Free calculator
Asphalt Calculator
Enter an area and the compacted thickness to get square yards, tons of hot mix, base stone and truckloads. Add your own prices to get the cost, then add the area to an estimate and do the next one.
- Tons, base, truckloads
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Area
Asphalt
Base and trucking
Thicknesses are compacted, in place. Defaults are typical: 145 lb/cu ft for hot mix, 140 lb/cu ft for stone base and a 15-ton load, where end dumps carry 12 to 20 tons. Use your mix design, quarry and hauler’s numbers when you have them.
Your prices
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Leave trucking blank if your plant quotes the mix delivered.
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Area. Width × length in feet, or the square feet you enter. Square yards are square feet ÷ 9.
Volume. Square feet × compacted thickness in inches ÷ 12 gives cubic feet; ÷ 27 gives cubic yards. Thickness is the depth after rolling.
Tons of asphalt. Cubic feet × density ÷ 2,000 lb per ton × (1 + waste), rounded to the hundredth of a ton. The default density is 145 lb per cubic foot, the Iowa DOT’s estimating density for hot-mix asphalt (Design Manual 1B-4). The Pennsylvania Asphalt Pavement Association puts a typical compacted mix at 108 to 120 lb per square yard per inch, and the mix design from your plant gives the number for your mix.
Pounds per square yard per inch. Density × 9 sq ft ÷ 12 in, which is 0.75 × density. At 145 lb per cubic foot that is 108.75 lb, so square yards × inches × 108.75 ÷ 2,000 is the same tonnage worked the way paving crews often do it.
Loose thickness. Compacted thickness × 1.25. NAPA’s Asphalt Paving Handbook puts roll-down at about 25% for dense-graded mix and about 15% for open- and gap-graded mix.
Base. The same volume math with the base thickness and density, waste included. The default 140 lb per cubic foot is the Iowa DOT’s estimating density for rolled stone base, 1.89 tons per cubic yard. Enter 0 for no base course.
Truckloads. Asphalt tons ÷ truck load and base tons ÷ truck load, each rounded up. The 15-ton default is a typical figure: NAPA’s Asphalt Paving Handbook puts end-dump trucks at 12 to 20 tons, depending on axles, and semitrailer end dumps at 20 to 25.
Price. Tons × your price per ton for asphalt and base, truckloads × your price per load when you enter one, and square feet or square yards × your labor rate, whichever unit you pick. Nothing is priced with numbers you did not enter.
Putting the whole job together? The construction estimate template adds equipment, overhead and margin to the line items you build here.
Mix prices. The asphalt price trend tracks paving mix, asphalt binder and diesel month by month.
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Frequently asked questions
How many tons of asphalt per square yard per inch?
At 145 lb per cubic foot, a square yard of compacted hot mix 1 inch thick weighs 108.75 lb, or about 0.054 tons, so one ton covers about 18.4 square yards at 1 inch. The Pennsylvania Asphalt Pavement Association puts a typical compacted mix at 108 to 120 lb per square yard per inch. Your plant’s mix design gives the number for the mix you are buying.
How many tons of asphalt for a 12 × 50 driveway at 3 inches?
A 12 × 50 ft driveway is 600 sq ft, or 66.7 square yards. At 3 inches compacted that is 150 cubic feet (5.56 cubic yards) of mix, which weighs 10.875 tons at 145 lb per cubic foot. With 5% for waste, order 11.42 tons, one load. A 6-inch stone base under it adds 21 tons, or 22.05 with waste.
How many tons of asphalt fit in a dump truck?
Weight sets the load, not the size of the bed. NAPA’s Asphalt Paving Handbook puts end-dump trucks with three to six axles at 12 to 20 tons, with more axles carrying more, and semitrailer end dumps at 20 to 25 tons. A three-axle tandem sits at the low end and a tri-axle carries more. Federal limits on the Interstate are 20,000 lb on a single axle, 34,000 lb on a tandem and 80,000 lb gross, and states set their own on other roads. The calculator assumes a typical 15-ton load; enter what your plant or hauler actually puts on a truck.
How thick should an asphalt driveway be?
It depends on the soil, the drainage and the heaviest vehicle that will use it. The Illinois Asphalt Pavement Association suggests 3 inches of asphalt over 6 to 8 inches of compacted aggregate base, or 5 to 6 inches of full-depth asphalt with no stone base. Follow the plans or spec where there is one, and check your city’s rules for the apron in the right-of-way.
Is the thickness compacted or loose?
Enter compacted thickness, the depth after rolling, because that is what the tonnage is based on. Dense-graded mix rolls down about 25%, according to NAPA’s Asphalt Paving Handbook, so a 2-inch compacted lift goes down about 2.5 inches thick behind the paver and a 3-inch lift about 3.75. Open- and gap-graded mixes roll down closer to 15%.
What density should I use for asphalt and base stone?
The defaults are the Iowa DOT’s estimating densities: 145 lb per cubic foot for hot-mix asphalt and 140 lb per cubic foot for rolled stone base, which is 1.89 tons per cubic yard. Mixes and stone vary, so use the density on your plant’s mix design and your quarry’s figure when you have them. Both fields are editable.
Are my measurements and prices sent to BuildWorkPro?
The calculator sends nothing: the math runs in your browser, and your prices and your estimate are saved in this browser’s local storage, never on our servers. The area and thickness are kept in the page address so you can bookmark or share a result; like any page address, it is recorded by our site analytics if you accept analytics cookies.