How Much Gravel for a Driveway (by Length, Width and Depth)

A 100 ft driveway 12 ft wide takes 23.85 tons of stone for a 4 inch top course, 35.78 tons at 6 inches, and 71.56 tons for a full 12 inch build from the subgrade. In cubic yards that is 17.04, 25.56 and 51.11, each with a 15 percent compaction buffer at 1.4 tons a yard. At $45 a ton the material alone runs $1,073, $1,610 and $3,220, before delivery.

Length (ft)

Width (ft)

Depth (in)

Compaction buffer

Decorative / path (5%)Driveway / load-bearing (15%)Custom

Density (tons / cu yd)

Price per ton ($ (optional))

Cubic yards

14.81 cu yd

With buffer

17.04 cu yd

Tons (with buffer)

23.9 tons

Estimated cost

—

Includes a 15% compaction buffer. Order in whole or half-yard increments. Round up to the nearest your supplier offers.

New drive or tired drive: which table you need

Gravel driveways get built two ways, and the tonnage differs by a factor of three.

A new drive over bare ground is a stack. The topsoil comes off, the subgrade gets compacted and, on clay or soft ground, covered with a woven geotextile. Then three layers of stone go on, each compacted before the next: a base course of large angular stone, typically 2 to 4 inch pieces sold as #3 or #4, about 4 inches thick; a middle course of #57 or similar 3/4 to 1 inch stone, about 4 inches; and a top course of 3 to 4 inches of crusher run, which carries fines that lock under traffic and can be crowned. The stack comes to roughly 12 inches, and the 12 inch table below is the total stone for it. The exact recipe varies by region and by what the local quarry produces, so take the layer list to the yard and ask what they sell for each.

A tired drive is a different job. The base is already there, buried under the mud, and what it needs is the top course back. Scrape the high spots, fill each pothole individually and compact it, then spread 3 to 4 inches of crusher run and grade it to a crown. That is the 4 inch table. A drive that has lost most of its stone, where the big base rock is showing through in the wheel tracks, is a 6 inch job: the 6 inch table, placed as two lifts.

The three tables are the same ten driveways at the three depths. Lengths of 50 to 300 feet at 12 feet wide, 50 and 100 feet at 10 feet, and 100 feet at 14, 16 and 20 feet, which covers the single-car lane, the two-car lane and the shared drive. Every figure carries the 15 percent buffer and converts at 1.4 tons per cubic yard.

Top course or top-up: 4 inches by length and width

Length	Width	Sq ft	Cubic yards	Tons	Material at $45 a ton
50 ft	10 ft	500	7.10	9.94	$447
100 ft	10 ft	1,000	14.20	19.88	$894
50 ft	12 ft	600	8.52	11.93	$537
100 ft	12 ft	1,200	17.04	23.85	$1,073
150 ft	12 ft	1,800	25.56	35.78	$1,610
200 ft	12 ft	2,400	34.07	47.70	$2,147
300 ft	12 ft	3,600	51.11	71.56	$3,220
100 ft	14 ft	1,400	19.88	27.83	$1,252
100 ft	16 ft	1,600	22.72	31.80	$1,431
100 ft	20 ft	2,000	28.40	39.75	$1,789

Four inches is the layer that gets ordered most often, because it is the top-up and it is also the top course of a new build. Crusher run is the product for it. A drive that gets a 4 inch dressing of clean #57 instead looks tidy for a season and then the stones migrate into the lawn, because there are no fines to bind them. Save the clean stone for the middle of the stack.

The buffer earns its keep on a top-up more than anywhere else, since the new stone is going onto a surface with ruts and soft patches that swallow the first few wheelbarrows. On an old drive it is common to find the first load gone before the grading reaches the house.

Regravelling a worn drive: 6 inches in two lifts

Length	Width	Sq ft	Cubic yards	Tons	Material at $45 a ton
50 ft	10 ft	500	10.65	14.91	$671
100 ft	10 ft	1,000	21.30	29.81	$1,342
50 ft	12 ft	600	12.78	17.89	$805
100 ft	12 ft	1,200	25.56	35.78	$1,610
150 ft	12 ft	1,800	38.33	53.67	$2,415
200 ft	12 ft	2,400	51.11	71.56	$3,220
300 ft	12 ft	3,600	76.67	107.33	$4,830
100 ft	14 ft	1,400	29.81	41.74	$1,878
100 ft	16 ft	1,600	34.07	47.70	$2,147
100 ft	20 ft	2,000	42.59	59.63	$2,683

Six inches is too much to compact in one pass with a plate compactor or a small roller, so it goes down as two 3 inch lifts, and the split is a chance to use two products: #57 for the first lift where the old base is thin, crusher run on top. The 6 inch figures are also the ones to use for a drive that was built too thin in the first place and has never had a proper base, provided the ground under it is firm. If it is not, no amount of stone on top will fix it, and the honest answer is to dig out and build from the subgrade.

A new drive from the subgrade: the full 12 inches

Length	Width	Sq ft	Cubic yards	Tons	Material at $45 a ton
50 ft	10 ft	500	21.30	29.81	$1,342
100 ft	10 ft	1,000	42.59	59.63	$2,683
50 ft	12 ft	600	25.56	35.78	$1,610
100 ft	12 ft	1,200	51.11	71.56	$3,220
150 ft	12 ft	1,800	76.67	107.33	$4,830
200 ft	12 ft	2,400	102.22	143.11	$6,440
300 ft	12 ft	3,600	153.33	214.67	$9,660
100 ft	14 ft	1,400	59.63	83.48	$3,757
100 ft	16 ft	1,600	68.15	95.41	$4,293
100 ft	20 ft	2,000	85.19	119.26	$5,367

This is the whole stack in one number, and it is ordered as two or three products rather than one. The simplest split is a third each: for the 100x12 drive that is three deliveries each the size of the 4 inch row, 23.85 tons of base rock, then #57, then crusher run. A 4 plus 8 split, with a thin top course over 8 inches of base placed in two lifts, is the other common version: the 4 inch row once for the top and twice over for the base. Keep in mind that the 1.4 tons per yard is an average across the three products: big open base rock is lighter per yard than crusher run, so the bottom layer will come in under its table figure in tons and the top layer over it. Ask the yard for each product’s density and run each layer separately through the gravel calculator if the order is big enough for the difference to matter, and on a 300 ft drive it is.

The 300 ft row is worth sitting with. A 12 inch build at that length is 214.67 tons of stone, north of two hundred tons across ten or more truckloads, and it is why long rural drives are so often built in two phases: base and middle course the first year, with the top course the second year once the base has been driven on through a winter and the soft spots have shown themselves.

Ten feet wide or twelve: the extra 2 feet cost a fifth

A car is 6 to 7 feet wide once the mirrors are counted, so a 10 foot lane works until something goes wrong: a passenger opening a door onto grass, a delivery van with its wheels on the edge, a snowplow that cannot find the line. Gravel edges break down when tires ride them, and a 10 foot drive gets ridden on the edge every time two things try to pass. Twelve feet gives a couple of feet of clear stone either side of a car and leaves the edges alone.

The cost of the extra 2 feet is exactly a fifth, because width is a straight multiplier. On the 100 ft drive at 4 inches that is 19.88 tons against 23.85, or $894 against $1,073 at $45 a ton; a difference of $179 in stone for a drive that will not need its shoulders rebuilt. At 6 inches the gap is 29.81 against 35.78 tons. Fourteen feet is the width for a drive that sees a trailer or a work truck regularly, and 20 feet is two cars abreast or a lane with a parking spur, which is why those rows are in the tables at 100 feet.

None of the rows include the flare where the drive meets the road, which is usually a few extra feet of width over the last 10 or 15 feet. Measure the flare as its own small rectangle and add it with the calculator rather than guessing, and check with the county or town before you build it, since the apron and any culvert under it are typically covered by a driveway permit.

Crown and drainage: the stone the tables cannot see

A flat gravel drive holds water in the wheel tracks, and water in the wheel tracks is where potholes start. The surface needs a crown, higher along the centerline than at the edges, so rain runs off both sides. The typical figure is a quarter to a half inch of fall per foot from the center to the edge, which on a 12 ft drive means the centerline sits 1 1/2 to 3 inches above the shoulders. The crown is built into the top course with a box blade or a landscape rake and then rolled, and it needs restoring every time the drive is regraded, because traffic flattens it.

Where the ground beside the drive is flat, the water the crown sheds has nowhere to go without a shallow swale along each side; where the drive runs downhill, it needs the occasional diagonal water bar or a cross drain so the run-off leaves the surface rather than gathering speed down it. Where it crosses the roadside ditch, there is a culvert, and the road authority usually has a say in its size.

The tables are flat rectangles. A crowned surface is marginally more stone than a flat one, and the shoulders and the fill for the odd soft spot are more again. The 15 percent buffer covers a good deal of that on a straightforward drive. On a long one, the safer plan is to order the base course by the table, grade it, and let what you learn from the first lift size the next, which is also how the yards prefer it: a second load is a phone call, and a pile of stone you do not need is not.

Dump truck loads: typical capacities, and why the order should match them

Stone arrives by the truckload, delivery is charged by the load, and a load is whatever that truck legally carries, which varies by state axle-weight rules and by the truck. As typical figures, a tandem dump truck carries somewhere around 10 to 14 tons and a tri-axle around 18 to 22; smaller single-axle trucks carry less, and some yards run bigger quad-axle or trailer rigs. Ask the yard what their truck holds before you settle the order.

Then round the order to the truck rather than to the table. The 100x12 top-up at 23.85 tons is two tandem loads if the truck carries 12 tons or more, three if it carries 10, or one tri-axle load plus a small second delivery, which is the expensive way to do it. The 100x12 new build at 71.56 tons is four tri-axle loads or six to eight tandem loads depending on the truck, and the 300 ft version at 214.67 tons is ten to twelve tri-axle loads. A truck that arrives three tons under full costs the same as a full one, so if the order sits just over a load, ask what a full load would be and consider taking it; the extra stone goes on the shoulders or into the next pothole.

For a top-up, ask whether the driver can tailgate the load, spreading it from the moving truck along the drive instead of dumping it in one pile. It leaves a rough but even layer that a box blade finishes quickly, and it saves moving the whole order a second time.

What $45 a ton covers, and what gets added

The dollar columns are the stone at the yard gate, at a typical 2026 price of $45 a ton. Local prices range from roughly $20 to $60 a ton depending on the region, the distance from the quarry and the product; crusher run is often a little cheaper than clean stone from the same yard, and big base rock cheaper still. Put the quoted price into the gravel calculator and the cost column recalculates.

What the columns leave out is most of what the drive ends up costing:

• Delivery, per load, typically in the range of $75 to $200 for a local run and more by distance. A 23.85 ton order split across two or three tandem loads pays it two or three times.
• Spreading and grading. A tractor with a box blade, a skid steer or a rented mini loader for the day, or a contractor’s hourly rate.
• Compaction. A plate compactor handles a top-up; a new build wants a vibratory roller, which is a rental for the weekend.
• Geotextile under the base on soft ground, sold by the roll.
• The spoil. Stripping 6 inches of topsoil off a 100x12 drive produces 22.22 cubic yards of soil, the 6 inch table’s figure before the buffer, and the topsoil calculator sizes where that can go.

Two neighbors of the gravel drive are worth pricing alongside it. The first 10 or 20 feet at the garage or at the road is often poured as a concrete apron so the stone stays off the floor and the street, and the concrete calculator sizes that short slab. And a gravel stack built properly to 12 inches is the same base that goes under asphalt, so a drive built with that in mind can be paved later without starting over; the asphalt calculator gives the tonnage for the surface course if that day comes.

The weigh ticket is in tons, the drive is in yards

The truck leaves the quarry over a scale, and the ticket the driver hands over is in tons, so that is the number you pay for and the number to check. The tables convert at 1.4 tons per cubic yard, a working average rather than a property of any one product, and a stockpile that sat through a wet week weighs more on that scale than the same stone dry. The cubic yards to tons guide lists the conversion product by product, sand and topsoil included, and the calculator takes whatever density the yard quotes.

Converting the ticket back is the useful check. A 23.85 ton load at 1.4 is the 17.04 cubic yards in the 4 inch row, and 17.04 cubic yards spread over the 1,200 square feet of a 100x12 drive is about 4.6 inches of loose stone, which rolls down to the 4 inches the table was built for. If the load graded out noticeably thinner than that, either the stone was heavier per yard than 1.4 or the delivery was light, and the ticket settles which. A shed pad is the job that most often rides along on the same truck, and the gravel for a shed base guide sizes it in the same tons.