unit they sell in, and convert with their density figure. Ask them: "how many pounds per cubic yard for this product?" Any yard that sells by the ton has that number. Type it into the density box on this page and everything recalculates.

The common depths are 2 to 3 inches for a decorative stone bed or a walking path, 4 inches for a driveway top layer or a patio base course over compacted subgrade, and 6 to 8 inches total for a full driveway build in two or three lifts.

For anything load bearing, depth is usually split into lifts and compacted between them, because a single thick lift never compacts through. A 6 inch driveway base is two 3 inch lifts. Also remember that crusher run and road base lose depth when compacted, commonly on the order of 15% to 25%, so order for the loose volume you are placing, not the finished depth you want to see.

A half-ton pickup, no. A cubic yard of wet crushed stone weighs 2,700 to 3,000 lb, and a modern half-ton is typically rated between roughly 1,300 and 2,300 lb of payload including passengers and anything already in the bed. You would be well over.

Half a yard of stone is a realistic half-ton load. A full yard is a three-quarter-ton load. Mulch is the exception: a cubic yard of bark is only around 600 lb, so a half-ton can carry two or three yards by weight, and the limit becomes how much fits in the bed. The payload figure on the yellow sticker inside your driver's door is the only number that matters, and it is specific to your truck as built.

Crusher run is crushed stone with the dust and fines left in the mix. Those fines fill the voids, so it compacts into a hard, locked-together layer. That makes it the standard base material under driveways, patios and sheds. It does not drain well, which is the point: you want a stable base, not a sponge.

#57 stone is washed, angular stone about 3/4 inch with the fines screened out. It stays loose and drains freely, which makes it the choice for french drains, around foundations, in dry wells and as the top surface of a gravel driveway. Because the fines are gone, it weighs slightly less per cubic yard than crusher run, roughly 2,700 lb against 3,000 lb.

It does not change the volume you need. A hole that takes 3 cubic yards takes 3 cubic yards whether the stone is wet or dry. It changes the weight, which matters if you are ordering by the ton or hauling it yourself.

Wet material can run noticeably heavier per cubic yard than the same material dry. Sand and topsoil move the most, and soaked mulch can weigh close to double. If you order 5 tons of wet stone after a week of rain, you get less volume than 5 tons of the same stone in August. That is a real, unavoidable effect, and it is one more reason to calculate the job in cubic yards first and treat the tonnage as a conversion.

Between 0% and 25%, depending on what you are doing, and the calculator keeps it on its own line so you can always see the raw number underneath. Topping up an existing bed to a known depth needs nothing extra. A loose decorative stone spread needs about 10% for the low spots and the edges you always underestimate. Anything you will compact needs 15% to 25%, because compaction is real volume loss.

The other reason to round up: delivery is usually priced per load, not per yard, so the difference between 4.6 yards and 5 yards on the same truck is small, while a second trip for the last half yard is not.