Gravel Calculator
Figuring gravel by hand means juggling cubic feet, cubic yards, and tons in your head, and gravel gets sold by all three depending on the supplier. Enter your area and depth below. You'll get the volume in cubic yards, the weight in tons, a bag count for smaller jobs, and a cost estimate you can set to your own price. Driveways, paths, drainage trenches, patio bases, it handles all of them.
How this is calculated
The math is volume first, then weight. Multiply length by width to get the area, multiply that by your depth (converted from inches to feet) to get cubic feet, then divide by 27 to get cubic yards. To get tons, multiply the cubic yards by the gravel's density, around 1.4 tons per cubic yard for standard gravel, though it shifts a little by stone type. The tool adds your waste percentage on top and rounds up, because ordering the exact figure leaves you short the moment the ground isn't perfectly flat.
A worked example
Say you're laying gravel over a 12 by 24 foot area, 4 inches deep. That's 288 square feet, times 0.33 feet of depth, which is about 96 cubic feet, or 3.6 cubic yards. At 1.4 tons per yard that's roughly 5 tons. Add 10% for waste and you're ordering about 5.5 tons. The calculator does all of that the second you type the numbers in.
Common questions
For a standard driveway, plan on 4 inches of depth minimum, 6 for new construction over bare dirt. A single-car driveway around 10 by 20 feet at 4 inches works out to roughly 2.5 cubic yards, or about 3.5 tons. Enter your real dimensions above for an exact number.
About 1.4 tons for typical gravel, but it ranges from 1.35 to 1.5 depending on the stone. Crushed stone runs denser than pea gravel. The calculator lets you pick the type so the tonnage is right.
Yes. Add 10% for most jobs, more if your ground is uneven or hard to edge. Coming up short means a second delivery fee for a few bags' worth of stone.
Both. Bulk gravel is usually priced by the ton, smaller amounts sometimes by the yard, and bagged gravel by the bag. This tool gives you all three so you can match whatever your supplier quotes.
Estimates for planning. Verify against your supplier's units and your local building codes before ordering or building. For anything structural, follow your engineer or local code.