Bank Run Gravel: Size, Uses, and Cost Per Ton (2026)

Bank run gravel is pit-run aggregate dug straight from a gravel bank, pit, or river terrace and sold with almost no processing. It costs $7 to $16 per ton in 2026, weighs 1.4 to 1.65 tons per cubic yard, and is the cheapest truckload of anything most yards will sell you. What you get is whatever the deposit holds: sand, small gravel, stones up to several inches, and enough silt or clay fines to fill the gaps.

What Bank Run Actually Is

Every other product on this site is defined by a screen. Bank run is defined by a location. It comes out of the ground, goes over a grizzly to knock out the boulders if the pit bothers, and goes on the truck. Nothing is crushed, nothing is washed, and nothing is graded to a spec.

That means the material is honestly variable. Fines commonly run 10 percent or more, and moisture and organic content move around with the weather and the working face of the pit. Two loads from the same pit in the same week can look different. This is not a defect, it is the product, and it is why bank run costs a third of what processed stone costs.

Because there is no gradation to point at, ask the yard two questions before you order: what is the largest stone they are running right now, and roughly how much sand and fines are in it. Those two answers tell you more than any product name will.

Bank Run vs Crushed Bank Run

This is the distinction that catches people comparing quotes, and almost nobody explains it.

Some quarries also sell crushed bank run, often as a 3/4 inch product. It is the same pit material, but it has been through a crusher and screened to a top size. It keeps a wide gradation and it still contains fines, so it behaves like bank run, but the top size is controlled and the load is consistent. It sits between true bank run and a dense graded base.

They are separate line items at separate prices. Pike Industries' 2026 published list, for example, prices plain bank run gravel near $8.51 per ton at the quarry gate, with crushed bank run sizes above that. So if one yard quotes you "bank run" at one price and another quotes "3/4 crushed bank run" higher, they are not competing on the same material and the cheaper number is not the better deal by default. Ask which one you are being quoted.

What It Is Used For

The wide gradation is the entire point. Small particles wedge into the spaces between large ones under compaction, the layer locks up, and it spreads load. That is what you are buying.

• Subbase under rural driveways, farm lanes, and haul roads. The classic use. Cheap bulk under a wearing course.
• Base under asphalt or concrete where the project spec allows pit-run subbase.
• Backfill around foundations, in trenches, and over utility lines.
• General fill, embankments, and site grading. When you need to move grade up, this is the cheapest legitimate way to do it.
• Sub-base under pavers and walkways, beneath the setting bed.
• Erosion control in low-spec spots where appearance does not matter.

Where It Does Not Belong

Two limits come up over and over, and both are expensive to get wrong.

• Never use bank run as the stone in a French drain. The fines choke the flow. That is the exact failure mode a drain exists to prevent. Use clean stone: #57 or #4.
• Never use it as a finished driving or walking surface. It has no wearing course, it tracks, and it ruts. Cap it with crusher run, #57, or a finer top material anywhere people drive or walk.
• It does not go in concrete or asphalt mixes. Those need washed, graded aggregate.
• It is not a decorative material. Nobody spreads bank run where it will be looked at.

Bank Run vs Crusher Run vs #57

• Bank run vs crusher run. Crusher run is crushed to a controlled top size with the dust deliberately left in so it binds. It packs into a hard surface that sheds rain. Bank run is looser, more variable, and cheaper. Use crusher run for the surface, bank run underneath it.
• Bank run vs #57. #57 is screened clean with no fines and about 35 percent voids, so water runs straight through. Bank run holds fines that slow water down. Use #57 in drains and pipe bedding, bank run for cheap structural fill.
• Bank run vs pit run, surge, and select fill. These names overlap by region and any of them can mean the same unscreened product. Do not assume the name tells you anything. Ask about top size and fines.

Installing It

Spread bank run in lifts and compact each lift rather than dumping the full depth and rolling once. A plate compactor is enough for small pads; a loaded truck or a roller suits drives and large fills.

On soft clay, lay geotextile fabric down first so the stone does not punch into the mud and disappear. Cap the finished grade with a harder-wearing layer if anything will drive on it, and crown a driveway slightly so water runs off the surface instead of ponding on it.

Freeze-thaw performance is decent as long as water can leave the section. Where fines trap water, the section can heave. That is a second reason to keep bank run out of drains, and a reason to daylight the edge of the base wherever the site lets you.

Why Prices Vary So Much

Bank run has the widest spread between quarry-gate and delivered price of anything on this site, and it confuses people comparing quotes.

At the gate, the material is close to free. Published 2026 list prices put bank run near $8.50 per ton FOB, and USGS figures put national quarry-gate averages for sand and gravel around $12 to $13 per ton. Published list prices in September 2026 ran $7 to $16 per ton across the eight yards that post a number, and consumer guides quoting $25 to $40 are usually reporting delivered pricing in markets with a long haul.

The difference is trucking, and on a cheap material trucking is most of the bill. Delivery typically adds $50 to $150 per load inside a normal radius with per-mile charges beyond it. Installed prices that include spreading and compaction run higher again.

The practical consequence: on a small order, treat the material as the smaller half of the job. If you are more than a short haul from a pit, the pit's price per ton barely matters and the freight does.

How Much to Order

Bank run weighs roughly 1.4 tons per cubic yard in place. One cubic yard covers about 108 square feet at 3 inches and about 81 square feet at 4 inches.

A 12 by 40 foot driveway base at 4 inches needs about 6 cubic yards, which is roughly 8 to 9 tons before waste. Order 10 percent extra for shaping and for the soft spots you will find once you start. A 10-ton load lands around $70 to $160 in material; a tri-axle load of 18 tons lands around $130 to $290. The planner below measures your area from a satellite photo and does the tonnage for you.

What to Avoid

Do not buy bank run for anything that needs to drain, look finished, or be driven on without a cap. Do not assume two quotes for "bank run" describe the same material until you have asked about top size and fines. And do not order it sight unseen for a structural job on a project with a spec sheet: engineers rarely specify raw bank run where gradation control matters, precisely because it moves between loads.