Crusher Run Calculator for Lanes, Pads and Shed Bases
Enter your project dimensions
The decision most people are actually making when they open this page is not which stone to buy. It is how deep to run it, and what that depth turns into in tons, on a lane that bends past a barn, widens at the mailbox and climbs a bank on the last hundred feet to the road. Almost nothing in a Pennsylvania yard is a clean rectangle. This crusher run calculator will still size it, as long as the shape gets broken up before any numbers go in.
Cutting a bending farm lane into pieces a tape can handle
Walk the job with a tape and a notepad before you touch the tool. Where the lane runs at a steady width, that stretch is one rectangle: length along the ground, width across the wheel tracks. Where it opens out at the barn door or the turnaround, that is a second rectangle. A round turning circle at the end of a lane is a third piece, and the box for it wants the diameter straight across the widest point, not the radius.
Measure along the ground on a grade rather than across level, because the stone has to cover the surface as it lies. Do not average a steep section into a flat one. On a hillside the low end usually carries the deeper layer, and averaging is how it ends up thin exactly where water collects.
Putting a 120-foot lane and a barn pull-off through the tool
Three shapes are offered: rectangle, circle, and multiple areas, which holds up to five pieces and totals them for you. Length, width and diameter go in as feet. Depth goes in as inches and the box accepts anything between 0.25 and 24. Pick the material from the list, leave the ten percent for compaction and spillage ticked if the layer is going to be rolled or driven on, then press the calculate button. Cubic yards, tons and cubic feet come back together, and the figure can be sent to yourself with Email my quote.
Example only, not a specification. A 120 ft lane at 9 ft wide, taken to 5 inches compacted, with a 12 by 14 ft pull-off at the barn taken to 6 inches because the feed truck uses it.
| Piece | Working | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Lane area | 120 x 9 | 1,080 sq ft |
| Lane volume | 1,080 x (5 ÷ 12) | 450 cu ft |
| Lane in yards | 450 ÷ 27 | 16.67 yd³ |
| Pull-off area | 12 x 14 | 168 sq ft |
| Pull-off volume | 168 x 0.5 | 84 cu ft |
| Pull-off in yards | 84 ÷ 27 | 3.11 yd³ |
| Both pieces | 16.67 + 3.11 | 19.78 yd³ |
| Tons at 1.50 t/yd³ | 19.78 x 1.5 | 29.7 tons |
| With the ten percent ticked | 21.76 yd³ | 32.7 tons |
Compacted depth by job: shed pads, drives, truck routes
Enter the finished rolled depth, not the loose depth you see when the pile is first spread. Loose material tightens by roughly ten to fifteen percent as it is compacted, which is why a layer ordered to its loose thickness reads short once it has been rolled.
- Paths and paver work: 4 inches compacted, built in two 2-inch lifts.
- Cars on a drive: 4 to 6 inches compacted.
- Anything a loaded truck or a tractor runs over: 6 to 8 inches.
- Shed, hot tub and generator pads: 4 inches after the sod and soft ground are stripped, 6 where the subgrade is soft.
- Clay subgrade or a wet spot: add depth rather than hoping the same layer holds.
Keep this blend out of a French drain. The fines that make it lock up also hold water, so drainage work wants clean stone such as 2B stone instead.
Three figures against a 3,000 lb yard
The weight behind every tonnage on this page is the published one for crusher run and road base: about 3,000 lb per cubic yard, or 1.50 tons per yard, and it is approximate. That is heavier than clean stone because stone dust fills the gaps between the larger pieces instead of leaving them open.
Cubic yards describe the size of the pile. Tons are the unit the stone is weighed and sold in, so tons is the number that goes on the order. Cubic feet is the small-job figure, useful when a wheelbarrow of known capacity is doing the carrying.
A shed pad and a hillside turnaround, same arithmetic
Shed pad (example). A 10 by 12 ft pad at 4 inches compacted. That is 120 sq ft x 0.333 = 40 cu ft, then 40 ÷ 27 = 1.48 yd³, and 1.48 x 1.5 = 2.2 tons.
Turnaround (example). A 20 ft circle at the top of a sloping lane, taken to 6 inches. Choose the circle shape and enter 20 ft. Area is 3.1416 x 10 x 10 = 314.2 sq ft, so 314.2 x 0.5 = 157.1 cu ft, which is 5.82 yd³ and 8.7 tons. With the ten percent ticked it reads 6.40 yd³, about 9.6 tons.
Both go down in lifts with a plate compactor, misted before rolling, because damp material binds tighter than dry. In this state that matters more than most places: winter freezes and thaws the same layer over and over, and a base that was rolled thin or left dry is the one that breaks up first. Wait for ground that has thawed and dried in spring, and stop once it turns frozen or muddy in late fall.
Crusher run or 2A modified: which calculator to open
Both carry the same 1.50 tons per yard here, so the arithmetic does not change. What changes is the name on the ticket. Pennsylvania yards mostly sell the compacting base for drives, pads and patio bases as 2A modified, and if that is what you intend to order, the road base calculator is the one to use. Stay on this page when the order is for Crusher Run itself. For a clean surface course over a finished base, size that layer separately in the gravel calculator, because clean stone weighs less per yard.
Run your figure, open the product page for the material you sized, and set the quantity and date there. Delivery is arranged at checkout from your ZIP code, and the truck needs a firm, open spot with room to back in and dump. Measurements that will not resolve into rectangles can go through the contact page.
Common questions
Can I check the tool's answer with a calculator on the kitchen table?
Yes, and on a big order it is worth doing. Multiply length by width for square feet, divide your depth in inches by 12 and multiply that through for cubic feet, then divide by 27 for cubic yards. Multiply the yards by 1.5 for tons. If your hand figure and the screen figure disagree, the usual culprit is a depth typed in feet when the box wants inches.
Two materials, same hole, different tonnage. Why?
Volume does not change, weight does. The tool works out cubic yards first from your measurements, then multiplies by the published weight of whatever you selected. Crusher run sits at 1.50 tons per yard, clean crushed stone at 1.40 and river rock at 1.35, so the same trench comes back heavier in crusher run than in anything cleaner.
Is ten percent enough of a cushion for a compacted base?
It covers spillage and the settling of a spread layer, which is what it is there for. It does not cover a subgrade that swallows the first lift, and it does not cover measuring the loose depth instead of the finished one. On soft or clay-heavy ground, leave it ticked and round the order up as well, rather than treating ten percent as the whole allowance.
My lane runs uphill. Does the tape go along the slope or across the level?
Along the slope, on the ground, because that is the surface the stone covers. A run of 100 ft measured level can be several feet longer over the ground once the grade is steep. If the bottom end needs a thicker layer than the top, split it into two areas and give each one its own depth.
How do I handle an L-shaped parking area?
Use the multiple areas option and enter the L as two rectangles that do not overlap. Take the long leg full length, then measure the short leg from where the long one ends, not from the outside corner, or you will pay for that corner twice. The tool adds up to five pieces and returns one total.
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Base tonnage sorted? Good.
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