To figure how much gravel you need, multiply length by width by depth, all in feet, and divide by 27 to get cubic yards, then multiply the cubic yards by the tons per yard for your stone to get tons. That second step matters more than most people expect, because a yard of sand and a yard of base do not weigh the same, and the yard across town may quote you in tons while the one down the road quotes in yards.
The gravel formula
Here is the math in one place:
Cubic yards = length (ft) × width (ft) × depth (ft) ÷ 27
Depth is the part that trips people up, because you measure the area in feet but think about depth in inches. Divide inches by 12 to get feet, so 4 inches becomes 0.333 feet. If you would rather skip that step, Texas AgriLife Extension publishes a shortcut that does the conversion for you:
Cubic yards = area (sq ft) × depth (inches) ÷ 324
A cubic yard is a 3 by 3 by 3 foot cube, which is 27 cubic feet, so at 1 inch deep one yard covers 324 square feet, at 2 inches it covers 162, at 3 inches 108, and at 4 inches 81. Once you have cubic yards, tons are one multiplication away:
Tons = cubic yards × tons per cubic yard
Tons per yard depends on the stone. Kokosing, through its aggregates business (The Olen Corporation and Area Aggregates), publishes 1.5 tons per yard for sands, 1.65 for coarse gravel and limestone in sizes like #57 and #8, and 1.75 for base materials and screenings. Every one of those numbers is approximate, and we get into why below, but they will get you close enough to place an order.
Gravel calculator
Enter the size of the area and the depth, pick a stone or type your yard's own weight per yard, and the calculator gives you cubic yards and tons, with and without a waste allowance.
13.44 tons (8.15 cubic yards) with 10% extra
600 square feet at 4 inches deep is 200 cubic feet, or 7.41 cubic yards. At 1.65 tons per cubic yard that is 12.22 tons before the extra.
Three worked examples
The best way to trust a formula is to run a few real jobs through it. These three match the calculator above, so you can check your own numbers against them.
Driveway: 60 by 10 feet at 4 inches of #57
A 60 by 10 foot driveway is 600 square feet, and 4 inches is a third of a foot, so the volume is 200 cubic feet. Divide by 27 and you get 7.41 cubic yards. At 1.65 tons per yard for #57, that is 12.22 tons. Add the 10% waste allowance Patuxent Companies recommends and you are ordering 13.44 tons, which is 8.15 cubic yards if your yard sells by volume.
Garden path: 30 by 3 feet at 2 inches of pea gravel
A 30 by 3 foot path is 90 square feet, and at 2 inches deep that is 15 cubic feet, or 0.56 cubic yards. Stone Center, an Ohio stone yard, lists pea gravel at 1.4 to 1.6 tons per yard, so type 1.4 into the "your own tons per cubic yard" box for the low end of that range. That gives you 0.78 tons, or 0.86 tons with 10% extra. For a job this small, most yards will sell you their minimum and call it close enough, and the leftover becomes somebody's very nice flower pot drainage layer.
Shed pad: 12 by 16 feet at 4 inches of base
A 12 by 16 foot pad is 192 square feet, and 4 inches deep is 64 cubic feet, or 2.37 cubic yards. Base and screenings run heavy at about 1.75 tons per yard, so 2.37 yards comes to 4.15 tons, and 4.56 tons with the 10% allowance. Base is the material where guessing low hurts the most, because a compacted pad that comes up an inch thin in the middle is a pad you get to redo.
Why tons per yard varies so much
Ask three sources how much a cubic yard of gravel weighs and you will get three answers, and all three are defensible. Here is what the published factors look like side by side, all of them approximate:
| Material | Kokosing (aggregates producer) | Stone Center (Ohio stone yard) | Nebraska DOT estimating guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sand | 1.5 tons | 1.10 to 1.25 tons | |
| Coarse gravel or limestone (#2, #4, #57, #67, #8, #9) | 1.65 tons | ||
| Landscape gravels | 1.25 to 1.35 tons | ||
| Washed gravel | 1.4 to 1.6 tons | ||
| Pea gravel | 1.4 to 1.6 tons | ||
| River rock | 1.4 to 1.75 tons | ||
| Crushed stone | 1.35 to 1.7 tons | ||
| Base materials and screenings (304, 411) | 1.75 tons | ||
| Stockpiled crushed concrete | 1.35 tons | ||
| Chip seal aggregate | 1.4 tons |
Patuxent Companies, for its part, uses one factor for everything on its calculator: cubic yards times 1.5. Now look at sand. Stone Center says 1.10 to 1.25 tons per cubic yard, while Kokosing says 1.5, and neither one is a typo. Moisture, gradation (how much fine material is mixed in with the coarse), and compaction all move the number, and a pile of damp screenings after a week of rain weighs more than the same pile baked dry in August. Stone Center says as much on its own calculator, noting that its figures vary with moisture content and compaction.
This is why the yard's own scale ticket wins every argument. The number that matters is what your stone, from your quarry, at this week's moisture, weighs going over the scale: gross weight minus tare weight is the net, and the net is what gets billed.
If you run a yard, here is a tip worth the fifteen minutes it takes. Weigh a level loader bucket of each bulk material you sell, or take a recent quarry ticket and divide the tons delivered by the yards that load filled in the bin. Post that number at the counter and save it on the item, and your per-yard and per-ton prices stay consistent with each other. Our guide to converting tons to cubic yards walks through the math in both directions, and the cubic yard calculator handles circles and triangles if the job is not a rectangle.
Gravel price per ton vs per yard
The question of gravel price per ton never goes away because the trade runs on two units at once. Quarries sell to yards by the ton, because the truck crosses a scale and the ticket prints a weight. Then the yard resells it, and some yards sell by the ton at their own scale, some by the cubic yard, and some by the loader bucket.
None of those are wrong, but they have to agree with each other on your price list. The conversion is one line: price per yard equals price per ton times your tons per yard for that material. Set a yard price without doing that math and you will be generous on the heavy stone and short on the light stone, or the other way around, and neither version shows up until you reconcile the month.
For customers, the practical advice is to compare quotes in the same unit before comparing the numbers. If one yard quotes per ton and another per yard, convert both with that stone's factor and then look at the totals. A quote that looks cheaper per yard can turn out to be the dearer load once the units line up.
Delivery is often priced as its own line rather than folded into the stone, so compare delivered totals rather than pile prices, and our guide to delivery fees and fuel surcharges covers how yards structure those charges. As for the prices themselves, they vary by region, haul distance, and stone, so the only reliable answer is to call the yard. And if you sell from bulk, know that many states require a delivery ticket on bulk sales showing the seller, the buyer, the date, the quantity, and the material (North Carolina's G.S. 81A-26 is a typical example), which our guide to scale tickets for bulk material yards covers field by field.
For yards: setting up gravel in your POS
Gravel exposes every weakness in a retail point of sale, because nothing about it fits the scan-a-barcode model. You sell in bulk units, in partial amounts, at different prices for different buyers, and often on account, so a few setup decisions do most of the work.
First, units of measure. Set up each bulk product in the unit you sell it in, ton or yard, and turn on decimal quantities so 12.22 tons enters as one clean line instead of a workaround. Decimal quantities should be a switch on each product rather than a storewide setting, because nobody wants 1.75 hammers to be possible in the same system.
Second, price levels. Your landscapers and contractors expect a different number than the Saturday homeowner, so set contractor price levels that apply automatically when the right customer is on the ticket. Our guide to customer price levels and contractor pricing goes deep on structuring those tiers.
Third, house accounts. A good share of bulk volume goes out the gate on terms, with a statement at the end of the month, and charge accounts with credit limits keep that from turning into a shoebox of carbon copies.
How Rundoo handles bulk stone
Rundoo is the AI-first POS for independent supply stores, and bulk sells in any unit of measure you set up, ton or yard, with decimal quantities switched on per product so 12.22 tons rings as 12.22 tons. Landscaper pricing tiers are set once and applied on every line, charge accounts carry credit limits, finance charges, and statements, and you can schedule the delivery from the sale with the driver seeing the stop in the Staff App. Rundoo does not connect to a scale, so the counter types the net weight from the scale ticket into the sale. The garden center side of all this lives on our garden center POS page.
