Key Takeaways
- The cost of a gravel driveway in 2026 runs from about £110 per m² on a double drive built by a contractor, up to about £180 per m² on a small single, and about £50 per m² for the materials alone.
- A single 18m² gravel driveway costs about £1,100 in delivered materials, and a double 36m² drive about £2,000, before digging out, skips, hire and labour.
- The sub-base is the biggest single cost on a gravel driveway. At 150mm of MOT Type 1 it comes to about £39 per m² in bulk bags, four times the cost of the gravel on top.
- Gravel laid at 50mm instead of 40mm uses 25% more stone and drives worse, because 20mm gravel is only stable at about twice its own size in depth.
- Digging out a gravel driveway produces about 1.9 tonnes of soil per cubic metre, so an 18m² drive fills one skip and a 36m² drive fills two.
- Many contractors will not quote for a gravel driveway under about 30m², so a small drive often ends up as a DIY job by default.
About five years ago, I priced up a gravel drive for a couple who had already done their homework and had two bulk bags of 20mm gravel sitting in their budget at just under £300. They were surprised when my quote came back around £3,000 as I walked them through what I’d actually need to do. The existing ground was going to need about 190mm dug out, and that meant two days with a digger and somewhere to put all the spoil. The existing ground was going to need about 190mm dug out, and that meant two days with a digger and somewhere to put all the spoil. Once that was out, I needed roughly 7 bags of Type 1 sub-base compacted properly before the gravel could go down. The gravel itself was the easy, relatively cheap part. Once they understood that, the price made a lot more sense.
It’s something I’ve found catches people out with drives: they tend to price the surface they can see, rather than the ground underneath it. This page prices the whole job, layer by layer, at Outdoor Aggregates bulk bag prices, with the parts we do not sell costed as estimates.
What Does a Gravel Driveway Cost per m²?
A gravel driveway costs about £50 per m² in delivered materials for a DIY build, or £110 to £180 per m² with a contractor. The per m² figure moves more with size than with anything else, because the fixed costs (skip, digger hire) get spread over more ground on a bigger drive.
Here is where the money goes on each square metre of a standard build: 150mm of compacted MOT Type 1 (the crushed stone base that carries the car), a membrane under it, and 40mm of 20mm gravel on top.
| Layer | Depth | Bags per 10m² | Cost per m² |
|---|---|---|---|
| MOT Type 1 sub-base | 150mm compacted | 3.4 | £38.99 |
| 20mm gravel surface | 40mm | 0.7 | £9.97 |
| Heavy duty membrane | one sheet | 1 roll covers 80m² | £0.69 |
| Materials total | about £50 |
The sub-base line is the one that surprises people. A bulk bag of MOT Type 1 from Outdoor Aggregates is £114 delivered, and at 150mm compacted one bag covers about 2.9m². The gravel bag costs more, but it goes four times as far because the layer is so much thinner.
If you want to run your own area through it, the Outdoor Aggregates gravel calculator and the sub-base calculator also provide the bag counts for any size of drive.
What a Single and a Double Driveway Cost
A single 18m² gravel driveway costs about £1,800 to £2,100 to build yourself and £2,500 to £3,200 with a contractor, and a double 36m² drive roughly £2,800 to £3,300 DIY or £3,900 to £5,000 built for you. The two drives are a 3m × 6m single (3m is the width a family car needs with the doors open) and a 6m × 6m double, both dug to 190mm for 150mm of Type 1 and 40mm of 20mm gravel.
| Item | Single, 18m² | Double, 36m² |
|---|---|---|
| MOT Type 1, 850kg bags | 7 bags, £798 | 13 bags, £1,482 |
| 20mm gravel, 850kg bags | 2 bags, £284 | 3 bags, £426 |
| Membrane and pegs | £56 | £62 |
| Delivered materials | £1,138 | £1,970 |
| Skips (estimate) | 1, £250 to £350 | 2, £500 to £700 |
| Digger and plate compactor hire (estimate) | £375 to £630 | £375 to £630 |
| DIY total | £1,760 to £2,120 | £2,850 to £3,300 |
| Labour, two people (estimate) | 2 days, £720 to £1,120 | 3 days, £1,080 to £1,680 |
| Contractor total | £2,480 to £3,240 | £3,930 to £4,980 |
Edging is on top of both. Twelve metres of it, supplied and fitted, runs £120 to £360 depending on whether it is timber, steel or a concrete kerb. The materials are current prices from our shop, delivery included. The skip, hire and labour lines are estimates from 2026 trade rates, and they swing by region: a groundworker in London charges up to £400 a day, and the same job in the Midlands is nearer £200.
The Hidden Cost: Digging Out and Getting Rid of It
The dig on a gravel driveway costs more than the gravel, once the skip and the machine are counted, and it is the part every online cost guide skips over. A drive needs 190mm of ground taken out: 150mm for the sub-base and 40mm for the stone. On the 18m² single that is 3.4 cubic metres of soil. Soil weighs about 1.9 tonnes per cubic metre, so you are lifting and moving 6.5 tonnes of it. On the double it is 6.8 cubic metres, about 13 tonnes.
A typical builder’s skip holds about 4.5 cubic metres, so the single fills one and the double fills two. The catch is the weight limit. Skip companies charge by volume but their lorries lift by weight, so ring them with the tonnage before you book, and add a skip if an old concrete drive is coming out as well.
A 1.5 tonne mini digger hires for £85 to £160 a day plus about £35 delivery each way, and I would never dig a drive by hand: 6.5 tonnes with a spade and a barrow is a nightmare of a job. Most hire firms want a three-day minimum, and that suits, because the same machine spreads the Type 1 afterwards. A plate compactor (the vibrating machine that packs the stone down) is another £25 to £40 a day for two days: one for the sub-base, one for the gravel. Budget for the hole first. The stone can wait.
Driveway Gravel Prices by Type
Driveway gravel from Outdoor Aggregates costs £118 to £317 per 850kg bulk bag, and at 40mm one bag covers about 14m². The stone you pick changes the price of the top layer only. The sub-base and the digging cost the same under Cotswold chippings as under plain limestone, so the gap between the cheapest and dearest drive is smaller than the bag prices suggest.
| Stone | Size to use | Price per bag | Cost per m² at 40mm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plum slate chippings | 20mm | £118 | £8.28 |
| Limestone chippings | 20mm | £132 | £9.27 |
| 20mm gravel | 20mm | £142 | £9.97 |
| Golden gravel | 20mm | £169 | £11.86 |
| Golconda self-binding gravel | 0 to 10mm | £158 | see below |
| Golden self-binding gravel | 0 to 10mm | £167 | see below |
Stick to 10 to 20mm angular stone on a drive: it locks together under a tyre, where rounded pea gravel rolls about and ends up on the lawn. Self-binding gravel is a different build. It goes down as a compacted layer straight onto the Type 1, deeper than loose gravel, so it uses more bags per square metre but gives a firm surface you can push a pram over. The self-binding gravel range page sets the colours side by side.
Resin bound kits are a separate job with a separate price list, and they belong on the resin driveway page.
DRIVEWAY GRAVEL
Check out our collection of driveway gravels and find the right surface for you.
Why Deeper Gravel Costs More and Drives Worse
Gravel on a driveway should be laid at about twice its own size, so 20mm stone goes down at 40mm, and every extra 10mm costs 25% more stone for a worse surface. Most cost guides price the top layer at 50mm. I laid drives at 50mm early on because that was the figure everyone quoted, and the complaint was always the same: the wheels spin on the turn and the gravel gets pushed into ridges. Once the loose layer is much deeper than the stone size, tyres push through it instead of rolling over it.
At 40mm the 18m² single needs 1.3 bags of 20mm gravel, which rounds up to 2. At 50mm it needs 1.6, and on the double drive it tips you from 3 bags into 4. That is an extra £142 to buy a surface that drives worse. If you want more depth in the build, put it in the sub-base. That is the layer doing the work.
DIY or Contractor: Where the Money Goes
Labour is about 30% of the cost of a gravel driveway built by a contractor, so the saving from doing it yourself is real but smaller than most people expect, because the skip and the digger still have to be paid for.
The honest sum most driveway price pages will not give you: on the 18m² single, doing it yourself saves about £700 to £1,100, and on the double £1,100 to £1,700. Against that, a two-person crew does the single in two days. Working weekends at roughly half a tradesman’s pace, plan for four or five of them, and the weather has a vote.
Many contractors will not take a gravel drive under about 30m². The paperwork and the day of set-up cost them the same as on a big job, and the margin is not there. So on a single drive the DIY route may choose you, and the digger hire becomes the deciding line in the budget.
If you go to a contractor, ask for the quote in writing with the layers itemised: excavation depth, sub-base depth, membrane, gravel size and depth, edging, and who pays for the skip. When I quoted, the sub-base depth was always on the sheet, because it is the number that decides whether the drive is still level in five years. The how-to guide for laying a gravel driveway walks you through the same build I would do, step by step.
Is a Gravel Driveway Cheaper Than Tarmac or Block Paving?
A gravel driveway is the cheapest surface to lay, because the dig and the sub-base cost the same under any driveway and loose gravel is the cheapest top layer. Tarmac needs a plant and a crew, so it is never a DIY job. Block paving needs a bedding layer, the blocks and a day or two of laying on the same groundwork. Gravel needs two bags and an afternoon with a rake once the base is in.
The catch is what happens later. A gravel drive wants raking level a few times a year and topping up every few years as stone works into the base and out onto the road. Budget a bag every three to five years on a single drive. Cheap to lay, a little more to own.
Next Steps
We stock every layer of a gravel driveway apart from the edging: MOT Type 1 and heavy duty membrane in the sub-base and membranes range, and the driveway gravel range for the top. Every bulk bag price on this page includes delivery to the kerb. If you are unsure how many bags your drive needs, run it through the calculators or get in touch and we will check the sum with you.
If you would rather talk your gravel driveway costs through with a person, ring Outdoor Aggregates on 0330 043 7585. The office is open 7am to 7pm, seven days a week.
Have you ever priced up a gravel driveway and been surprised by the quote? Which part cost more than you expected, the stone or the digging, and did you end up doing it yourself? Let us know in the comments.
FAQs
How much does a ton of gravel cost for a driveway?
Driveway gravel from Outdoor Aggregates costs £118 to £317 per 850kg bulk bag delivered, which works out at about £140 to £370 a tonne. Loose tipper loads are cheaper per tonne but carry a part-load charge on anything under a full wagon, so for a single drive the bags often win.
How much gravel do I need for a driveway?
A gravel driveway needs about 0.7 of an 850kg bag per 10m² at 40mm deep, so an 18m² single takes 2 bags and a 36m² double takes 3. The sub-base underneath needs far more: about 3.4 bags of MOT Type 1 per 10m² at 150mm compacted.
How much does it cost to top up a gravel driveway?
Topping up a gravel driveway costs one bulk bag every three to five years on a single drive, about £120 to £170 depending on the stone. Rake the surface level first, because most of the missing gravel has been pushed into ridges rather than lost.
Do I need a sub-base for a gravel driveway?
A gravel driveway needs a compacted sub-base of about 150mm of MOT Type 1, or the car sinks into the soil beneath and the drive goes bumpy within a year. The sub-base is about 70% of the material cost and the whole reason the drive stays level.
Does a membrane stop weeds in a gravel driveway?
A membrane under a gravel driveway keeps the stone and the soil apart, which is why it goes in, and it reduces weeds without ending them. The weeds in an old gravel drive grow in the dust and leaf litter that settles on top of the sheet, so a rake and a hoe do more than a thicker membrane.
Do I need planning permission for a gravel driveway?
A gravel driveway is a permeable surface, so in most of England and Wales a new one at the front of a house does not need planning permission whatever its size. Check with your council before you dig, because the rules differ in Scotland and on some listed or protected properties.