#89 Crushed Stone Chips for Pipe, Pavers and Paths

Picture a handful of gray stone where most pieces are about the size of a pea but with sharp, broken edges. #89 Crushed Stone is screened to roughly 3/8 inch, so it has the texture of coarse grit more than of gravel. It pours almost like a liquid from a shovel, which makes it easy to work into corners and narrow gaps. The gray tone comes from the quarry rock and varies slightly by region.^[1]

Gravel Valet sells this chip by the ton. A cubic yard weighs about 2,700 lb, close to the heavier crushed grades, because small angular chips still pack together with little wasted space. Under pressure the chips lock into a stable layer, and the gaps between them stay open enough for water to seep through.^[1]

Because the pieces are small, a layer of #89 Crushed Stone has many more contact points per square foot than a bed of larger rock. That spreads weight well, which is why it makes a steady bed for pipe and pavers. The trade-off is a slower flow of water through the layer than through big, open stone.^[1]

Pipe bedding is one of its main jobs. Sewer lines, water lines and drain pipe all need even support along their full length, and fine chips fill in under the curve of a pipe where bigger stone leaves hollows. The angular shape holds the pipe in place once the trench is backfilled.^[1]

Paver patios and walkways are another. Some installers screed a thin layer of #89 Crushed Stone as the setting bed for pavers or slabs, and the same chip can be swept into wider joints between flagstones. Unlike sand, it does not wash out of the joints as fast during hard rain.^[1]

As a surface, the gray chips make a tidy walking path or a dry floor under a bench or swing. They sit flat and stay comfortable under bare feet more than larger crushed rock. Masons also mix the chips into concrete for thin pours, and gardeners use them as a gritty top layer around rock garden plants.^[1]

Window wells, the gap between a foundation and a walkway, and the trench around a small drain basin are other tidy spots for it. The chips fill narrow spaces that a shovel of larger rock would bridge over, and they leave a clean, even look once raked.^[1]

In a pipe trench, place a few inches of chips on the trench floor, shape a shallow cradle, lay the pipe and then work more chips along both sides with a shovel. Fill to just above the top of the pipe and walk it down gently before the native soil goes back in. Avoid running a heavy compactor directly over a fresh pipe.^[1]

For a walking path, a 2 inch layer over a compacted base gives a neat finish and uses about 0.83 tons per 100 square feet. For a path on bare, firm soil with no base under it, go to 3 inches, which takes about 1.25 tons per 100 square feet.^[1]

Patios and seating areas that carry furniture benefit from a deeper layer. A 4 inch bed uses about 1.67 tons per 100 square feet, and a 6 inch bed for soft ground uses about 2.50 tons per 100 square feet. In both cases, compact in two or three passes and keep the surface slightly pitched so rain runs off toward the yard.^[1]

Edging matters more with a small chip than with a big one, since #89 Crushed Stone can travel on shoes and kick out into the lawn. Steel or aluminum edging set slightly above the finished surface keeps the path clean.^[1]

3/8" Crushed Stone is the closest match in size, and many yards treat the two names as near twins. #89 Crushed Stone is the name you see in pipe and engineering specs, while the inch name is common for landscape orders. If a plan calls for one, the other may be an acceptable swap, but check with the person who wrote the plan.^[1]

#67 Stone and #57 Crushed Stone are larger and better under drives. 3/4" Crushed Stone handles car traffic and drainage trenches that need more open space. #4 Crushed Stone is far bigger and used only for heavy base and erosion control. For fine, small-scale work, this chip is the right tool in the family.^[1]

This grade is a product of the final crushing stage at a quarry. After the larger grades are pulled off upper screens, the smaller rock passes through finer decks until the 3/8 inch chips remain. Many plants wash them to remove the dust, which keeps the drainage open and the color bright.^[1]

Gravel Valet buys from quarries and aggregate yards close to your address. The rock type, and so the exact gray, depends on what the local quarry mines. Shorter routes mean the truck spends its time delivering stone, not sitting in traffic on a long highway haul.^[1]

Quarries sometimes call the same chip by a trade name, such as clean chips or washed chips, so the name on a yard ticket may differ from the number. The size range is what counts, and the yard checks it with its own screens before the stone is loaded.^[1]

Fine chips are sold in small bags at garden centers, and those bags run out quickly on a trench or a patio bed. Buying by the ton in bulk means one order, one delivery and one pile to work from, instead of a stack of bags and repeat trips.^[1]

Even small stone is heavy, about 2,700 lb per cubic yard. Moving that weight a few bags at a time takes far more fuel and labor than one truckload. Bulk delivery also leaves leftover chips you can keep for topping up joints next season.^[1]

Measure your trench or patio, then use the calculator to convert square feet and depth into tons. Type your ZIP into the order box to see delivery to your address. Choose the tons, choose a date and leave a note on where the truck should unload.^[1]

For pipe work, estimate the trench length, width and the depth of chips around the pipe, then add a little for waste. For a patio bed at 4 inches, about 1.67 tons per 100 square feet, order a touch extra to fill joints later. Keep the pile close to the work area, since fine chips are easy to shovel but tiring to wheel across a yard.^[1]