JB PARCELGravel Driveway Calculator
A parcel without a usable drive is worth less than one with it. Enter the length, width, and depth of each layer to get the stone to order in cubic yards and tons, how many truckloads that is, and what it costs delivered.
How this calculator works
Stone volume is length times width times depth. Keep the units straight: length and width in feet, depth in inches divided by 12. That gives cubic feet, and dividing by 27 gives cubic yards. A 100 by 12 foot drive at 6 inches deep is 600 cubic feet, or 22.2 cubic yards.
Most gravel drives are built in layers. A base of larger crushed stone carries the weight and drains, and a thinner top layer of smaller stone gives a surface that packs and drives smoothly. The calculator figures each layer separately, since they are usually different products at different prices.
Stone settles when it is rolled and driven on, so order a little more than the raw volume. Then convert to tons, because that is how quarries sell it. Crushed stone commonly weighs about 1.4 tons per cubic yard, but the supplier can give you the figure for the exact product.
Divide the tons by the truck capacity to get truckloads. Delivery is often charged per load, so on a long rural drive it can be a real share of the cost. Put both prices in to see the delivered total.
Worked example: access to a five-acre tract
A 250 foot drive, 12 feet wide, with a 6 inch base and a 2 inch top layer, a 10 percent compaction allowance, and 15 ton trucks.
| Driveway area | 3,000 sf |
|---|---|
| Base layer | 85.6 tons |
| Top layer | 28.5 tons |
| Total stone | 81.5 cubic yards, 114.1 tons |
| Truckloads | 8 |
Eight loads of stone before any culvert, grading, or clearing. If you are buying land that has road frontage but no drive, this is part of the price of getting onto it, and it belongs in your offer.
Questions investors ask
How much gravel do I need for a driveway?
Multiply length by width in feet, multiply by the depth in inches divided by 12, and divide by 27 for cubic yards. Add around 10 percent for compaction, then multiply by the stone's weight per cubic yard, roughly 1.4 tons for crushed stone, to get the tons to order.
How deep should a gravel driveway be?
A common build is 4 to 6 inches of base stone topped with 2 to 3 inches of smaller stone. Soft or clay soil, heavy trucks, or poor drainage call for more base. A drive that ruts every spring usually needs drainage and base, not more top stone.
How many tons are in a cubic yard of gravel?
For crushed stone, usually about 1.3 to 1.5 tons. Wet stone, dense rock, and fine material weigh more. Ask the quarry for the weight of the specific product you are buying.
How many tons does a dump truck hold?
It depends on the truck. Tandem dump trucks commonly haul somewhere around 10 to 15 tons, and larger trucks more. Ask the supplier what they send, since delivery is often charged by the load.
Should I put fabric under a gravel driveway?
On soft or clay soil, a woven geotextile under the base keeps the stone from pressing down into the dirt and saves you from replacing it. On firm, well-drained ground it matters less.
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Screening a real property? Pull its appraised value, assessed value, acreage, land use, and last recorded sale off the JB PARCEL parcel map and drop the real numbers into this calculator instead of guessing. Coverage runs across every county we carry.