How Much Landscaping Rock Do I Need? An Easy Guide

Lawns are becoming less popular. Today’s designers, architects, and consumer trends are gravitating toward more efficient solutions that are both ecologically friendly and attractive. Landscape rocks are one of them, since they combine strength, adaptability, and style.

Once you decide that landscaping rocks are the material for your design project usually the first question that comes to mind is… How Much Landscaping Rock Do I Need?

Here is an easy guide that will walk you through that process.

Consider the Following When Using Landscaping Rocks

Small rocks are great in a variety of landscaping projects and gardening applications. One of their uses is for walkways or to line garden pathways, but they may also be used as mulch.

When ordering landscaping rock, you must ensure that you receive the correct quantity. Insufficient will result in bare spots in your rock garden.

On the other hand, when you purchase in excess, you squander money and must either find a home for them or dispose of them.

Calculating How Much Landscaping Rock Do I Need requires accurately taking the proper measurements in your yard, from which you can determine how much you need to purchase.

Landscaping stone is generally sold in cubic yard quantities and is available in both cubic foot bags and bulk material form.

How many tons of landscape rock do I need?

As a general rule of thumb a yard of rock, on average, will cover 100 square feet at a depth of roughly two inches. Utilize our calculators to quickly determine the quantity of material required for your project.

Additionally, how can I determine the required tonnage of rock? Length in feet multiplied by width in feet multiplied by depth in feet (inches divided by 12). Divide the sum by 21.6. (the amount of cubic feet in a ton). The final value will represent the approximate tonnage required.

Common Landscaping Stone Types

Here are some of the most common type of rock used in stone landscaping projects.

• Decomposed Granite
• Pea Gravel
• Crushed Granite
• Mexican Beach Pebbles
• Lava Rock
• River Rocks

Tools Required to Determine the Required Amount of Rock

The instruments required are quite straightforward, since historically, all that is required is a measuring tape and a calculator. Fortunately, if you possess a smartphone, it almost always includes a calculator app. You may even come across applications for measuring physical distances.

Having said that, they are very new, and for something as significant as this (and the costs involved), it is definitely wise to do your own physical measurements.

When designing a landscaping rock project, one critical consideration is how much material will be required.

Calculating precisely can help you save money and time. You don’t want to purchase too little rock and end up with insufficient coverage for your landscape.

However, if you purchase too much, you’ve squandered money—and time dispersing it about.

Steps to Calculate how much landscaping rock Do I need?

When determining the quantity of landscaping rock to order for your project, two variables must be considered:

• The area you’re covering
• How deep you want the coverage to be

To determine the size, take measurements of the length and depth of the project area. Multiply these two figures to obtain the square footage of the area. Thus, if your project is 18 feet by 20 feet, your covering area is 360 square feet.

Following that, select how deep you want your coverage to be. For the majority of uses, around 2 inches of material will be enough. If you’re utilizing materials bigger than 2 inches in diameter, the depth will likely be determined by the rock size; that is, you’ll want just one layer of 3-8 inch gravel.

The quantity of landscaping rock you’ll require is somewhat determined by the size of rock or gravel you intend to utilize. This graphic illustrates the approximate area that one ton of various types of material will cover.

length x width = Square footage of coverage area.

Square feet of coverage area ÷ coverage area per 1 ton = tons of rock needed.

Using this method, you can see that if you want to cover 360 square feet with rocks ranging in size from 1″ to 3″, you’ll likely need 4.5 tons. If you use smaller materials, such as 3/4″-1″, you may only require 3.6 tons.

Calculating the Required Amount of Rock or Gravel

Calculating the Required Amount of Rock or Gravel

Proceed to the area you wish to cover and extend out your measuring tape to take note of its breadth. Inches are the units of measurement for this information. Rep for the length.

Perform each measurement at least twice or three times to ensure accuracy. Then determine the desired depth of the rock. To find the cubic volume, multiply the width by the length by the depth.

Initially measuring in inches allows for accurate measurement without having to deal with decimals and fractions, but you will ultimately need to. This is because landscaping rock is generally sold in cubic yard quantities.

Assume you have a 60-inch-long by 50-inch-wide space and wish to cover it with rock 2 inches thick. Divide all of these figures by 12 to convert them to feet, which results in a length of 5 feet, a width of 4.1667 feet, and the required depth of 0.1667 feet.

Add all of those up and you obtain a total volume of 3.4729 cubic feet. To convert it to cubic yards, you must first understand that each cubic yard contains 27 cubic feet.

That is, multiply 3.4729 inches by 27 to obtain 0.1286 cubic yards. Fortunately, there are several online calculators available to assist you, and you can generally have an employee from a garden shop or landscaping supplier go over your notes and double-check your arithmetic. They are not interested in selling you more or less than you require.

Calculation of the Required Rock to Fill a Circular Area

If you’re filling a circular space, the only measurement that matters is the radius. That is the distance from the circle’s center to its outside border. You would multiply the radius by itself and then by 3.14 to obtain the area.

If you’re looking for a quick and straightforward budget calculation, suppose that one yard of rock can cover 100 square feet about 2 inches. While this guideline does not require particular preparation, it is beneficial in assessing the scope, scale, and financial viability of your landscaping aspirations.

Suggestions for Landscaping with Decorative Rocks

If you must use landscaping rock as mulch, do it only in beds that include plants that require little moisture. Alpine plants and cactus are excellent examples.

Additionally, construct barriers around areas filled with landscaping stones, particularly if they are adjacent to an open grass. Keep rock in its appropriate places so it does not fall into your grass and cause damage to your mowing equipment.

What to Look for When Purchasing Gravel and Landscape Rocks

1. Utilization of Decorative Stone

When shopping for landscaping rock, keep in mind that it is occasionally referred to as ornamental rock. Use it to frame parts of your landscape design or to create paths and boundaries.

Additionally, it’s an excellent method to balance out water features. Decorative rock lends visual weight to your environment and is available in an array of sizes, types, colors, and textures.

2. Proper Grading of the Area Prior to Laying the Rocks

Prior to laying the rock, make certain that the space you wish to fill is correctly graded. If it is not, ensure that it is. If you do not notice this, the weight of the rock may cause drainage problems.

3. Typical Rock Dimensions

As previously said, ornamental rock comes in a variety of sizes. However, the most common measurements available on the market begin at 1/4 and 3/8 inch and progress up to 1/2 and 3/4 inch and even 1 and 1 1/4 inch sizes.

4. Is available in bulk or in small quantities

Decorative rock can be supplied in bulk to your location, typically by dump truck. However, some materials, like pea gravel and pebbles, are available in bagged form.

You may either hire a skilled contractor or do it yourself. Small-scale installations, on the other hand, require robust work gloves, sturdy boots or shoes, a solid wheelbarrow, and both round- and flat-nose shovels.

5. Establishing the Dimensions of Decorative Rocks

If you’re having difficulty estimating the appropriate depth of ornamental rock, a normal installation is around 2 inches, which is why that measurement was utilized in the preceding example.

When placing an order for rock, make an attempt to place it all at once. Different batches will not all be identical in hue. Naturally, because rock is a natural product, variances in the colors and colours will occur.