Limestone Calculator

Limestone is a sedimentary rock with high concentrations of, or entirely, calcium carbonate that mostly comes from decomposed marine organisms.

Limestone is usually white, but it gets grayish to almost black in color with the presence of carbon or any organic matter. Traces of manganese or iron oxide can also discolor limestone rocks to a yellowish or reddish tinge.

Limestone has a lot of uses in various industries. We cut limestones into bricks, pavers, or tiles in the construction industry or pulverize them for cement production.

We can also crush limestones and use them as aggregates to mix with cement and sand for different concrete and mortar mixes. Other industries also use limestone, such as manufacturing paper, glass, and even paint. In agriculture, farmers can also add processed limestone called slaked lime to their fertilizer to neutralize acidic soils to achieve the best soil pH for a much desirable plant growth and product yield.

Our primary focus in this calculator revolves around the applications of limestone rocks or aggregates used in landscaping, walkways, and driveways, to name a few, like how we also use gravels or river rocks in a gravel driveway. In the next section of this text, we’ll discuss how to use our limestone calculator.

Using our limestone rock calculator is straightforward and simple. Here are the steps to follow:

1. The first step is to select the limestone type you wish to use. Limestone rocks vary in densities depending on their rock sizes. Smaller pieces of limestone rocks have higher bulk density than larger-size limestone rocks.
2. If you know the density of the limestone rock you plan to use, select Enter custom limestone density from the limestone type dropdown options, then change the density value in the Average density variable. The average density of limestone is 1.55-2.75 g/cm³.
3. The next step is to enter the area’s dimensions (length and width) you want to cover with limestone rocks and the depth. Doing so will display the volume you will be required to fill with limestone rocks.
4. Enter your projected wastage percentage for this project. In construction, we often either spill materials to waste or have changes in the actual work. Including a wastage value prepares us from having to get back to the store for more products. It’s also nice to keep some extra volume of materials for future uses.

Doing the steps above will result in a limestone weight calculation for your needed limestone rocks. You have this weight value, as suppliers tend to ask buyers how much limestone they need in terms of weight. Our limestone calculator covers the most typical weight units we use in construction.

You can also enter the price per unit mass or the price per unit volume, whichever you know, to find the estimated cost of your project.

Now that you know how to use our calculator, wouldn’t it also be nice to know how to calculate how much limestone you need manually? Let’s learn how to do it in the next section of this text.

To calculate how much limestone you need, the first thing you have to do is multiply the dimensions of the area you want to cover by how deep your limestone should be, as shown in the equation below:

volume to be filled = length × width × depth

Having this volume, we can then find the volume of limestone we need while considering the wastage percentage, using this equation:

volume needed = volume to be filled × (1 + wastage)

Since we also need to know the weight of the limestones we need, we can determine it by multiplying our calculated volume needed by the density of our limestone, as shown here:

weight of limestone needed = volume needed × density of limestone