Is there a certian formula that you use for estimating how much gravel is needed for a drive way? I have never really had to buy a lot of gravel so I'm not familar with the measurements they use. I want to make sure I order enough but at the same time I dont want to order too much. Thanks in advance.
Figuring gravel for driveway
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NSBound
Platinum Member
There's lots of charts and calculators out there. Just use google and type in what you want to do. I just did and this is the first one that came up, provided by a trucking company : Construction Materials Calculator | Atak Trucking
L x W x H
brin
Super Member
My experience has been that crusher run gravel will cover about 150 ft. 3 " deep for a 10 ft. wide road and the dump truck can rough spread it if the driver is good and then you just need to finish spread it with your box or back blade or FEL. Just to give you a rough idea. That is for a 15 ton load as I recall..a full double axle dump truck load.
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flusher
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My driveway is 330 ft L x 20ft W x 0.5ft deep = 3300 cu ft = 122 cu yd of road base gravel. The ground was excavated 6" deep and leveled. The gravel was placed in 2" lifts and was watered and packed with a vibratory roller after each lift was placed. The end of the driveway connecting to the road was paved with asphalt for the first 20 ft to satisfy county requirements for interfacing to the road.
That was 5 years ago and it hasn't required any maintenance at all. Cost: about $7500.
DJ54
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I have a Lufkin construction calculator. You can get them at Lowe's, Sears, etc. I got mine on ebay.. 3 as a matter of fact, and gave the other two to buddies for Christmas presents. I use it a lot..!! If your going to be doing a lot of projects, they are well worth the money in my book.
Or, just figure the WxLxH to figure your cubic yards with the online calculator, then multiply by 1.5 for conversion to tonnage. You'll be pretty close.
I also have a Construction Master IV which will figure bd.ft. Sure is handy when going to auctions and they have a stack of rough sawn lumber, and have no idea, or take a guess at how much is there... A couple minutes to measure, and calculate the cubed bundle, will tell you pretty well right to the nub what you're paying per bd.ft.
Or, just figure the WxLxH to figure your cubic yards with the online calculator, then multiply by 1.5 for conversion to tonnage. You'll be pretty close.
I also have a Construction Master IV which will figure bd.ft. Sure is handy when going to auctions and they have a stack of rough sawn lumber, and have no idea, or take a guess at how much is there... A couple minutes to measure, and calculate the cubed bundle, will tell you pretty well right to the nub what you're paying per bd.ft.
xLearJockey
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Easy one is LxWxD (all measured in feet or fraction of feet) divided by 27 = cubic yards.
If your supplier sells by the ton instead of cubic yard you'll need to convert cubic yardage to tons.
For that, you'll need to know how many tons a cubic yard of (whatever it is you are buying, weighs.
If, for example, 1 cubic yard of #1 stone (or whatever) weighs 3000 lbs, then the conversion factor would be X cubic yards (figured from the above LxWxD/27) times 3000 (pounds/cubic yard) divided by 2000 (pounds/ton).
So, if you needed 1 cubic yard of (whatever) stone that weighed 3000 pounds/cubic yard.....it would be 1 (cy) times 3000 (#/cy) = 3000 (lbs) divided by 2000 (#/ton) equals (=) 1.5 tons.
The conversion factors (how many pounds/cubic yard) are readily available either on the net via google or in any standard engineering tome. They should also be easily obtainable by simply calling your supplier and asking how much a yard of their sand, stone, whatever, weighs.
The "x" factor is moisture.......a yard of stone is going to be pretty constant regardless of moisture......a yard of sand or loam will be considerably heavier (and therefore smaller by volume) if it's been rained on but measured by weight and converted to "yardage".
gerard
Veteran Member
Think you got your answers and running crush weighs about 3000 per cubic yard. Gravel pit are going to charge by the ton which is what most truckers will charge. I would figure out how many FULL loads you need and get that. No sense having him come with half a load. The material's cheap, trucking's not and you can always find a place to use extra material and it's not like it'll spoil..............
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
The big rigs are limited to 80,000 pounds total. So with the weight of the truck, the trailer and a full load, you get real close to that maximum weight to drive on the roads without a special permit.
On average, and for basic estimating, you can usually get 27 tons of rock per load. One load will give you real close to 100 feet , four inches thick and ten feet wide. Never put down less then four inches. Anything less and it's too think to lock together.
Driveway rock, also known as road base and a dozen other terms around the country, comes in sizes from a couple inches all the way down to fines. It's edges are jagged. This is important because when spread out and compacted, it will lock together to form a solid mass that will shed water and support the load of vehicle traffic. Once spread and compacted, you never want to tear it up again. The worse thing that you can ever do is to regrade it and smooth it out. Get it right the first time and leave it alone. Messing with it just means that some of it will wash away and you'll have a thinner road then before you started messing with it.
If you get a pothole or thin area, add more rock. Tear up the rock around that area, add the new rock and compact it all together.
Where I live, road base rock, deleivered in bulk is $22 a ton.
Hope this helps,
Eddie
On average, and for basic estimating, you can usually get 27 tons of rock per load. One load will give you real close to 100 feet , four inches thick and ten feet wide. Never put down less then four inches. Anything less and it's too think to lock together.
Driveway rock, also known as road base and a dozen other terms around the country, comes in sizes from a couple inches all the way down to fines. It's edges are jagged. This is important because when spread out and compacted, it will lock together to form a solid mass that will shed water and support the load of vehicle traffic. Once spread and compacted, you never want to tear it up again. The worse thing that you can ever do is to regrade it and smooth it out. Get it right the first time and leave it alone. Messing with it just means that some of it will wash away and you'll have a thinner road then before you started messing with it.
If you get a pothole or thin area, add more rock. Tear up the rock around that area, add the new rock and compact it all together.
Where I live, road base rock, deleivered in bulk is $22 a ton.
Hope this helps,
Eddie
Eddie, 100' x 10' x 4'' is only a little over 12 yards and less than 18 tons.
forgeblast
Elite Member
when it comes to gravel i try to over estimate. there is always a project that can use some gravel...lol. Since i sold my truck, it was a money pit, i have to rely on quarry trucks to get gravel which means i get 20 ton at a time which is a full truck load.
I have modified crusher run etc as the base on my driveway. I put a top coat of 1b on it this fall to "dress" it up and to fill in some small ruts. What i have noticed is that it has given us more traction since the water/ice/snow will freeze it in place. we will see how it handles come spring, if it sinks in or stays.
I have modified crusher run etc as the base on my driveway. I put a top coat of 1b on it this fall to "dress" it up and to fill in some small ruts. What i have noticed is that it has given us more traction since the water/ice/snow will freeze it in place. we will see how it handles come spring, if it sinks in or stays.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
I've never done the math on it, but I'm sure it's something like concrete. The pad is supposed to be 3 1/2 inches thick, but if you bought exactly how much concrete you needed by WxLxD, you'll end up short every time.
When I figure how much gravel to buy, I keep it simple and estimate 100 feet per load. If I end up with areas that are 5 to 6 inches deep, that's fine. It's not one of those things that will hurt anything, and thicker is better.
The biggest mistake anybody can make when buying rock is to put it on too thin. Four inches really is an important number for thickness. Depending on soil compaction and drainage, it also might not even be close to enough.
Eddie
harpoonalt
Gold Member
I've helped spread material for 3 driveways in my neighborhood. The longest was 300'. Trucking is the biggest cost. It pays to get the biggest truck you can to deliver to you. Eddie is right, Thicker is better. I estimated the long drive the best I could and spread out each load as delivered. The driver delivered the original order and then went back for one more load that we needed. Most places will do that for you if you ask. The turnaround time was an hour so we had plenty of time to get the freshly dropped material roughly spread.
It's hard to calculate loads needed exactly because weights vary due to moisture and some places ideas of 14 yards is way different from others. If you're paying by weight, try to get stuff after a dry spell so you aren't paying for water. From all the material I had delivered, I found the slightly higher priced guy ultimately gave me more for my money since his loads at 14 yards were noticeably larger than the cheaper guy. I always planned on one more load than the numbers suggested. After a few times you can get pretty close just by looking.
It's hard to calculate loads needed exactly because weights vary due to moisture and some places ideas of 14 yards is way different from others. If you're paying by weight, try to get stuff after a dry spell so you aren't paying for water. From all the material I had delivered, I found the slightly higher priced guy ultimately gave me more for my money since his loads at 14 yards were noticeably larger than the cheaper guy. I always planned on one more load than the numbers suggested. After a few times you can get pretty close just by looking.
skidsteer.ca
Gold Member
length x width x desired depth. Add 10 or 15 % for when it compacts.
My experience is you need 6" thickness to support smaller vehicles and 12" for large trucks. Though we have clay soils here that are a terrible base wet or dry. Plan on extra material, you will find a place for it.
I rented a belly dump and hauled in 3300 yards to do my drive and shop yard. Then went back for another 1200 a couple years later.
It was a wet fall and I'm sure I lifted the main road a foot 4 times, during the 125 + loads I hauled over it. So if you can,another reson to do it when it is dry out
Ken
My experience is you need 6" thickness to support smaller vehicles and 12" for large trucks. Though we have clay soils here that are a terrible base wet or dry. Plan on extra material, you will find a place for it.
I rented a belly dump and hauled in 3300 yards to do my drive and shop yard. Then went back for another 1200 a couple years later.
It was a wet fall and I'm sure I lifted the main road a foot 4 times, during the 125 + loads I hauled over it. So if you can,another reson to do it when it is dry out
Ken
Do you order 50%+ more concrete than you need?
Your rule of thumb works perfect for a 6" depth.
gerard
Veteran Member
Little apples and oranges isn't it? Extra gravel can be stockpiled and used in the future. Little hard to do that with concrete and at $22 a ton for actual material and no more for trucking, why WOULDN'T you figure on the high side??
Apples to Oranges?......Yes
The OP asked for a formula to figured how much he needed, because he doesn't want to much.
If I was ordering I would figure exactly how much I needed and then round up to a full load.
There is nothing wrong with a little stock pile, I always have a tridem load on hand, but to over figure by 50% could leave the OP with several semi loads to much, and that IMO would just be stupid.
EddieWalker
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Scotty370
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While were on this topic, what your take on Geo-Tex fabric under stone drives or garage floor, base slabs??
~Scotty
While were on this topic, what your take on Geo-Tex fabric under stone drives or garage floor, base slabs??~Scotty
smfcpacfp
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xLearJockey has it down.
I used a slightly different approach, not very scientific, since things were pretty slow at the gravel pit in late November, here in snow and cold country. I new I would take at least one load, so when they dropped it, I could see I needed quite a bit more so I told them to bring another which they spread out as much as possible ( I was probably their only job for the day) and then after my wife graded it out we called them again to bring the third and final load - 110 tons in all.
That night it got quite cold and was frozen as solid as a rock next morning, so the grading season ended. The following two days we had 30" of snow. We will see it again next April, if we are lucky.
I used a slightly different approach, not very scientific, since things were pretty slow at the gravel pit in late November, here in snow and cold country. I new I would take at least one load, so when they dropped it, I could see I needed quite a bit more so I told them to bring another which they spread out as much as possible ( I was probably their only job for the day) and then after my wife graded it out we called them again to bring the third and final load - 110 tons in all.
That night it got quite cold and was frozen as solid as a rock next morning, so the grading season ended. The following two days we had 30" of snow. We will see it again next April, if we are lucky.
