How much does a gravel driveway cost in Tennessee?

A new gravel driveway runs $4 to $10 per square foot installed, per HomeGuide’s 2026 guide. Repairs cost far less. HomeGuide puts gravel driveway repair at $0.25 to $2.20 per square foot. Around Chattanooga, most calls are about fixing a drive that is already there, not building a new one.

Those figures come from published national cost guides. They are not our price list. The drive in front of you sets the real number. How long it runs and how much stone is left in the shoulders do most of the deciding.

Three Crosses Land Services repairs and restores gravel drives and gravel roads that are already in place. A Harley rake on our mini skid steer regrades the surface. It fills the potholes and ruts and pulls gravel back out of the shoulders. Then it resets the crown so water sheds. A brand new drive cut in from bare ground is not our work.

What does a new gravel driveway cost?

Published guides land between $1 and $10 per square foot installed. HomeGuide’s 2026 figure is $4 to $10 for materials and labor. Angi publishes $1 to $10, moving with the gravel type and what the site needs first. LawnStarter publishes $1 to $3.

Totals spread just as wide. HomeGuide puts a 100 foot long, 10 foot wide driveway at about $4,000 to $10,000. Angi puts the average gravel driveway at $1,800, with most projects between $500 and $3,500. LawnStarter’s national average is $1,500, with a typical range of $600 to $1,800. Its extremes run from $300 to $60,000.

The prep work under a new drive explains the spread. Angi lists clearing brush or trees at $500 to $2,000 and grading at $1,000 to $3,000. HomeGuide puts site grading at $1 to $3 per square foot. It puts culverts or drains at $500 to $2,000, and edging or curbing at $5 to $18 per linear foot.

Cutting a new drive in from bare ground is a different trade. Our gravel driveway repair service works on drives and gravel roads that are already there.

What does it cost to repair or regrade an existing drive?

Far less than building one. HomeGuide’s driveway repair guide puts gravel driveway repair at $0.25 to $2.20 per square foot. It lists gravel or dirt driveway repairs at $50 to $450 as a typical total. Across any driveway surface, small pothole and crack repairs run $100 to $400.

A worn drive with its stone still on the property sits at the cheap end of that range. Tires and runoff push the gravel into the shoulders and the grass. A rake pulls it back into the driving surface and resets the shape. You can drive on it the same day.

Bagged gravel handles the smallest holes. HomeGuide puts it at $2 to $8 a bag, with each bag covering up to 2 cubic feet. That works for a soft spot or two. It does not fix a drive that has lost its crown, because water keeps coming back to the same place.

Water is the other half of any repair. Where runoff crosses the drive instead of shedding off it, the fines wash out and the holes return. Yard drainage work handles the ground around the drive. Our guide to what a French drain costs in Tennessee covers those published ranges.

What does it cost to regravel a driveway?

Stone and delivery set that number. HomeGuide prices crusher run at $25 to $50 per ton delivered. Crushed stone runs $30 to $60, and pea gravel $50 to $100. Angi puts gravel at $10 to $50 per ton. LawnStarter puts it at $30 to $100.

Here is the arithmetic on a common size. Angi’s coverage rule is 2.5 tons of gravel per 100 square feet at six inches deep. A 100 foot by 10 foot drive is 1,000 square feet. A full six inch depth takes about 25 tons. At Angi’s $10 to $50 per ton, that stone runs $250 to $1,250. At HomeGuide’s crusher run price, it runs $625 to $1,250. Angi lists hauling and delivery on top, at $100 to $500 per load.

Most drives never need six inches of new stone. A top up layer is thinner and costs less. HomeGuide prices resurfacing with a 3 inch layer of pea gravel at $0.25 to $0.75 per square foot. On that same 1,000 square foot drive, that is $250 to $750.

When a drive needs new stone, the estimate says how much, and the stone itself comes from a local quarry or hauler.

What moves the price around Chattanooga?

Water, mostly. The Chattanooga airport station averages about 55 inches of rain a year under NOAA’s 1991 to 2020 normals. Red clay under the stone holds that water for days. Slope decides how fast it moves and how much gravel it carries off with it.

A crown is the cheapest drainage a gravel drive has. Water that sheds to the shoulders leaves the drive. Water that stands in the tracks works down into the clay. The base softens, tires pump the wet gravel out, and a pothole starts.

Where water crosses the drive instead of running beside it, a pipe is the answer. HomeGuide puts culverts or drains for a driveway at $500 to $2,000. Ridge side drives get the worst of it, since runoff arrives with speed behind it.

Length and access move the number too. A long drive back to a house collects growth along both edges. Brush clearing along the edges opens the shoulders back up. Then the gravel sitting in them can be pulled back in.

Regrade, or new stone?

Look at the shoulders. If a berm of gravel sits along the edges and in the grass, the stone is still there. A regrade pulls it back into the driving surface. If the tracks are down to bare clay, new material has to go down before grading will hold. Which stone belongs in the base and which on top is in our guide to the best gravel for a driveway.

That one answer moves the cost a long way. A drive with stone left sits at the low end of HomeGuide’s $0.25 to $2.20 per square foot. A drive worn to clay adds the stone and the delivery from the table above.

Angi’s figure for a grading specialist to level and slope a driveway base is $1,000 to $2,500. That is heavier work than resurfacing a gravel drive, and it belongs to a grading contractor. Regrading a worn gravel drive is a surface job. Whether the stone on your drive is enough gets answered on the free estimate.

Is it cheaper to do it yourself?

On a small drive, sometimes. LawnStarter puts a skid steer at $300 a day to rent and a plate compactor at $86 a day. It puts professional labor at $20 to $60 per hour. Angi puts DIY materials and equipment at $800 to $2,500, against $1,500 to $6,000 for professional installation.

The rental math turns on how many days it takes. Someone running a machine for the first time spends most of that day learning the cut. Grading is a feel job, and the crown is the part people miss.

Bagged gravel and a hand rake are a real answer for a few soft spots. HomeGuide’s advice is to rake gravel back into place several times a year. That keeps new potholes and ruts from forming. A drive with ruts down its full length is past that.

Getting a real number for your driveway

Cost guides give you a band. The drive gives you a price. A free estimate puts someone on the drive. The shoulders show how much stone is left. The low spots show where water crosses.

Send the address and the rough length of the drive. A photo the day after a hard rain helps more than any description, because standing water shows the low spots.

Everything above is a published market range from a national cost guide. None of it is our rate card, and we do not price a drive we have not seen.

Three Crosses Land Services is a veteran-owned family business based just north of Chattanooga, TN. We are licensed and insured, and we cover Chattanooga, Southeast Tennessee, and Northwest Georgia. To get a gravel drive graded back into shape, call or text (423) 260-5675, or send us the details.