How much does a ton of pea gravel cover?

About 125 ft² at 2 inches deep, 83 ft² at 3 inches, and 62 ft² at 4 inches. The math comes from pea gravel's loose weight of roughly 96 lb/ft³: a ton is about 21 cubic feet of stone, and depth divides that volume into area.

How much does a cubic yard of pea gravel cover?

A cubic yard is 27 ft³, so it covers about 162 ft² at 2 inches deep and 108 ft² at 3 inches. A yard weighs roughly 1.3 tons (about 2,600 lb), which is why yard coverage runs about 30% higher than ton coverage at every depth.

How many bags of pea gravel do I need per square foot?

A standard 0.5 ft³ bag covers 3 ft² at 2 inches deep and 2 ft² at 3 inches. Flip it around: a 100 ft² patio at 3 inches needs about 50 bags — which is exactly why anything beyond a small accent area should be ordered in bulk.

How deep should pea gravel be for a walkway?

2 inches over a compacted base of crusher run or stone dust. Deeper is worse, not better — past about 3 inches, rounded stones shift underfoot like dry sand and the path becomes tiring to walk. Save the depth budget for the base layer instead.

How deep should pea gravel be in a play area?

6 inches is the practical minimum for a residential play area, and 9 inches of loose fill is the CPSC guideline for playground fall zones under climbing equipment. Coverage drops fast at these depths — one ton covers only about 42 ft² at 6 inches — so play areas consume far more stone than their footprint suggests.

Should I add extra to my pea gravel estimate?

Add 10% for waste, settling into the base and uneven excavation. On small orders, round up to the supplier's next half-ton increment. Running short means paying a second delivery fee for a wheelbarrow's worth of stone — the most expensive gravel you will ever buy.

Gravel · Pea Gravel

Pea gravel coverage

A ton of pea gravel covers a patio or vanishes into a play area — depth decides which. Here is exactly how far a ton, a yard and a bag go at every practical depth.

Contents

1.Coverage per ton at 1–4 inches
2.Coverage per cubic yard and per bag
3.Recommended depths by application
4.The coverage formula
5.Worked example: a garden path

Coverage per ton at 1–4 inches

Pea gravel weighs about 96 lb/ft³ loose, so a 2,000 lb ton is roughly 21 cubic feet of stone. Spread thinner, that volume stretches; spread deeper, it disappears. Doubling the depth exactly halves the coverage:

Area one ton of pea gravel covers, by depth

1 in deep250ft²

2 in deep125ft²

3 in deep83ft²

4 in deep62ft²

One inch is a dusting for refreshing an existing surface; it will not hide the ground below on a new install. Two inches is the working minimum over a compacted base, and four inches is loose decorative fill. All grades from 1/4 to 5/8 inch weigh essentially the same, so these numbers hold whatever size you buy.

Coverage per cubic yard and per bag

A cubic yard weighs ≈1.3 tons (2,600 lb), so yard coverage runs ≈30% above ton coverage at every depth.
Depth	Per cubic yard (27 ft³)	Per 0.5 ft³ bag
1 in	324 ft²	6 ft²
2 in	162 ft²	3 ft²
3 in	108 ft²	2 ft²
4 in	81 ft²	1.5 ft²≈54 bags to match one cubic yard

Suppliers quote in tons or yards interchangeably, and mixing the two units is the classic ordering mistake — a yard is 1.3 tons, not one. Bags exist for jobs measured in single squares of coverage; the cost guide shows the bag-vs-bulk crossover lands around 15 bags.

Recommended depths by application

Walked surfaces cap at 2–3 in — deeper pea gravel shifts underfoot. Fall-protection surfaces go the other way.
Application	Depth	One ton covers
Garden path / walkway	2 in over compacted base	≈125 ft²
Patio / seating area	2–3 in over compacted base	≈83–125 ft²
Decorative bed / ground cover	2–3 in over fabric	≈83–125 ft²
Dog run	4 in	≈62 ft²
Play area	6 in minimum	≈42 ft²9 in loose fill for CPSC playground fall zones

The coverage formula

Tons from area and depth

Tons = Area × (Depth ÷ 12) × 96 ÷ 2,000

Area: surface to cover (ft²)
Depth: stone depth (in)
96: loose unit weight of pea gravel (lb/ft³)

Divide the result by 1.3 to convert tons to cubic yards, or multiply cubic feet by 2 to get 0.5 ft³ bag counts. Add 10% for waste and settling.

Worked example: a garden path

Worked example

A 40 ft garden path, 3 ft wide, at the standard 2 in walkway depth over an existing compacted base.

1
Area
40 × 3 = 120 ft²
2
Volume
120 × (2 ÷ 12) = 20 ft³
3
Weight
20 × 96 = 1,920 lb ≈ 0.96 tons
4
Waste allowance
0.96 × 1.10 ≈ 1.1 tons — order 1 ton and keep 2–3 bags in reserve
5
Bag check
20 ft³ ÷ 0.5 = 40 bags — well past the ~15-bag crossover, so buy bulk

Result: One bulk ton plus a couple of reserve bags covers the path. In bags alone, the same stone would cost roughly four times as much.

Coverage questions

Skip the arithmetic

Enter length, width and depth — the pea gravel calculator returns tons, cubic yards and bag counts with waste built in.

Open the Pea Gravel Calculator

Plan the rest of the job

Pea Gravel CostPer ton, per yard and per bag, priced honestly.Guide Pea Gravel Installation GuideBase, edging and depth — the 90-minute skill.Guide

Sources & references

[1]ASTM C29/C29M: Bulk Density (Unit Weight) and Voids in Aggregate — ASTM International, 2017
[2]The Aggregates Handbook, 2nd ed. — National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, 2013