Driveway gravel calculator.
Enter your driveway’s length and width to estimate cubic yards, tons, and truck loads for the base and surface layers.
How much gravel do I need?
Quad-axle loads at 35 tons. Estimates only — call dispatch to confirm before you order.
A single-car drive is about 10–12 ft. Two cars wide is 20–24 ft.
The formula behind it
Everything else is unit conversion. Depth is almost always given in inches, so divide the inches by 12 first — 4 inches is 0.333 feet. The 27 turns cubic feet into cubic yards, since a yard is three feet on every side.
To get tons, multiply cubic yards by the material's density. Aggregate is sold by weight, not volume, so tons is the number that ends up on the ticket. Crusher run runs about 1.50 tons per cubic yard; #57 limestone about 1.35.
How deep should the gravel be?
A driveway is two materials doing two different jobs. The base carries the load and has to compact solid. The surface drains, sheds water, and is the part you look at. Skipping the base is the single most common reason a gravel driveway develops ruts inside a year.
| Driveway | Base — crusher run | Surface — #57 |
|---|---|---|
| New residential drive | 4–6" compacted | 2–3" |
| Resurfacing over solid base | — | 2–3" |
| Soft or clay-heavy subgrade | 6–8" over fabric | 2–3" |
| Truck or equipment traffic | 8–12" compacted | 3–4" |
In Missouri the freeze-thaw cycle is what decides whether a driveway survives its third winter. Water that sits in the base freezes, expands, and lifts the surface; when it thaws, the voids stay and the drive settles unevenly. Both problems are drainage problems, which is why the base gets compacted in lifts and the drive gets crowned to shed water rather than hold it.
Why order more than the calculator says
The number above is the finished, in-place volume. Loose gravel loses roughly 10–20% of its volume once it is compacted, and more disappears into the edges, the low spots, and the subgrade on the first pass. The 15% allowance in the tool covers most residential jobs. On soft ground or an unedged drive, go higher.
The other reason to round up: material is cheaper by the load than by the trip. Coming back for three more tons costs the same mobilization as the first delivery did.
Turning yards into truck loads
Our quad-axle trucks haul 35 tons a load. Because materials weigh differently, that is a different volume for each one — about 23 cubic yards of crusher run, or 26 yards of #57. The calculator handles the conversion, but this table is useful when you are estimating in your head.
| Material | Tons / yd³ | Yards per 35-ton load |
|---|---|---|
| Crusher Run | 1.50 | 23.3 yd³ |
| #57 Limestone | 1.35 | 25.9 yd³ |
| Limestone Screenings | 1.50 | 23.3 yd³ |
| Pea Gravel | 1.30 | 26.9 yd³ |
| Bank Run Gravel | 1.40 | 25.0 yd³ |
Working with something other than gravel? The full materials calculator covers everything we stock, including topsoil and fill dirt, and can size an order from a total quantity instead of dimensions.