Calculate how many cubic yards and tons of gravel or crushed stone you need for driveways, pathways, landscaping, and construction. Enter area dimensions and desired depth to get your estimate.
| Application | Depth |
|---|---|
| Driveway (base layer) | 4–6 inches |
| Driveway (top layer) | 2–3 inches |
| Walking path | 2–3 inches |
| Landscaping bed | 2–3 inches |
| French drain | Fill depth of trench |
Most suppliers sell gravel by the ton rather than the cubic yard. Typical crushed stone weighs roughly 1.4 tons per cubic yard, though this varies with stone type and moisture.
Example: a 40 × 10 ft driveway at 4 inches deep is 40 × 10 × 0.333 = 133 cu ft, or 4.9 cubic yards — roughly 6.9 tons.
Gravel with fines compacts significantly when rolled or plate-compacted, commonly losing around 20% of loose volume. Material delivered loose and then compacted to a finished 4-inch depth requires closer to 5 inches of loose stone.
Clean stone with no fines barely compacts at all, since there is nothing to fill the voids between stones.
A driveway built as one layer of decorative stone will rut. The usual build is a compacted base of crusher run several inches thick, then a thinner surface layer of the stone you actually want to see.
Landscape fabric beneath the base slows the gravel sinking into soft subgrade, which is the usual reason gravel drives need topping up every couple of years.