gizmobench

Driveway Gravel Calculator

This page opens on a driveway: 30 feet by 10 feet at 4 inches deep, which is 3.70 cubic yards and 4.25 tonnes of loose gravel, or 9 metres by 3 at 10 cm, which is 3.53 cubic yards and 4.05 tonnes, if metric is the system you last used, with the density it weighed at printed beside the answer. Type your own length, width and depth over it, in feet and inches or metres and centimetres, and the cubic yards, the tonnes, the US short tons and the bag counts follow. It gives the quantity for the layer of stone you are laying and nothing else: what goes underneath a surface that carries vehicles is groundworks, and it is not a number a quantity calculator should be inventing.

30 ft10 ft4 in
30 ft by 10 ft at 4 in4.25 t3.70 cu yd · 2.83 m³ · 100.00 cu ft4.68 US tons at 1.50 t/m³ · 107 bags of 40 kg or 188 of 50 lb
Shape
Length
Width
Depth
Material
Density t/m³
Units

The density is the figure everything after the volume depends on, so it is a field and not a hidden constant. Loose gravel is about 1.5 tonnes per cubic metre, pea gravel a little heavier, and wet stone heavier again: if your yard quotes a weight per cubic yard, divide it by 0.765 to get tonnes per cubic metre and type it in. Switching between imperial and metric rewrites what you already typed into the other system, to four decimals, rather than clearing it, and the volume is then worked from the figures on the screen.

Optional. Nothing is stored, and no rate is suggested: prices are local and they move.
  • A small border12 ft by 3 ft at 2 in
    0.22 cu yd, 0.25 t
  • A driveway30 ft by 10 ft at 4 in
    3.70 cu yd, 4.25 t
  • A circular bed8 ft across at 3 in
    0.47 cu yd, 0.53 t
Exact about the volume, honest about the weight. Length by width by depth, converted between feet, yards, metres and inches without rounding until the last step, so the volume is exact. It cannot know your supplier's density or how far the stone settles once it is walked on, so the tonnage and the bag count are estimates from a density you can change. There is no price list, no supplier and no delivery charge here, because a rate is the one input that would go stale; type your own above and the page multiplies it. Depth is a measurement you enter and this page reads back to you: what goes under a surface that carries weight is groundworks, and it is not something a quantity calculator should decide.

Common questions

How much gravel do I need for a driveway?
Measure the length and the width, decide the depth of the surface layer, and the page does the rest. The 30 by 10 foot drive it opens with at 4 inches is 3.70 cubic yards, 2.83 cubic metres and 4.25 tonnes at 1.5 tonnes per cubic metre. A 50 by 12 foot drive at the same depth is 7.41 cubic yards and 8.50 tonnes, and a long 100 by 10 foot run is 12.35 cubic yards and 14.16 tonnes. A 20 by 20 foot parking pad is 4.94 cubic yards and 5.66 tonnes.
How deep should the gravel on a driveway be?
The surface layer people commonly lay is 3 to 4 inches, or 75 to 100 mm, of stone. It varies with the size of the aggregate, because a layer thinner than about twice the largest stone will not lock together, and with how much traffic the drive takes. This page does not decide it for you: it starts at 4 inches because that sits in the middle of the common range, and the field is there to be typed over. A drive that is being built up from bare ground has a sub-surface question underneath it that is groundworks rather than arithmetic, and that part belongs with the person specifying the job.
How many tons of gravel for a 30 by 10 foot driveway?
At 4 inches deep it is 100 cubic feet, which is 3.70 cubic yards and 2.83 cubic metres. At 1.5 tonnes per cubic metre that is 4.25 tonnes, or 4.68 US short tons. Change the material to crushed stone at 1.6 and it reads 4.53 tonnes; pea gravel at 1.7 gives 4.81. The volume never moves, only the weight, which is the whole reason this page keeps the two figures apart and shows the density it used.
Should I order a driveway by the ton or by the yard?
Take whichever unit your supplier quotes and use the other as the check. The page prints cubic yards, cubic metres, cubic feet, tonnes and US short tons from the same measurement, so a quote per ton and a quote per cubic yard can be compared once you know the density behind them. If the supplier names a weight per cubic yard, type their density into the field: theirs is the number that will be delivered against.
Should I add extra for settling?
Loose stone compacts once it is driven on, and how much depends on the grade, the moisture and what is under it, none of which this page can see from your measurements. That is why the tonnage here is the quantity for the layer as you described it, with no hidden allowance added. If you want a margin, raise the depth or the area a little and watch the figure move: the arithmetic is on the screen, so nothing is added behind your back.

Length by width by depth, converted between feet, yards, metres and inches without rounding until the last step, so the volume is exact. It cannot know your supplier's density or how far the stone settles once it is walked on, so the tonnage and the bag count are estimates from a density you can change.