If you don’t know how much gravel you need and how far it will spread, you may end up ordering too little. This may lead to an increase in time as you wait for another delivery, even though Decorative Gardens’ delivery times are as speedy as they come! If you order too much then you may end up with leftovers in your garden gravel bulk bags, meaning wasted money from your budget.
Fortunately, there are some practical tips you can learn to help you work out how much area your choice of garden gravel will cover, whether you are ordering highly decorative aggregate such as Silver Sparkle Chunkies 20-50mm, Canterbury Pink gravel or Crimson & Cream 10-20mm, or a more traditional and natural option like Golden Gravel 10-20mm, Cottage Cream Gravel 10-20mm, or Deco-Pak Cotswold Brown.
Calculating how much gravel you need
Calculating the amount of gravel you need based on the area that it will cover is easy. All you really need to know is how deep you want your coverage of gravel to be and how big the area is that you want to cover.
Factors such as the depth of the gravel you want will be based on answers to such questions as; where do you want to lay your aggregates, are you looking for granite chippings for driveways, and how do you want your gravel to perform? Do you need good drainage for planting, perhaps, or gravel deep enough and correctly shaped to make walking or driving on it as easy as possible?
Placing your order
If you are ordering your gravel from Decorative Gardens, most deliveries come in units of about 875kg. As a general rule of thumb, around 25kg of gravel will cover an area measuring around 0.6sqm. This is based on wanting coverage of about 50mm in depth, but you may want to lay a deeper layer than this, depending on the job you are doing and the way you want it to perform. The size of the gravel you choose will also play a part in your calculations.
How deep should you go?
If you choose a 10mm aggregate such as Premium Quartzite Pea Gravel 10mm or Cottage Cream Gravel 10-20mm, you may want to lay it to a depth of around 30-40mm. If, however, you are buying gravel or granite chippings for driveways, you will probably need to lay it up to a depth of around 50mm-60mm.
If you decide to use a 20mm aggregate, you would probably be looking at laying to a depth of around 40mm-50mm. This would rise to around 50mm-60mm if you are planning a driveway.
Measuring your space
Deciding on the area you want to cover is essential but it can be slightly more difficult than you may think to calculate. This is because most gardens or driveways aren’t perfectly square and designed exactly so you know how many bulk bags of slate chippings, granite chippings or other granite you need.
Deciding on the area you want to cover is essential but it can be slightly more difficult than you may think to calculate. This is because most gardens or driveways aren’t perfectly square and designed exactly so you know how many bulk bags of slate chippings, granite chippings or other granite you need.
In general, the calculation you need to work out how much gravel will cover a rectangular or circular area is the volume of gravel multiplied by the gravel density. To find the volume, think of it as though you are filling a box with gravel and multiple the height by the width by the length. This should then be multiplied by the density.
The calculation is slightly different if you want to work out how much gravel you need to cover a circular area. In this case, find out the volume by multiplying the area of the foundation by the height. This is where those school maths lessons will come in handy.
Size does matter
When considering the amount of aggregate you need for your garden gravel ideas, the volume you need to order will depend highly on the size of the gravel you want to use. This isn’t just based on how the gravel will look initially, either, as different aggregates will perform in a different way over time. This will also depend on the surface you are laying the gravel on.
It is worth noting that larger sized gravel, chippings and aggregates will bond together in a better way over time than smaller versions. If this is a consideration, you may want to consider larger options such as Yorkshire Cream 15-25mm, the Yorkdale Cream 23-35mm Bulk Bag, Twilight Grey Chippings 18-22mm, Swiss Glacier 16-32mm or French Pearl 16-32mm.
