Skip Standard Gravel - There's A Super Durable Alternative For Your Driveway

When you're looking for the best gravel for your driveway, you have a few different options that carry varying prices and looks. Many people select crushed stone, which works well with average traffic patterns and is fairly inexpensive. Marble chip driveways deliver a luxurious look that will enhance your home's curb appeal, but they are more expensive than other materials.

If you'd prefer an option that has a lower cost than marble chip, holds together tightly, and boasts a unique look, black star rock is an option. It has an impressive dark gray color with individual stones that feature sharp angles that further enhance its appearance. Crushed, white stones are commonly installed in driveways, meaning the darker colored black star rock can give your home an unmistakable appearance that sets it apart from your neighbors.

It comes from basalt, which is a highly durable type of volcanic rock. It rarely wears or erodes under pressure, which makes it a good choice to manage the vehicular traffic in a driveway. To ensure maximum durability and longevity, you could install grid pavers and pour the black star rock over the top to keep it from budging — grid pavers are known as one of the best ways to keep a gravel driveway in place. Even without using grid pavers underneath, black star rock is known for giving homeowners a solid surface for foot and vehicular traffic.

One of the biggest advantages of using black star rock in a driveway is how well it compacts. The shapes of the individual stones fit together tightly, creating a stable surface that resists ruts and puddles that form in heavy rain. Because of its ability to resist erosion and displacement, homeowners can use it successfully on a driveway that has a slope.

Black star rock, also sometimes called black trap rock, is durable enough for use in high-stress areas (like a driveway), but it also has a decorative element that makes it work nicely for landscaping, fire pits, and similar areas. However, it's the ability of black star rock to stand up to widely varying temperatures while maintaining its durability that makes it an especially popular choice for driveways in locations with variable weather conditions. When installed in a driveway, black star rock requires very little maintenance. It doesn't shift out of place easily, even when large vehicles are regularly driving on it. If you live in an area with frequent heavy rain, black star rock forms a structure of natural drainage channels that are able to move water without eroding the underlying soil.

One of the potential downsides to black star rock and its dark color is that it heats up to uncomfortable temperatures in areas that receive a lot of sunlight. Pets and kids walking across the stones in bare feet may find it uncomfortable.

If you have a large area to cover on your driveway, the expense of black star rock could be prohibitive, as it ranks on the higher end of the cost range for driveway gravel. Black star rock usually costs between $200 and $250 per cubic yard of material. This is less than marble chips, which can cost as high as $450 per cubic yard, but quite a bit more than standard white gravel, which will typically run you $75 to $125 per cubic yard. If you paid $225 per cubic yard for the black star rock and wanted a depth of 6 inches for a 500 square foot driveway, your materials cost would be a little over $2,000.

In addition to the cost of the materials, you might need to rent power equipment to help with removing the existing soil or gravel and spreading the new black star rock for DIY work. Properly spreading the gravel is a key step when installing a gravel driveway at home yourself. 

If you choose to hire a professional instead, the cost of the installation work could be several thousand dollars, including the pricier black star rock materials. When providing a quote, pros will consider the overall complexity of the job, including the level of work required to prep the space and whether the driveway has slopes or curves.