Crusher run, #57 stone or chert: which gravel for a driveway?

Birmingham Dirt. Updated October 7, 2026.

Three stones cover almost every driveway, pad and drainage job around Birmingham. They are not interchangeable, and the most common driveway mistake is buying the wrong one for the layer it is going in.

Crusher run

Crusher run is crushed limestone with all the dust and fines left in. It is also sold as crush-n-run, ABC or dense-graded base. The fines are the point: when you spread it and pack it, the dust locks the bigger pieces together and the whole layer sets up almost like weak concrete.

Use it for the base of a driveway, a parking pad, under a slab or under pavers. Four inches, packed, on top of firm ground. It does not drain, which is fine for a base and wrong for a top layer, where it goes muddy on the surface and tracks into the house.

#57 stone

#57 is clean crushed limestone, about three-quarters of an inch to an inch, with no fines. Water runs straight through it. It stays loose, so it does not pack, so it is the wrong base and the right top.

Use it as the top two to three inches of a driveway over crusher run, in a French drain, around a foundation drain, under a concrete slab as a drainage layer, and anywhere water needs to get away. It is the most expensive of the three per ton.

Chert

Chert is the local red-brown gravel. The ridges around Birmingham are full of it, which is why it is cheap here and why so many county roads and farm drives are chert. It comes out of the ground as a mix of gravel and clay fines and packs well enough on its own.

Use it as a one-layer driveway or parking area where you want something cheap and local and do not mind the color or the dust. It is less uniform than crushed limestone and softer, so it wears faster under heavy trucks. For a long rural drive it is the sensible choice.

The driveway that lasts

Most driveway problems are base problems. Stone dumped on soft clay sinks into it, the clay comes up through it, and in a year you have a muddy strip with some rocks in it.

The driveway that lasts in this area is two layers:

1. Dig out anything soft. If the ground is mud, remove it until it is firm. If it is already firm clay, just scrape off the grass and loose topsoil.
2. Crusher run, four inches, packed. A plate compactor or a loaded truck driving over it. Crown it slightly so water runs to the edges.
3. #57 stone, two to three inches on top. Loose, drains, does not track.

For a long drive where cost matters more than finish, chert alone, four to six inches, packed, crowned, will do the job for years.

If water sits on the driveway, add a ditch or a swale before you add stone. Stone does not fix drainage; it just hides it for a season.

How much stone, and what it costs

Stone is sold by the ton. One ton of crushed stone covers about 80 to 100 square feet at two inches deep, or 40 to 50 at four inches. Crushed limestone runs about 1.4 tons per cubic yard, so if you worked out yards with the calculator, multiply by 1.4.

A 12 by 50 foot driveway at four inches of crusher run is about 10 to 12 tons, plus six to eight tons of #57 on top. A tandem dump truck carries 16 to 18 tons of stone, so that driveway is a load of each, or one mixed delivery if the yard will split it.

Typical Birmingham-area prices: crusher run $28 to $45 a ton, #57 $35 to $55, chert $25 to $40, sand $30 to $50. A tandem load delivered usually lands between $400 and $900 depending on the stone and the distance from the quarry. These are typical ranges, not quotes.

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