How much dense grade base do you need?
Enter the size of your slab or blacktop base. You get tons, cubic yards and truck loads of dense grade base.
You need about
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0cubic yards
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How this was worked out
Assumes dense grade base at 1.4 tons per cubic yard. Other gravel weighs a little more or less, so ask your supplier for their number.
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About dense grade base
Dense grade base is crushed stone graded from dust up to about an inch and a half. That spread of sizes leaves almost no empty space, which is where the name comes from. Rolled in layers a few inches thick, it makes a firm base for a slab or blacktop.
Also called crusher run, ABC, GAB, crush and run, driveway gravel.
More about dense grade base
Some road departments and quarries shorten the name to dense grade or DGA. Whatever the ticket says, the stone is crusher run made to a road spec, with its dust left in.
Dense means the sizes are blended so each size of grain fills the holes left by the bigger ones. Packed right, that leaves so little open space that water runs across the top more than through it, which is why it holds up so well under blacktop.
Lay it in lifts no thicker than about 6 inches loose, damp but not soupy, and roll each one with a smooth drum. Under blacktop on a home driveway, 6 to 8 inches packed is common. Wet fines add weight on the scale, and a soaked load covers a little less ground per ton than this page shows. Under a garage slab, the same stone gives a flat, hard pad that the concrete crew can walk and wheel on without sinking.