Pea Gravel — Rounded 6–12 mm Gravel for Paths, Patios and Beds

Pea gravel vs crushed gravel

Pea gravel is rounded, so it feels good to walk on but migrates on slopes and under vehicle traffic. Crushed angular gravel locks together and stays put. Most projects use pea gravel for paths, seating areas and beds, and angular material where cars drive or where the ground falls away.

How much you need

A 40–50 mm decorative depth is standard. As a rough guide one tonne covers roughly 12–14 square metres at that depth. Send the area and depth and we will convert it into tonnage and container quantity before you commit.

Depth and top-ups

Pea gravel settles roughly 10–15% in the first year as it beds in, so quote clients a slightly heavier first fill and a smaller annual top-up rather than one thin layer that thins out fast. A 25 kg bag at 40 mm depth covers about 0.5 square metres, which is the number retail staff need at the till, not the tonne-per-14-square-metre figure used for bulk quotes.

Colour consistency across bags

Buyers lose more repeat orders to colour drift than to price. We hold a reference sample against every screened batch before bagging, and note the batch reference on the delivery paperwork so a garden centre reordering six months later can match what is already on the shelf rather than stocking two visibly different greys side by side.

Freight and payload

Pea gravel is dense, so a standard 20ft container lands around 26–27 tonnes rather than filling out by volume — plan tonnage against payload limits, not cubic space. Jumbo bags at roughly 1 tonne each load faster and reduce handling damage compared with palletised 25 kg bags for the same tonnage.

Pre-shipment sample approval

We send a physical sample or batch photograph against your specified size and colour before any bulk order is screened, and hold that reference against the production run. Sign-off happens before loading starts, not after, so what you approve is what leaves the yard. For repeat orders we keep the approved sample on file and check new batches against it rather than against memory.

Weed membrane and base layers

Pea gravel alone does not stop weeds; it needs a permeable woven membrane laid over compacted sub-base before the stone goes down. Skipping the membrane lets weeds root through within a season and lets fines from the base migrate up into the gravel, dulling its colour. Specify membrane and gravel as a paired system on any quote rather than pricing the stone in isolation.

Behaviour in heavy rain and monsoon climates

Rounded pea gravel drains fast and does not turn to mud the way fines-rich material can, which is why it holds up reasonably well through monsoon-season rainfall provided the sub-base beneath it drains properly. Where drainage is poor, the gravel itself stays clean but standing water can pool on top of it, so a slight fall or a drainage channel is worth specifying alongside the stone in high-rainfall markets.

Wholesale, bulk and export details

This product is supplied on the same commercial basis as the rest of our range: quantity confirmed against container payload, packing quoted separately and documentation prepared to your broker's brief.

Questions buyers ask about pea gravel

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