"About a truckload" is the most common gravel order we get from homeowners — and for a 90-foot driveway it's almost always wrong. One truckload of crusher run will typically cover only about a third of what a driveway that size actually needs. The miscount is a math problem, not a memory problem, and it's worth understanding before you order.
If you're ordering bulk material, you need to think in cubic yards — not "loads" or "scoops" — because that's how every yard between Chattanooga and Fort Oglethorpe prices and tickets it.
A cubic yard is a cube three feet on each side: 27 cubic feet of material. A standard tandem-axle dump truck typically hauls 12 to 16 cubic yards depending on the truck and the material's density. A tri-axle can run 18 to 22.
That's volume, not weight. Crusher run weighs roughly 2,500 to 3,000 pounds per cubic yard (about 1.4 tons per yard). So a 15-yard load is in the neighborhood of 20 tons. That matters when you're crossing a soft yard or driving over a culvert pipe.
For any rectangular area:
To convert depth in inches to feet, divide by 12. So a 4-inch depth is 0.33 feet.
Say you've got a driveway 12 feet wide and 100 feet long, and you want 4 inches of crusher run as a base.
Round up to 15, then add a waste factor. For driveways, 10% is a reasonable cushion — call it 17 yards. Compaction shrinks the loose volume by roughly 15-20%, so the waste factor partly covers that.
Same driveway, but you want to put down 1.5 inches of #57 stone as a topping over your crusher run base.
Round to 6 yards delivered.
Some yards sell by the ton, some by the yard. The conversion depends on the material:
If a ticket says "10 tons" and you're trying to spread, divide by the density above to estimate yards.
Driveways in Lookout Mountain or Signal Mountain rarely run as a clean rectangle. For curves, break the area into rectangles and triangles, calculate each, and add them up. For sloped lots, measure along the slope (not the horizontal projection) — the surface area is what gets covered.
If you're building a pad, see the building pads pillar for typical base depths. For a full driveway buildup, the driveway building pillar walks through the layers.
A standard tandem dump truck holds about 12 to 16 cubic yards. A tri-axle holds 18 to 22. Smaller single-axle trucks run 6 to 10 yards.
A typical residential driveway uses 4 to 6 inches of compacted crusher run as the base, with an optional 1 to 2 inch topping of cleaner stone.
Most bulk yards have a minimum, often 1 yard for pickup loads or a full truck for delivery. Bagged material from a hardware store is the option for very small jobs.
Wet material is heavier per ton but the volume in cubic yards stays the same. Coverage doesn't change — what changes is how it handles during dumping and spreading.
Extra material can be stockpiled out of the way for future projects, but plan a spot before delivery — see our stockpile planning post once it's live.
