#4 Stone vs Crusher Run: Size, Cost, and Which to Use

#4 Stone

Sieve size #4 in the ASTM aggregate grading means most of the stone passes a 1.5-inch screen and stays on a 3/4-inch screen. In practice you get a pile of roughly walnut to golf ball sized rock. Every piece is angular because it was crushed, and those sharp edges lock together under load instead of rolling like river stone. Because it is washed or screened clean, there are no fines to fill the gaps between pieces. That is the whole point: about 35 to 40 percent of a pile of #4 is air, so water moves through it fast.

Crusher Run

Crusher run is crushed stone with the rock dust left in, sold as 3/4 inch minus or 1.5 inch minus. It costs $20 to $35 per ton in 2026, weighs 1.5 to 1.7 tons per cubic yard, and packs into a surface hard enough to drive on year after year. It is the standard base under roads, driveways, parking lots, and patios, and the best single-layer material for a gravel driveway. In the Southeast it is called crush and run. Highway departments call it aggregate base course, ABC, or Class 5.

#4 Stone

• ✓ Driveway and road base
• ✓ Drainage beds
• ✓ Retaining wall backfill
• ✓ Construction entrance pads
• ✓ Pipe bedding for large pipe
• ✓ Erosion control

Crusher Run

• ✓ Driveways
• ✓ Parking areas
• ✓ Road base
• ✓ Paver base
• ✓ Walkways
• ✓ Shed and equipment pads

#4 Stone

• + Excellent drainage with 35 to 40 percent void space
• + Bridges soft ground better than smaller stone
• + Cheap, $20 to $40 per ton, and stocked everywhere
• + Angular pieces lock together under load
• + Same price as #57 with more drainage capacity

• − Too coarse to walk on or drive on as a surface
• − Needs a finer cap layer for any traffic
• − Hard to rake and spread by hand
• − Sinks into soft clay without fabric

Crusher Run

• + Packs into a hard, drivable surface
• + Cheapest processed stone at $20 to $35 per ton
• + One layer does the whole driveway on firm ground
• + Grades smooth and repairs easily
• + Stocked at every quarry

• − Does not drain, sheds water instead
• − Dusty when dry, muddy when wet before it seals
• − Dense, so a ton covers less area than clean stone
• − Wrong choice for any drainage use
• − Plain gray look

#4 Stone

#4 stone is crushed rock screened to pieces between 1 and 1.5 inches, with some quarries running it up to 2 inches. It is angular with sharp fractured faces. Color follows the quarry: gray or blue-gray limestone in the Midwest and Northeast, gray to pink granite in the Southeast, tan limestone in Texas.

Crusher Run

Crusher run is everything that comes off the crusher below a set size, usually 3/4 inch minus or 1.5 inch minus: angular stone at the top of the range down to sand and rock dust. Roughly a third of the mix is fines. Color matches the quarry rock, typically gray limestone or gray to tan granite, and it lightens as the dust dries.