Rip Rap Delivery

Sizing rip rap, briefly

Rip rap is specified by class, and the class is driven by how much energy the water carries. Sheltered canal banks in inland Broward take smaller stone than an exposed shoreline on the ocean side of the Keys, and a scour apron at a culvert outfall is sized for the velocity coming out of the pipe.

The general rule is that stone has to be heavy enough that design-storm flow cannot move it, and graded enough that smaller pieces fill the voids between larger ones so the mat locks up rather than acting as a pile of loose boulders. Almost every properly built installation also has a filter layer underneath — geotextile fabric, a bedding stone course, or both — to stop the soil beneath from washing out through the gaps. Rip rap placed directly on sand will eventually sink into it.

We are the supplier, not the engineer. If your project is permitted, the plan set will name the class and the layer thicknesses; send us that page and we will match it. If it is unpermitted seawall repair on your own property, tell us the exposure and we will tell you honestly what size the neighbours are using.

Permitting on the water — read this before you order

Work below the mean high water line in Florida is regulated. Depending on the location you may be dealing with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the South Florida Water Management District, the Army Corps of Engineers, and a county or municipal marine contractor permit on top of that. Monroe County and the waters around the Keys carry additional layers again, including areas within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

This is not us being cautious for the sake of it. We deliver rip rap to plenty of waterfront jobs and the ones that go badly are always the ones where material showed up before the permit did. Get the approval, then call us.

Delivery and placement realities

Rip rap is a machine material. Nobody moves 200-pound stone by hand, so your site needs equipment and room for it — typically an excavator with a thumb, working from a bank or a barge.

Waterfront delivery is also where access gets genuinely difficult. Narrow residential streets on the barrier islands, low-hanging ficus, soft seawall caps that will not take axle weight, and neighbours who are not expecting a tri-axle at 7 AM. Tell us what the approach looks like when you order. On tight coastal sites we will sometimes stage the load at a nearby lot and shuttle it in smaller quantities.

For Keys projects, add lead time. Everything below Florida City moves down a two-lane US-1 with bridges, and the haul is long enough that we plan the run rather than squeezing it into a normal day. See our Florida Keys page for how we schedule that corridor.

Specification

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

• Seawall toe protection and scour aprons
• Shoreline and canal bank armouring
• Slope stabilisation on retention ponds and lake banks
• Culvert and outfall headwall protection
• Living shoreline and mangrove edge stabilisation projects
• Temporary construction entrances and haul road crossings

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.

Rip Rap — common questions

Where we deliver Rip Rap

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.

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