Crushed stone calculator

Crushed stone is sold under a numbering system that describes particle size rather than color or source, and picking the right number for a project matters more than most of the other decisions on this page, because the wrong size stone can fail at a job a correctly sized one would have handled easily. A dense graded base stone compacts the way a driveway or a paver base needs it to, while a clean, single size drainage stone is chosen specifically because it does not compact, since its job is to leave open voids for water to move through. If you already know which number you need, the #57 gravel calculator and the 3/4 gravel calculator run the same area based math with that specific material in mind, built around the same numbered classification this page just uses as a general selector.

The practical difference between a clean stone and a dense graded one comes down to what else is mixed in with the main particle size. A clean stone like a washed #57 is mostly one size with the fine material screened out, which is why it drains well and why it is a common choice for french drains and under slabs where water needs somewhere to go, and the open voids that make it drain well are the same reason it does not settle into a firm walking surface the way a graded stone does. A dense graded stone, often sold as crusher run, includes a spread of particle sizes down to fine dust, which lets it pack tightly under compaction and is why it shows up under driveways and patios where a stable, load bearing surface matters more than drainage. Mixing the two mentally, assuming a clean drainage stone will compact like a dense graded base or the other way around, is a common source of disappointment on a finished project, so it is worth confirming with the supplier which category their specific numbered product falls into before you commit to an order, since the number alone does not always make the distinction obvious without asking directly.

This page defaults to area mode because a single course of crushed stone, spread evenly over a measured footprint, covers most of what people use it for: a walkway, a bed under a shed, or a simple parking area. If your project actually needs more than one layer, such as a compacted base under a finer surface stone, the gravel driveway calculator and the paver base calculator are built for exactly that layered case and will give a more accurate tonnage than running this page twice with two different depths.

Density is the reason the same volume of crushed stone can come out to a noticeably different weight depending on the specific material you select here, and it is also why comparing quotes between suppliers by cubic yard alone can be misleading if they are weighing out different stone. A denser, more angular stone packs more mass into the same volume than a lighter, more rounded one, which is part of why switching the material selector above changes the tonnage figure even when the area and depth stay the same. If you need to go from this page's tonnage to a truckload count, the gravel calculator for tons covers that conversion directly. Keeping the material consistent between the quote and the delivery matters here too, since a supplier substituting a visually similar but differently graded stone can quietly change both the density and the price without the swap being obvious until the invoice arrives.

If you are still deciding between crushed stone and a rounded alternative like pea gravel for the same project, the choice usually comes down to whether the surface needs to feel firm underfoot or support any vehicle weight at all. The guide comparing pea gravel and crushed stone and the guide on crusher run both cover that decision from a different angle than this page's size by number breakdown, and the pea gravel calculator elsewhere on this site runs the comparable area math if you settle on the rounded option instead. Neither material is strictly better across every project, and a quick look at what is already installed on similar homes or paths nearby is often a faster way to settle the question than weighing every technical tradeoff from scratch.