GardenCalc
The Short Answer
Bought in bulk bags or loose, pea gravel and its close cousins cost between about £55 and £233 a tonne in the UK. Buy it in small decorative bags off a shelf and the same stone is nearer £780 a tonne. Some of that gap is a genuine difference in product: the cheapest rows are merchant aggregate, sold by the yard for building work, and the dearest are washed, graded decorative stone sold for a garden. But some of the gap is just the door you walk through, and the table below labels which is which so you can tell them apart.
On a 20 square metre path at 50mm deep, roughly 1.5 tonnes, that spread is the difference between about £83 and about £350 of stone. Worth ten minutes on the phone.
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Pea Gravel Prices, By Supplier
| Supplier | Product and size | Type | Price | Per tonne |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TW Aggregates (Wolverhampton) | 6-10mm pea gravel, about 850kg | Merchant aggregate | £46.80 inc VAT | £55 |
| Gills Building Supplies (Walsall) | 10mm pea gravel, 850kg | Merchant aggregate | £53.50 inc VAT | £63 |
| Rose Building Supplies | 4-10mm loose, tipped | Merchant aggregate | £66.00 inc tax | £66 |
| Wickes | Suburban Build gravel, jumbo bag | General gravel, not sold as decorative | £75.00 | about £90, inferred |
| Travis Perkins | Gravel and shingle 10mm or 20mm, 800kg | Construction aggregate, not a decorative product | £75.24 inc VAT | £94 |
| B&Q | 20mm pea shingle, 800kg | Sold as non-decorative | £87.99 | £110 |
| Decorative Aggregates | Pea gravel 10-20mm, 800kg | Decorative | £127.01 inc VAT | £159 |
| Kingfisher Direct | Pea gravel, 850kg | Decorative | £149.99 (sale) | £176 if that price is inc VAT, £212 if it is ex |
| B&Q | 10mm or 20mm pea shingle, 850kg | Decorative | £169.99 | £200 |
| Homebase | Bowland Stone pea gravel 6-10mm, 750kg | Decorative, branded | £175.00 | £233 |
| B&Q | Decorative garden stones, 23kg bag | Decorative, small bag | £17.99 | £780 |
Every row read off the supplier's own product page on 18 August 2026, linked in the first column so you can check it. The per-tonne column is our sum from the price and the stated bag weight. Read the Type column before comparing two rows: merchant aggregate and washed decorative stone are not the same product even when the stone size matches. The Wickes row is marked inferred because that product page gives a price per kilo rather than a bag weight, so the per tonne figure is worked from the rate rather than read off the page. Kingfisher's page did not make its VAT position clear, so that row shows both readings rather than picking one. It does not change the shape of the table either way. Jewson and Mainland Aggregates both hide prices behind a postcode, so they are not in the table rather than guessed at.
B&Q makes the cleanest comparison itself, because both products are its own pea shingle: the non-decorative bag is £110 a tonne and the decorative one is £200. That is a £90 gap inside one retailer on the same stone size. Below that again, two independent merchants sell pea gravel at £55 and £63 a tonne. If the stone is going somewhere you are not judging the colour, a side path, a bin store, a soakaway, the merchant option is worth a phone call. Not a shed base though: loose pea gravel does not compact, so a shed wants a proper compacted sub-base or slabs under it. If it is a front garden you will look at every day, buy the graded decorative stuff and pay for it knowingly.
What That Costs Per Square Metre
Our gravel calculator works on 1,500 kg per cubic metre for surface gravel, so at 50mm deep you need about 75kg a square metre. Travis Perkins says one 800kg bulk bag covers 10 to 12 square metres at that depth, which agrees.
| Price per tonne | Cost per m² at 50mm | 20 m² path |
|---|---|---|
| £55 (independent merchant) | about £4.13 | about £83 |
| £94 (Travis Perkins) | about £7.05 | about £141 |
| £159 (Decorative Aggregates) | about £11.93 | about £239 |
| £233 (Homebase Bowland) | about £17.48 | about £350 |
Our own arithmetic from the density above. Decorative Aggregates recommends laying pea gravel 4 to 5cm deep, so if you go deeper than 50mm scale these up. For your real measurements use the gravel calculator, which gives tonnes and bulk bags for the area and depth you enter.
Before You Order
- Check the bag weight, not the word "bulk bag". The bags above run 750kg to 850kg. A 750kg bag at £175 and an 850kg bag at £53.50 are not remotely the same purchase.
- Ask what delivery costs. Some prices include it, some do not, and a merchant a mile away may beat a national supplier once carriage is on.
- Ask about loose tipped. Rose Building Supplies sells loose at £66 a tonne with a one to four tonne minimum. If you have somewhere to tip it and a barrow, loose usually beats bagged.
- Check VAT. Trade merchants often quote ex VAT and DIY sheds quote inc VAT, which is a silent 20 per cent on any comparison.
- Not a play surface. Playground safety surfacing is tested to BS EN 1177, and the test result is tied to a critical fall height, so a surface has to suit the height of your equipment and be laid at the depth it was tested at. Certification on its own is not a pass for every swing. Ordinary landscaping pea gravel is not tested for it at all, so do not put it under a frame and assume it will do the job.
Frequently Asked Questions
Work Out Your Quantity
Note on prices. Every price was read off the supplier's own product page on 18 August 2026 and is inclusive of VAT where the supplier states it. The one exception is the Wickes row, marked inferred in the table, where the page gives a rate per kilo rather than a bag weight, so the per tonne figure is worked from that rate. Prices change without notice, and so do promotions and delivery charges. Per-tonne and per-square-metre figures are our own arithmetic from those prices and the published bag weights, so check the current page before you order.