River Rock Calculator

A bed, a border, a dry creek — the short tons or bags to buy.

Material only — rock weight varies by size; your supplier's figure wins.

Units

Width

4' · 48 in · 4 ft · 1.2192 m

Length

25' · 300 in · 25 ft · 7.62 m

Depth

3" · 3 in · 0.25 ft · 0.0762 m

Quantity

Add or subtract

25 ft³

Stone

The yard sells it

Waste (%) ≈

10% covers what is pressed into soft ground, spread past the edges and left in the truck bed or the bags. It is added once, to the weight and to the loose yards.

This page recalculates as you type. There is no Calculate button.

Answer

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Weight in short tons, with 10% waste

1.43 short tons (2,000 lb)

1.02 yd³ loose with 10% waste · 1.29 tonnes (1,000 kg) · 2,852 lb

Order 1.5 short tons (2,000 lb)

Weight in short tons, before waste 1.3 short tons (2,000 lb)

Tonnes, with 10% waste 1.29 tonnes (1,000 kg)

Loose, with 10% waste 1.02 yd³

Delivered, in quarter short ton steps 1.5 short tons (2,000 lb)

Or in bags 55 × 50 lb bags (0.5 ft³)

In place, cubic yards 0.926 yd³

In place, cubic feet 25 ft³

In place, cubic meters 0.708 m³

Weight, with 10% waste 2,852 lb

Ticked items cost $162.50

Buying note2,852 lb is about 2 trips in a full-size pickup at ~1,500 lb a load, if you haul it yourself. Your truck's payload is on the driver's door-jamb sticker; type it under Assumptions.

Breakdown

Area	Measurements	Qty	Volume in place	Share
Area 1	4' × 25' × 3"	Add ×1	25 ft³	100%

What to buy

Buying note2,852 lb is about 2 trips in a full-size pickup at ~1,500 lb a load, if you haul it yourself. Your truck's payload is on the driver's door-jamb sticker; type it under Assumptions.

Ways to buy the bags

Bags of gravel, sand and paver base are sold by volume, 0.5 ft³ a bag; the count is the loose volume over that.

50 lb bags (0.5 ft³) bags only 55 × 50 lb bags (0.5 ft³) Bags 55 Left over 0 ft³ Weight 2,750 lb Cost $301.40 Price per bag Reference price $5.48. Type your store's.

Shopping list

River rock, delivered loose 1.5 short tons (2,000 lb) $162.50

Landscape fabric under the stone, 4 × 50 ft roll 1 rolls $24.00 Fabric, price per ft² Reference price $0.12. Type your store's.

Ticked items $162.50

Untick what you already have. A delivered load's price includes the delivery fee you type below.

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Bags or a delivered load

Bags $301.40

Delivered $162.50 order 1.5 short tons (2,000 lb)

The delivered load is $138.90 cheaper.

From 0.75 short tons (2,000 lb) up, a delivered load costs less than bags.

Round the order up to

Buy it as

Delivered, per short ton (2,000 lb) Reference price $45.00. Type your store's. Delivery fee, per load Reference price $95.00. Type your store's.

Every supplier rounds, sets a minimum and charges for small loads its own way. Ask before you order.

How this was worked out

Every number below is yours. Each constant links to the row where you can change it.

Area 1 4' × 25' × 3" 25 ft³

All areas 25 ft³ ÷ 27 0.926 yd³ · 0.708 m³

Weight 0.926 yd³ × 1.4 short tons a yard, loose 1.296 short tons (2,000 lb)

Change:River rock, loose

Plus waste 1.296 short tons (2,000 lb) × (1 + 10%) 1.426 short tons (2,000 lb) · 1.294 tonnes (1,000 kg)

Loose, to order 0.926 yd³ × (1 + 10%) 1.019 yd³

Bags 27.5 ft³ ÷ 0.5 ft³ a bag 55 × 50 lb bags (0.5 ft³) · 0 ft³ left over

Change:Yield, 50 lb gravel bag

Delivered 1.426 short tons (2,000 lb) → quarter short ton 1.5 short tons (2,000 lb)

Cost 1.5 short tons (2,000 lb) × $45.00 + $95.00 $162.50

Assumptions

Every one of these is editable. Change one and the answer changes with it.

Assumption	Value	Confidence
River rock, looseStone Center (Ohio) gives 1.4-1.75 short tons per yd³; Inch Calculator's 1.2 is lower than that. Size and shape move it a lot; ask your supplier.	~ short ton/yd³	Derived or single-supplier
Yield, 50 lb gravel bag0.5 ft³ per 50 lb bag. Sand, which the sand page buys in the same bag: Sakrete Play Sand (data sheet REV 3-10) and Sakrete's commercial sands (Rev. 06/16) yield 0.5 ft³, Quikrete Premium Play Sand is labeled 'approx 1/2 cu. ft.'; mason sand runs larger, 0.6 ft³ (Sakrete, Rev. 04/16). Gravel: Quikrete All-Purpose Gravel as retailers list it.	~ ft³/bag	Derived or single-supplier
Where a delivered load starts to payAbout where bags stop making sense: 54 bags of 0.5 ft³, some 2,700 lb. Chosen, not sourced.	~ yd³	Derived or single-supplier
Your truck's payloadFull-size (1500-series) pickups advertise 2,260-2,440 lb of payload (2026), and ordinary trims carry 600-700 lb less; this is the low end. Your truck's figure is on the driver's door-jamb placard.	~ lb	Derived or single-supplier
Fabric overlap between stripsNRCS Construction Specification 95, Geotextile (national 210-VI-NIH, May 2001): panels joined without sewing overlap at least 18 in unless otherwise specified.	in	From a data sheet or an agency document

How much river rock you need

Area × depth gives the volume of the bed, the rock's weight turns it into short tons, and 10% for waste goes on once. A bed 4 feet wide along 25 feet of wall, 3 inches deep, is 4 × 25 × 3/12 = 25 cubic feet, or 0.93 cubic yards. River rock weighs about 1.4 short tons a yard, so the bed holds 1.30 short tons; with waste you order 1.43 short tons, which a yard rounds up to 1½. Bought in bags of 0.5 cubic feet, the same bed is 55 bags.

River rock is laid loose, not compacted: it is round and washed, so it does not lock together under a plate compactor, and the depth you rake out is the depth you bought. That is why this page asks nothing about compaction for it. The waste is the rock pressed into soft ground, the rock spread past the edge, and the handful left in every bag.

How deep, for the size of rock

The one firm rule comes from road building: a layer of stone should be at least twice as deep as its largest stone, or the stones sit side by side with soil showing between them. For a bed that means:

Rock up to 1½ inches: 3 inches deep.
Rock up to 3 inches: 6 inches, or a single layer set by hand where the bed is for show rather than for walking on.
A dry creek: 4 inches of rock in the channel, with larger stones placed along the banks by hand, counted separately.

The figures past the two-stones rule are suppliers' advice; no agency publishes a depth for a garden bed. Landscape fabric under the rock keeps it out of the soil and the weeds out of the rock. The landscape fabric row on the list starts unticked; tick it and it counts the rolls to lay under the rock at an 18 inch overlap.

One short ton covers

Depth	One short ton covers
2 in	116 ft²
3 in	77 ft²
4 in	58 ft²

That is at 1.4 short tons a yard and before waste. A short ton is 2,000 lb, which is what a US yard means when it quotes a price "per ton"; a tonne of 1,000 kg is about 10% more, and the page prints both so the two are never confused.

What river rock weighs

Suppliers give 1.4 to 1.75 short tons a cubic yard, and some calculators use 1.2, so the figure here, 1.4, is an estimate from the low end of the suppliers' range. Rock size, how round it is and whether it is wet all move it. It is a box under Assumptions: if your yard tells you its own figure, type it and the short tons follow. We are not connected with any supplier.

A creek with a pool

A dry creek 3 feet wide and 30 feet long, 4 inches deep, running into a round pool 6 feet across, is two areas: 30 cubic feet for the channel and 9.4 for the circle. That comes to 2.25 short tons with waste, 1.61 loose yards, or 87 bags. Add an area for each piece, and subtract one for a boulder or a plant you leave in place.

Bags or a delivered load

The 55 bags for the bed above weigh about 2,750 lb — two trips in a full-size pickup at the 1,500 lb payload we assume — and at the reference $5.48 a bag they come to $301.40. Past about a cubic yard, a delivered load is usually less lifting and often less money. Type the yard's price per short ton and its delivery fee in the comparison under the shopping list to see which, and from what amount the load wins. The delivered prices start at a dated reference estimate; they vary by region, so type your yard's.