How Much Gravel for a 100 Foot Driveway? Tons by Depth

How much gravel for a 100 foot driveway? For a common 10-foot-wide driveway with 4 inches of crushed stone, plan on roughly 17 tons. Make it 12 feet wide and the same depth calls for about 21 tons. Those figures come from simple volume math and a typical planning weight of about 1.4 tons per cubic yard, so treat them as a starting point and confirm the weight your quarry or landscape yard uses for the stone you are buying.

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The math for a 100 foot run

A driveway is a long, thin box, so you only need three measurements: length, width, and depth.

Area. Length × width. A 100 by 10 foot driveway is 1,000 square feet; at 12 feet wide it is 1,200 square feet.
Volume. Multiply the area by the depth in feet (inches ÷ 12), then divide by 27 to get cubic yards. At 4 inches, 1,000 square feet works out to about 12.3 cubic yards.
Weight. Multiply cubic yards by the stone’s weight per yard. At 1.4 tons per yard, 12.3 yards is about 17.3 tons.

The weight figure is the one that moves the most between products. Dense crushed stone with fines weighs more per yard than clean, open stone, and wet stone weighs more than dry. Our gravel weight per yard guide explains the range, and how much a ton of gravel covers runs the same math from the other direction.

Tons of gravel for a 100 foot driveway by width and depth

Every row below assumes a 100-foot length and 1.4 tons per cubic yard, loose measure, before compaction or waste.

Depth	10 ft wide	12 ft wide	16 ft wide
2 in	~6.2 yd³ / ~8.6 tons	~7.4 yd³ / ~10.4 tons	~9.9 yd³ / ~13.8 tons
4 in	~12.3 yd³ / ~17.3 tons	~14.8 yd³ / ~20.7 tons	~19.8 yd³ / ~27.7 tons
6 in	~18.5 yd³ / ~25.9 tons	~22.2 yd³ / ~31.1 tons	~29.6 yd³ / ~41.5 tons
8 in	~24.7 yd³ / ~34.6 tons	~29.6 yd³ / ~41.5 tons	~39.5 yd³ / ~55.3 tons
12 in	~37.0 yd³ / ~51.9 tons	~44.4 yd³ / ~62.2 tons	~59.3 yd³ / ~83.0 tons

If your supplier uses a lighter or heavier figure, scale the tons in the same proportion. At 1.2 tons per yard, a 12-foot-wide, 4-inch driveway drops to about 17.8 tons; at 1.5 tons per yard it rises to about 22.2 tons. The cubic yards do not change, only the weight.

Picking the depth before you pick the number

Depth drives this whole calculation, and the right depth depends on what is already there.

Refreshing an existing gravel driveway. If the base is firm and only the top has thinned out, a 2- to 4-inch top-up is a common choice. Look for bare spots and ruts first, since filling holes eats tons.
Building a new driveway on soil. New drives are usually built thicker and in layers, with coarser stone at the bottom and a finer, binding stone on top. Soft or clay soil needs more depth than firm, well-drained ground. The four-inch, six-inch, and eight-inch base guides break each layer out.
A base that will be paved later. If asphalt is coming, size the stone as a base course and keep it separate from the hot mix order. The gravel base calculator guide walks through both.

For which stone goes in which layer, see driveway gravel sizes. A fabric layer between soil and stone can also help keep the first layer from sinking in; geotextile fabric for a driveway covers when it is worth it.

Why the delivered tons rarely match the table exactly

Compaction. Packing the stone pushes air out, so a layer spread 4 inches deep finishes thinner. If the final thickness matters, plan around the compacted depth and order a cushion.
Crown and shoulders. A driveway built higher in the middle to shed water, or with stone feathered past the edges, uses more than a flat rectangle.
Width changes. Flares at the road, a wider parking area near the house, or a turnaround all add square feet. Measure those as separate rectangles and add them up.
Soft spots. Mud and low areas swallow stone. Fixing drainage before delivery keeps more of what you paid for on top.

Turning tons into truckloads

Gravel is usually sold by the ton and delivered by the truckload, and how much one truck carries depends on the truck and on local road weight limits. Ask the yard what a full load is for the stone you want, then divide. A 12-foot-wide, 4-inch driveway at about 21 tons may be a single large load from one supplier and two smaller loads from another. If you are splitting the job into layers, schedule the deliveries so each layer can be spread and packed before the next one arrives. Gravel driveway cost shows how tons, delivery, and spreading show up on a bill.

A worked example

Say your driveway is 100 feet long and 12 feet wide, and the base is solid but worn thin. You decide on a 3-inch top layer. The area is 1,200 square feet. At 3 inches (0.25 feet), that is 300 cubic feet, or about 11.1 cubic yards. At 1.4 tons per yard, the order is about 15.6 tons before any cushion. Check your own size in the base calculator, and keep the numbers handy if you ever switch to blacktop with the main asphalt tonnage calculator.

Questions people ask

How many tons of gravel for a 100 foot driveway?

At about 1.4 tons per cubic yard and 4 inches deep, plan on roughly 17 tons for a 10-foot-wide driveway and about 21 tons for a 12-foot-wide one, before any cushion for compaction.

How many cubic yards of gravel for a 100 foot driveway?

About 12.3 cubic yards at 10 feet wide and 4 inches deep, or about 14.8 cubic yards at 12 feet wide. Multiply length by width by depth in feet, then divide by 27.

How deep should gravel be on a driveway?

A top-up on a firm existing driveway is often 2 to 4 inches. A new driveway on soil is usually built thicker and in layers, with more depth on soft or clay ground.

Should I order extra gravel for compaction?

Yes. Packed stone ends up thinner than it was spread, and crowns, edges, and soft spots use more. Order a cushion and confirm the weight per yard your supplier uses.

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