How much does a gravel driveway cost?
Gravel is the cheapest driveway there is, and the one where the delivery costs as much as the stone. Loose gravel runs about $40 – $85 per cu yd; a driveway wants four inches of it over a compacted base, so a single-car drive is a few cubic yards and a few hundred dollars, plus the truck. Here is the arithmetic, and the parts of the job that are not the stone.
Gravel driveway cost calculator
What will your driveway cost in gravel?
Working out a whole yard rather than one bed? Sketch it to scale in the planner and every area is measured, costed and totalled together.
Two layers, not one
A gravel driveway that lasts is a base of larger crushed stone, four to six inches compacted, with a surface of smaller stone, three to four inches, on top. The base carries the car; the surface is what you see and what gets topped up every few years. Dumping one grade of stone on bare ground works until the first wet winter, when it disappears into the mud.
Both are bought by the cubic yard or the ton, and the conversion between them depends on the stone. Cubic yards versus tons covers that. The sum for each layer is the same one every guide here uses:
cubic yards = (square feet × depth in inches) ÷ 324
By driveway
Surface stone only, four inches deep, at the national range. Add roughly the same again for the base if you are building from bare ground, and a delivery charge per load.
| Driveway | Area | Stone at 4 in | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single, one car, 10 × 40 ft | 400 sq ft | 4.9 cu yd | $198 – $420 |
| Single, long, 12 × 60 ft | 720 sq ft | 8.9 cu yd | $356 – $756 |
| Double, 20 × 40 ft | 800 sq ft | 9.9 cu yd | $395 – $840 |
Delivery is the other half
A gravel yard charges per load to deliver, and most will not send less than a couple of cubic yards. On a big driveway that charge is a small share; on a short one it can match the stone. Order the base and the surface together where you can, and ask the yard what one truck carries: a single delivery that is slightly more stone than you need is usually cheaper than two deliveries that are exactly right.
Loose stone also settles under a compactor. Order about a quarter more than the compacted volume the formula gives you, and check that allowance with the yard, because it moves with the material.
What else the job needs
Edging, or the stone migrates into the lawn and the lawn into the stone. Steel or timber edging along both sides is the usual answer and is priced by the foot. Fabric between the ground and the base on clay or soft soil, so the two do not mix. A crown, an inch or two higher down the middle than at the edges, so rain runs off rather than pooling and washing ruts. And a compactor, rented for a day, because stone that is not compacted is stone that moves.
Against concrete and pavers
The same driveway in poured concrete runs about $6 – $14 per sq ft, and in pavers about $12 – $28 per sq ft, both installed over a deeper base than gravel needs. Gravel is a tenth of the price and can be laid in a weekend; the trade is that it needs topping up, it tracks stone into the garage, and snow clearing is a chore. For a long rural drive there is no contest. For a short suburban one, the comparison is worth running in the planner with the real dimensions.
Quick checklist
- A base of coarse stone, then a surface of finer stone. Price both.
- Four inches of surface: area in square feet × 4 ÷ 324 is the cubic yards.
- Order about a quarter more than that for compaction, in as few deliveries as possible.
- Edging on both sides, fabric under the base on soft ground, and a crown down the middle.
- Rent a plate compactor. It is the difference between a driveway and a pile.
Draw your driveway in the planner
Paint the driveway as gravel and set its depth, and the planner gives you the cubic yards, the tonnage and the cost for your state, with edging priced by the foot beside it. The low-water front yard example shows a decomposed granite surface used the same way.