Cost

What a shell or stone driveway actually costs

There is no figure on this page, and there is a reason for that. Here is what genuinely moves the number, so you can tell a fair quote from a bad one.

Why we will not put a number here

Any figure written on a website is a guess about a driveway nobody has looked at. Two driveways of exactly the same size on the same street can differ by a wide margin, because one has a sound base under it and the other has none, and you cannot see that from the road or from a satellite photo.

So rather than quote a number that turns out to be wrong, here is the whole list of what we are actually looking at when we walk a driveway. If another contractor quotes you without mentioning most of these, that is worth noticing.

The area, and what it carries
Square footage is the starting point, but not all of it is equal. A turning area or a parking apron takes more depth than a strip that only ever gets walked on, because the depth is set by the weight it has to carry.
How much has to come out
Excavating the old surface and carting it away is often a bigger share of the job than the shell or stone going back on. A driveway that has never been built up properly needs more taken out than one being refreshed.
Whether the base can be kept
This is the single biggest swing. If there is sound compacted base under what is there, we build on it and the job is a fraction of the cost. If there is no base, or it has broken down, it has to be built, and that is most of the price of a new driveway.
Access for the truck
Whether a loaded truck can reach the driveway and turn around. Narrow lanes, low branches, soft verges and long carries all add time, and time is what you are paying for once the material is bought.
Drainage and pitch
If water is already going where it should, we keep the grade and move on. If it is running toward the house or standing in the wheel tracks, the shape has to be corrected first, because laying new material over a drainage problem just buries it for a season.
Edging, and how much of it
Cobblestone, granite, timber or steel, measured in linear feet. Edging is optional on paper and close to essential in practice, particularly with shell, which will migrate into the lawn without something holding the line.
Shell or stone
The two materials are closer in price than people expect, and the difference is usually smaller than the base work underneath either of them. Choose on how the driveway will be used and how you want it to look, not on a small gap in material cost.
Depth, which is not where to save
It is tempting to take an inch off the spec to bring a number down. It is also the one saving that reliably costs more later, because a thin driveway is back needing a top-off in a season or two.