My experience with Mulch Mound was great and super easy. I ordered two yards of screened topsoil and was able to get it delivered within 2 days. They came in my requested time frame (afternoon) and dropped it off where I asked on my driveway. The topsoil was exactly what was a...
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How Much Material Do I Need?
Use four to six inches of crusher run for driveways and parking pads, and two to three inches of decorative stone for beds and dry creek beds. One ton covers roughly 100 square feet at two inches.
Use our free stone calculator
What is a Yard?
A yard is approximately 27 cubic feet. As a general guideline, one yard of material can cover an area of about 100-160 square feet at a 2-3 inch depth.
My experience with Mulch Mound was great and super easy. I ordered two yards of screened topsoil and was able to get it delivered within 2 days. They came in my requested time frame (afternoon) and dropped it off where I asked on my driveway. The topsoil was exactly what was a...
How Much Material Do I Need?
Use four to six inches of crusher run for driveways and parking pads, and two to three inches of decorative stone for beds and dry creek beds. One ton covers roughly 100 square feet at two inches.
Use our free stone calculator
What is a Yard?
A yard is approximately 27 cubic feet. As a general guideline, one yard of material can cover an area of about 100-160 square feet at a 2-3 inch depth.
My experience with Mulch Mound was great and super easy. I ordered two yards of screened topsoil and was able to get it delivered within 2 days. Th...
Read full review
My experience with Mulch Mound was great and super easy. I ordered two yards of screened topsoil and was able to get it delivered within 2 days. They came in my requested time frame (afternoon) and dropped it off where I asked on my driveway. The topsoil was exactly what was advertised, clean with no rocks or other debris. The price was reasonable. I plan to use them again in a couple weeks to order compost for my garden beds.
Stone is sold by the ton, not the yard, so measure your square footage and pick a depth, then convert. As a rule, one ton covers about 100 square feet at two inches. On Beckley's uneven, sloped ground, measure the widest points and add ten to fifteen percent, since low spots and washed out ruts always swallow more stone than a flat calculation predicts.
Complete Your Outdoor Stone Project
Add geotextile fabric under any stone that sits on Beckley silt loam, and pair drainage stone with mulch and topsoil in the planted areas so the whole yard handles runoff as one system.
Always lay fabric under stone in Beckley. Our silt loam is made of fine particles that pump upward into clean stone every time the ground is saturated, and with 43 inches of rain that happens constantly. Woven geotextile under driveways and parking pads, non woven around drains. It costs a fraction of the stone above it and prevents the slow sinking and weed growth that otherwise ruins the job in three years.
Mulch Mound Pro Tip
Choose angular stone for anything on a slope. Round river rock looks great in a flat dry creek bed but it rolls, and on Beckley's grades a hard summer downpour will deposit it in your neighbor's yard. Angular crusher run, 57 stone, and quarry products interlock and stay put. Save the decorative rounded stone for level areas or set it into a compacted angular base where it has something to grip.
Mulch Mound Pro Tip
Build drainage stone projects with the winter in mind. Beckley freezes and thaws over and over from December into March, and any trench that holds standing water becomes a frost heave problem. Give every French drain a consistent fall of at least one percent, daylight the outlet somewhere downhill and away from foundations, and keep the outlet clear of leaf litter each fall so meltwater has a path when the January thaw arrives.
The Unique Landscape of Beckley
Water management is the defining landscape challenge in Beckley, and stone is the material that solves it. With 43 inches of rain a year hitting hillside lots at 2,405 feet, runoff concentrates fast, carving channels through mulch beds and undercutting driveways and walkways. Gravel drives, French drains, dry creek beds, and stone swales give that water a controlled path instead of letting it choose its own. Stone also holds up through Beckley's Zone 6b freeze and thaw cycles, which chew up organic materials and heave poorly built hardscape but leave a properly bedded gravel base intact. On the practical side, our long gray winters and heavy snow removal seasons make gravel drives and stone parking pads far more durable than turf or mulch. For most Beckley properties, stone is the difference between fixing erosion every spring and never thinking about it again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Click a question to see the answer
Answer
What stone works best for a gravel driveway in Beckley?
Crusher run, sometimes called 21A or dense grade, is the standard here. It packs tight and sheds water, which matters on Beckley's grades where loose round gravel simply migrates downhill. Put down four to six inches over a compacted base, and if your drive is steep, expect to add a top dressing every couple of years since heavy rain and snowplowing both move material.
Answer
How do I stop water from washing out the gravel on my sloped drive?
Angular crusher run instead of round river gravel is step one, because angular pieces lock together. Step two is diverting water before it reaches the drive, using a shallow cross swale or a gravel filled trench at the top of the grade. Beckley's storms deliver a lot of water fast, and a driveway that has to carry that runoff will always erode no matter what stone you use.
Answer
What size stone goes in a French drain here?
Use 57 stone, which is roughly three quarter inch washed and angular, with plenty of void space for water to move. Wrap the trench in filter fabric to keep Beckley silt loam from migrating into the voids, which is the number one reason local French drains stop working after a few years. Silt is fine enough to clog an unwrapped drain surprisingly fast.
Answer
Does stone mulch work in Beckley beds, or is it a mistake?
It works well in specific places and poorly in others. Use river rock or decorative stone at downspout outlets, along drip lines, and in runoff channels where organic mulch always washes away. Avoid it around acid loving shrubs like rhododendron and azalea that thrive in Beckley, since limestone based stone can raise pH over time, and skip it in beds you plan to replant often.
Answer
How many tons of stone do I need for my driveway?
One ton of crusher run covers about 100 square feet at two inches or roughly 65 square feet at three inches. A typical Beckley drive of 12 by 60 feet is 720 square feet, so a fresh four inch layer runs about 14 to 16 tons. For a top dressing on an existing drive, one to one and a half inches is usually enough, which cuts that to around six or seven tons.
Answer
Will freeze and thaw ruin my new stone walkway base?
Not if it drains. Beckley cycles through freezing and thawing repeatedly all winter, and the damage comes from trapped water expanding, not from cold itself. Build on four to six inches of compacted crusher run so meltwater has somewhere to go, and slope the finished surface slightly away from the house. Skip that base and you will be resetting heaved pavers by March.
Answer
Can I put down stone without a fabric underlayment?
You can, but in Beckley silt loam it is a short term decision. Fine silt works its way up into the stone within a season or two, especially on wet, shaded north facing slopes, and then you have a muddy mess and weeds. Woven geotextile under driveways and non woven under drains costs little and roughly doubles how long your stone stays clean and functional.
