I'm putting in a stepping stone path. The stones will be on top of 4" of packed, 3/4"- (three quarter minus) stone - which packs to a nice, solid base.
My question is, if I know that the volume of the stone in the path is going to be (for example) one cubic yard (3'x3'x3'), what amount of stone should I order?
In other words, if I ordered one cubic yard, spread it out, and tamped it down, how close would the resulting volume be to one cubic yard? Is it close enough to not worry? Or would it compact down to only be 75% of the cubic yard?
Edited to add: For the sake of this question, assume that I've already added a buffer in my order for voids I've not accounted for, that I've already adjusted for loss while wheel-barrowing the stone to the area I'm going to put it, that I've accounted for deviations in how much the gravel company delivers, and that I've already accounted for extra slough off the shoulder of the base layer.
The question is NOT about "how to build a path?" or "it's just a path, why do you care?" - the question is simply, how much volume is lost when compacting 3/4"-? It's obviously non-zero because it actually does compact (as opposed to river rock which does not compact).