Road Base Delivery

Choosing between the three

When somebody asks us for road base, the first question back is what the base has to satisfy. There are three products in this market that all compact into a firm load-carrying layer, and they differ mainly in bearing value, cost and where they are accepted.

Limerock base

The specified material. Limerock base is what FDOT Section 911 describes and what almost every stamped drawing in South Florida calls for. LBR 100 for base course. If there is a permit, an engineer or an inspector involved, start here.

Crushed concrete

Crushed concrete is recycled concrete crushed and graded to a base specification. Properly processed it performs at or near limerock and gains strength over time as residual cement rehydrates. It costs less, and it is the environmentally sensible choice. It is accepted for base on a great many projects — but acceptance is job-specific, so confirm before you build on it.

Shell rock

Shell rock is the budget option. Lower bearing value, more variable between sources, meaningfully cheaper. Perfect for driveways, pads and access roads where nobody is checking an LBR. Not acceptable as spec base.

The part that actually determines whether it works

Contractors argue about which base material to buy and then lose the job on placement. All three of these products depend entirely on being compacted correctly, and the failure mode is identical: material placed too thick in one lift, too dry, and rolled too few passes.

Place in lifts of roughly 6 inches compacted. Water to near optimum moisture — damp enough to ball in your hand, not wet enough to pump. Roll each lift to density before the next goes down. For permitted work that means 98% of modified Proctor, verified by a testing lab.

Base built this way carries traffic for decades. Base dumped, raked and driven on ruts within a season regardless of which of the three materials you bought.

Ordering base by the ton

All three are sold by the ton, with a one cubic yard minimum and no obligation to take a full load. Compacted weights run roughly 1.65 tons per cubic yard for limerock, 1.5 for shell rock and 1.4 for crushed concrete, and all of them lose about 20 to 25 percent of loose volume when compacted.

The practical consequence is that you order more loose tons than the plan volume suggests. Our tonnage calculator builds the compaction allowance in, so the number it gives you is the number to order.

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

• Base course under asphalt and concrete pavement
• Base beneath paver installations
• Driveways, parking areas and equipment pads
• Stabilised construction entrances and haul roads
• Structural fill where bearing capacity matters

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.

Road Base — common questions

Where we deliver Road Base

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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