How to build a gravel driveway
A gravel driveway is one of the few big landscaping jobs a homeowner can genuinely do themselves. Get the base right and it'll take a loaded truck for fifteen years. Get it wrong and you'll be raking ruts out of it every spring.
The short version
- Base layer: 20mm road crush, 4″ compacted. This is the layer that carries the weight.
- Top layer: 20mm washed rock or 14mm pea gravel, 2″. This is the layer you see.
- Total depth: 6″ of material over a compacted, excavated base.
- How much: a cubic yard covers 54 sq ft at 6″. A 20 × 50 ft driveway needs roughly 19 yards.
- Weight: a yard of gravel runs about 1.3–1.5 tons, so that's a job for delivery, not a trailer.
Materials
Tools: string line and stakes · marking paint · spade and rake · wheelbarrow · plate compactor (rental) · level
Depth & coverage
A 20 × 50 ft driveway is 1,000 sq ft — about 12 yards of road crush and 6 of washed rock.
Steps
1 · Mark out the driveway
String line and stakes down both sides, and be generous — 10 ft is the narrowest that's comfortable for one vehicle, 12 ft if you want to open a door without stepping into the lawn. Mark the shape before you dig anything.
2 · Call before you dig
Alberta One-Call is free and it's the law. Utilities run shallower than people expect, and a driveway excavation is deep enough to find them.
3 · Strip the topsoil
Dig out 8–10″ of soil across the full width. Topsoil is the enemy of a driveway — it's organic, it holds water, and it will settle for years. All of it comes out. Set it aside for garden beds rather than paying to haul it away.
4 · Grade for drainage
Build a slight crown down the centre or a consistent cross-fall to one side — about 2% is enough, roughly a 1/4″ drop per foot. Water has to have somewhere to go that isn't your garage or the neighbour's yard.
5 · Compact the subgrade
Run the plate compactor over the bare soil before anything goes down. Skipping this is the single most common reason a driveway settles unevenly in its first year.
6 · Lay the fabric
Roll landscaping fabric across the subgrade, overlapping seams by 12″. Edmonton-area clay will swallow gravel over a few wet seasons — fabric is the cheapest part of the job and it's what stops that.
7 · Lay and compact the base
Spread road crush in two 2″ lifts, compacting each separately. One 4″ lift compacted once will look finished and behave like loose fill. Wet it lightly before compacting; damp road crush locks up far better than dry.
8 · Set the edging
Edge restraint goes in before the top course. Without it the decorative layer creeps into the lawn and you're topping it up every year.
9 · Spread the top course
2″ of washed rock or pea gravel, raked level. Don't compact this layer — it's meant to stay loose. Any deeper than 2″ and it drags at your tyres.
10 · Leave it to settle
Drive on it gently for the first couple of weeks. Expect to top up the surface course once after the first winter; that's normal, not a fault.
Building this in Alberta
Freeze-thaw is what kills driveways here, and it kills them through water, not cold. Water trapped in the base freezes, expands, lifts the surface, then leaves a void when it melts — that's a pothole forming from underneath. Everything above is really one instruction: don't let water sit in the base.
- Drainage beats depth. A well-drained 6″ build outlasts a badly drained 10″ one.
- Don't build on frozen ground. Compacting frozen subgrade gives you a base that settles the moment it thaws. Wait for the frost to come out — typically late April in the Edmonton area, though it varies year to year.
- Spring is soft. The worst rutting happens during break-up, when the frost is leaving and the subgrade is saturated. A driveway built on fabric over compacted base handles it; one built straight on clay doesn't.
Common mistakes
- Skipping the base and laying decorative rock straight on soil. It looks right for a month. Then it sinks, and the only fix is digging it all out.
- Using pea gravel as a base. Round stone rolls. It cannot lock up under compaction, so it never becomes structural. Beautiful on top, useless underneath.
- Not compacting in lifts. A compactor's influence doesn't reach far below the surface. Two 2″ lifts and one 4″ lift are not the same driveway.
- Leaving the topsoil in. Guarantees settlement.
- Building flat. No crown, no fall, standing water, potholes by the second spring.
- Ordering by the bag. A driveway is a bulk job. Bagged material costs several times more per yard.
What it costs
Priced by the yard — calculate your volume, then check current product pricing.Two variables drive the number: total square footage and whether you can reuse any existing base. Run the material calculator for your dimensions, or call the yard and we'll work it out with you. Delivery across Edmonton metro is guaranteed inside 24 hours.
FAQ
20mm road crush for the base, every time. It's 40% fractured rock and 60% sand, so it compacts into a solid layer rather than staying loose. For the visible top course, 20mm washed rock is the most durable and 14mm pea gravel is the softer-looking option.
Roughly 1.3 to 1.5 tons, depending on the material and how wet it is. A half-ton pickup legally handles about half a yard. Anything more than a yard or two is a delivery job.
Length × width in feet gives your square footage. Divide by 54 for a full 6″ build. A 20 × 50 ft driveway works out around 19 yards.
6″ total — 4″ of compacted road crush and 2″ of surface rock. Foot traffic only, 3″ is enough.
No. The organic layer breaks down and the gravel sinks into it. Strip it, compact the subgrade, then build.
On Edmonton-area clay, yes. Fabric keeps the base and the subgrade from mixing, which is what preserves the structure over time.
Once the frost is fully out of the ground — usually late April — through to freeze-up. Don't compact frozen ground.
Order the materials
Tell us the square footage and we'll work out the yardage with you. Delivered anywhere in Edmonton metro inside 24 hours, or load up at the Spruce Grove yard.
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