Crushed Concrete Delivery
Recycled, cheaper than virgin rock, and it gets harder with age. The most under-rated base material in the market.
Why crushed concrete performs better than people expect
Crushed concrete is exactly what the name says: concrete from demolition, crushed and screened to a base gradation. The reflex reaction is that recycled material must be inferior to virgin rock. In this application that reflex is wrong.
Concrete never fully hydrates. There is always unreacted cement left in the matrix, and when you crush it, expose fresh surfaces, add water and compact it, that residual cement goes back to work. A crushed concrete base continues to stiffen for months after it is placed. Limerock does not do that.
It is also angular with a full range of fines, which is exactly the gradation profile that makes a good compactable base. Properly processed material performs at or very near limerock base — and costs less, because the raw input is a disposal problem somebody was paying to get rid of.
Miami-Dade in particular runs on it. The density of demolition and redevelopment in Dade means there is a lot of feedstock and a lot of processing capacity, and crushed concrete is the default base on a large share of the private work there.
The honest caveats
Three things to know before you specify it.
Acceptance is job-specific. Plenty of specifications permit recycled concrete as base; some require virgin limerock. FDOT work and certain municipal projects have their own rules. Confirm acceptance before you build on it — the material is fine, but an inspector working from a drawing that says limerock will not care.
Quality varies by producer. Well-run operations screen out rebar, wood, plastic and asphalt and produce a consistent gradation. Poorly run ones do not. We source from producers we have used repeatedly, and if a load is contaminated we want to hear about it immediately.
The fines are alkaline. Runoff from fresh crushed concrete carries a high pH, which matters if it is draining directly into a pond, a canal or planting beds. On most sites it is a non-issue. Near sensitive water it is worth a thought.
Cost and quantities
The price advantage over virgin limerock is real and it scales — on a job that needs several hundred tons of base, choosing crushed concrete is a material line-item saving rather than a rounding error.
Compacted it runs about 1.4 tons per cubic yard, so one ton covers roughly 54 square feet at 4 inches or 36 square feet at 6. A 22-ton tri-axle does around 1,200 square feet at 4 inches. As with all base materials, expect 20 to 25 percent volume loss on compaction and order against the compacted thickness.
Backhaul — the other half of the trade
If you are demolishing concrete on the same job you are basing, talk to us about combining the runs. We backhaul clean concrete, asphalt, fill and dirt to permitted yards, and a truck that brings base in and takes rubble out on the return is a meaningfully cheaper way to move both than two separate trips.
Material has to be clean — concrete and asphalt without trash, wood or soil mixed through it. Ask for a combined quote when you order.
Specification
| Property | Detail |
|---|---|
| Material | Reclaimed concrete crushed and screened to a base gradation |
| Gradation | Well-graded, commonly supplied to a limerock-base-equivalent grading |
| Contaminants | Processed to remove rebar, wood and trash; quality varies by producer |
| Behaviour | Residual cement rehydrates — the layer stiffens over months |
| Approx. weight | 1.4 tons per cubic yard compacted |
| Coverage at 4" | ~54 sq ft per ton compacted |
| Coverage at 6" | ~36 sq ft per ton compacted |
Figures are typical, not guaranteed. Weights and gradations vary between pits and sources. If your job is specified, send us the relevant plan sheet and we will match it — and confirm quantities against your own scale tickets once you are running.
What it is used for
- Base course under asphalt, concrete and pavers where accepted
- Structural and general fill
- Driveways, parking areas and yard surfaces
- Construction entrances and haul roads
- Pipe backfill and trench restoration
- Levelling and grade correction on large sites
Working out how much you need
Material is sold by the ton. Plans are drawn in cubic yards. That mismatch is where most ordering errors come from, and they are expensive in both directions — running short stops a crew, and over-ordering by a large margin ties up money in a pile.
The arithmetic: multiply length by width by depth in feet, divide by 27 to get cubic yards, then multiply by the material's weight per yard. Most rock runs about 1.35 to 1.4 tons per cubic yard; compacted base is heavier at roughly 1.65; topsoil is lighter at about 1.15.
Then allow for compaction. Base and fill lose roughly 20 to 25 percent of their loose volume once they are properly compacted, so the tonnage you order should be above the theoretical plan volume. Our tonnage calculator builds that allowance in and converts the answer into truckloads.
Order slightly heavy. Two extra tons in a pile costs almost nothing and always gets used. Two tons short on a Friday afternoon costs you a whole extra delivery and a crew standing around.
Crushed Concrete — common questions
Is crushed concrete allowed as base on permitted jobs?
Does crushed concrete really get harder over time?
How much cheaper is it than limerock?
Will you haul away my old concrete?
Where we deliver Crushed Concrete
From Jupiter down to Key West — Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe counties. Mainland deliveries are same or next day; the Keys are scheduled runs.
Related materials
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