How to calculate the slope of your gravel driveway

If you have a sloping gravel driveway and would like to stabilise the gravel using Nidagravel stabilisation grids to create a stable, firm and easy to use sloping gravel driveway, you will probably want to check the gradient of your slope first to see if it is within our maximum slope gradient of 15%.

You can use our Gradient Calculator to do this. But first of all, you will need to know two pieces of information or to be precise, you will need to know two measurements. In order to calculate the gradient, you need to know the length of the slope, also known as the RUN, and the difference in height between the top of the slope and the bottom, which is known as the RISE.

The RUN measurement is the easy part. Simply get a tape measure and measure the length of the slope. To obtain the RISE measurement you will need a peg and string line, spirit level and tape measure. Hammer the peg into the top of the slope and attached the string line. Roll out the line to the bottom of the slope and hold it up in the air until it is completely level. Use the spirit level to help you do this. Then using the tape measure, measure from the line down to the surface of the driveway at its lowest point/bottom of the slope. This measurement is the RISE. (Please note that it is much easier to take this measurement with two people)

Now you have obtained you two RUN and RISE measurements, simply enter these into our Gradient Calculator and it will calculate your gradient for you.

Click on this link to go to our Gradient Calculator

If your gradient is 15% or under, then you can use Nidagravel grids to stabilise your sloping gravel driveway. We normally recommend using Nidagravel 130 for residential driveways. If you slope gradient is close to the 15% maximum, then we would recommend using our highest specification stabilisation grid, Nidagravel 140 as it is a more robust gravel grid and holds a greater volume of gravel. In both cases we would recommend using an angular gravel with a maximum size of 10 -12mm as this will give the best results when stabilising your sloping gravel driveway.