River Rock Landscaping: What a 100 Square Foot Bed Costs
A 100 square foot bed covered 2 inches deep holds about 16.7 cubic feet of rock. That number never changes. What the bed costs changes by 33 percent. The thing that moves it surprises most buyers, because it is the color of the stone.
Rockhouse runs ten products through the creek rock aisle. Three colors, three sizes each, and one outlier that prices by the ton. Every size in a given color carries the same price per pound. Pick the pebble that fits your bed, then pick the color, and only the second choice touches the invoice.
The ten products in the creek rock aisle
The creek rock aisle in the Rockhouse store holds nine tumbled rock products across a 3 by 3 grid, plus Creek Rock Flats. Nine of the ten price by the pound.
Arkansas Brown Creek Rock costs $0.15 per pound in all three sizes: Arkansas Brown Creek Rock - 3-5" Small, Arkansas Brown Creek Rock - 5-8" Medium, and Arkansas Brown Creek Rock - 8-12" Large.
Arizona Pink Creek Rock costs $0.18 per pound in all three sizes: Arizona Pink Creek Rock - 3-5" Small, Arizona Pink Creek Rock - 5-8" Medium, and Arizona Pink Creek Rock - 8-12" Large.
High Color Creek Rock costs $0.20 per pound in all three sizes: High Color Creek Rock - 3-5" Small, High Color Creek Rock - 5-8" Medium, and High Color Creek Rock - 8-12" Large.
Creek Rock Flats - 3-5" Medium is the tenth product and the only one on a different unit. It costs $265.00 per ton.
Rockhouse sells stone by the pound. A price of $0.15 is the complete and correct price of one pound of Arkansas brown creek rock. Sub dollar numbers are ordinary in a stone yard where the scale sets the invoice.
Size does not move the price. Color does.
Read the three groups above again and the pattern stands out. Small, medium and large in Arkansas Brown all cost $0.15 per pound. Small, medium and large in High Color all cost $0.20 per pound. Nine products, three prices, and every price break falls on a color line.
That gives a buyer real freedom. Choosing the 8-12" large rock over the 3-5" small rock costs nothing extra per pound. The size decision can rest entirely on what the bed needs and how the stone looks at arm's length. The 5 cent per pound gap between Arkansas Brown and High Color is the only price lever in the aisle, and on a 2,000 pound load it comes to $100.00.
Match the rock to what the house already wears. Arkansas Brown sits easy against red brick and cedar, because the browns in the stone pick up the same warmth. Arizona Pink carries a rose cast that argues with red brick and looks its best against gray siding, white trim or tan stucco. High Color holds enough gray in the mix to bridge both, and it is the safe pick when a bed has to sit between two materials that disagree. Bring a photo of the house to the counter and the crew will pull a handful of each color so you can hold them against it.
Arkansas Brown is the native tone. It reads as the rock that came out of a creek two counties over, because it did, and it settles into an Arkansas yard without announcing itself. Arizona Pink at $0.18 per pound brings warm rose and buff tones that lift a bed against dark mulch or green foliage. High Color at $0.20 per pound is the mixed run, with reds, golds and grays through the same load. People pick it when the bed should be the thing you look at.
The ton price, converted so you can compare it
Creek Rock Flats - 3-5" Medium at $265.00 per ton looks like a different animal beside a per pound price. One division settles it. A ton is 2,000 pounds, so $265.00 divided by 2,000 comes to $0.1325 per pound.
Put that on the same line as the rest of the aisle and Creek Rock Flats is the cheapest stone in it, under Arkansas Brown at $0.15 and well under High Color at $0.20. Flats are the shape difference. They carry flatter, more angular faces where the other nine products carry a rounded tumble. People use them for stepping and edging where a rounded pebble would roll underfoot.
The same arithmetic works on any yard you call. A competitor quoting by the ton, by the yard, or by the scoop is quoting a different unit, and the numbers cannot be compared until somebody converts them. Ask what the unit is before you ask what the price is.
Mexican Beach Pebbles and where they sit
Mexican Beach Pebbles cost $0.40 per pound and live in the river aisle under boulders. They are the premium end of smooth stone: dark, dense, uniformly rounded, and they hold a deep charcoal wet look after rain that no domestic creek rock matches.
At $0.40 per pound they cost more than twice Arkansas Brown. Buyers use them where the stone is a finish material and the area is small: a planter surround, a fountain basin, a strip along a modern entry. Cover 400 square feet in them and the bill reflects that decision.
What a 100 square foot bed takes
Start with the volume, because that part is pure arithmetic and needs nothing from the yard.
- 100 square feet at 2 inches deep comes to 16.7 cubic feet of rock.
- 100 square feet at 3 inches deep comes to 25 cubic feet.
- 100 square feet at 4 inches deep comes to 33.3 cubic feet.
Two inches is the usual depth for a decorative bed in small rock. Three inches covers ground more completely and hides the base better under 5-8" medium stone. Four inches is drainage and erosion territory, and the 8-12" large sizes want that depth because the individual rocks are that big.
Now the part that needs the yard. Rockhouse prices nine of these ten products by the pound, and the crew puts your load on a scale. Rock weight per cubic foot swings with the size of the pebble and the shape of the run. The yard weighs the actual stone going on your trailer. One phone call converts your square footage and depth into pounds, and Rockhouse gives free consultations and quotes on material quantities.
Once the yard gives you that weight, the cost follows in one multiplication. Here is what every 1,000 pounds of stone costs at each price in the aisle.
- Creek Rock Flats at $0.1325 per pound: $132.50 per 1,000 pounds.
- Arkansas Brown Creek Rock at $0.15 per pound: $150.00 per 1,000 pounds.
- Arizona Pink Creek Rock at $0.18 per pound: $180.00 per 1,000 pounds.
- High Color Creek Rock at $0.20 per pound: $200.00 per 1,000 pounds.
- Mexican Beach Pebbles at $0.40 per pound: $400.00 per 1,000 pounds.
Say the yard weighs your 100 square foot bed at 2,000 pounds. That bed costs $300.00 in Arkansas Brown, $360.00 in Arizona Pink and $400.00 in High Color. The same bed in Mexican Beach Pebbles costs $800.00. Call 501-532-1905 with your square footage and your depth and the counter gives you the weight, then the price falls out of the table above.
Which size for which job
All three sizes cost the same within a color, so this choice is about the bed.
The 3-5" small size is the mulch replacement. It fills a planting bed, packs tight enough to stay put on flat ground, and lets a rake move it. Foot traffic crosses it without much complaint. This is the size most homeowners picture when they say river rock.
The 5-8" medium size is the dry creek bed stone. It reads as a watercourse when it runs in a channel, holds its position on a mild slope, and gives a bed visible texture from the house. The large 8-12" sizes are the drainage and erosion stone. Water moves through them without moving them, and they anchor a slope, line a downspout outfall, or edge a bed with rocks big enough to stay where somebody set them.
Mixing sizes inside one color costs nothing extra and looks more like a real creek than any single grade does. A channel of 5-8" medium with 8-12" large anchors set through it reads as water carried it there.
What river rock does that mulch does not
Arkansas weather is hard on organic mulch. Summer heat cooks it down, a heavy rain floats it out of the bed and into the driveway, and the whole layer needs replacing every year or two. Stone does none of that. Put it down once and the same rock is there in ten years, in the same place, in the same color.
The trade is thermal. Stone holds heat and radiates it back. A wide rock bed against a south wall runs warmer than a mulched one, and plants that want cool roots do better under organic cover. Stone also does not feed the soil the way decomposing mulch does. Match the material to the planting and the bed takes care of itself.
Pickup at the yard and free delivery in Garland County
Rockhouse runs a 7 acre yard at 5643 N Hwy 7, Hot Springs Village, AR 71909, open Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM. Come walk the rows and look at all three colors dry and in daylight before you commit. Photographs flatten stone, and a warm buff run photographed in shade reads gray on a screen.
Rockhouse delivers free on 3 or more pallets to Hot Springs Village and all of Garland County. Under three pallets the yard quotes the run when you call. Rockhouse Connect carries loads out of state and books the freight nationally. An Arkansas creek rock order can land in another state without the buyer hunting a carrier. Rockhouse Stone Company has run this yard under the Bennett Brothers of Hot Springs name since 1972.
The online store shows the aisle and the current price on every product in it. Nobody can order through it. A load leaves the yard after a phone call to 501-532-1905 or a visit in person.
What to have ready before you call 501-532-1905
The counter can price a bed in about two minutes with these four answers.
- Measure the bed and write down its square footage.
- Pick a depth, anywhere from 2 inches through 4 inches.
- Pick a size from 3-5" small, 5-8" medium or 8-12" large, and say if you want a mix.
- Give the delivery address, or say that you will collect the stone at the yard.
Rockhouse Stone is a supplier and does no on-site work. The yard stocks the rock, weighs it, states the price beside its unit and gets it to your address. Call 501-532-1905 with your square footage and depth. The counter converts it to pounds, prices all three colors against each other, and gives you a delivery figure for Garland County.