Topsoil Delivery
Screened growing soil by the load. The layer that decides whether new sod takes or dies in six weeks.
Why topsoil matters more in South Florida than most places
Much of South Florida sits on sand and limestone with very little native topsoil. Strip a lot for construction and what you are left with is not a growing medium — it is fill. Sod laid straight onto it will green up for a few weeks on the strength of what came with the pallet and then decline.
Screened topsoil is the layer that fixes that. It holds moisture and nutrients long enough for roots to establish, and in a climate where the rain arrives in violent bursts and then does not come back for two weeks, moisture retention is the whole game.
The practical minimum for sod is 2 inches; 4 is better. Planting beds want 6 to 12 depending on what is going in them.
Topsoil, fill dirt and garden mix
Three different products, regularly confused.
Topsoil is screened soil with enough organic content to grow things in. It is what goes under sod and in beds.
Fill dirt is bulk soil for moving grade. It is cheaper and it is deliberately low in organics because organics rot and settle. Do not plant in it.
Garden mix is topsoil blended with compost or other amendments for a richer growing medium. Where a job wants it, we can usually source it — ask when you order.
A sensible large landscape build is fill dirt for the bulk of the grade change with a topsoil layer over the top. You pay fill prices for volume and topsoil prices only for the layer that has to grow something.
Quantities and delivery
Topsoil is the lightest material we haul at roughly 1.15 tons per cubic yard, which means a ton covers more ground than any of the rock products: about 130 square feet at 2 inches, 65 at 4, and 43 at 6.
A 22-ton load therefore does roughly 2,800 square feet at 2 inches — a decent-sized lawn. Landscape jobs are one of the more common places where a single load is genuinely the right quantity.
One practical note: topsoil is the material most affected by weather. A load delivered ahead of a wet week turns into something very difficult to spread. If your schedule has flexibility, take the delivery on a dry run of days, and tarp the pile if it is sitting.
Specification
| Property | Detail |
|---|---|
| Material | Screened soil with organic content suitable for planting |
| Screening | Passed to remove rock, roots and debris |
| Approx. weight | 1.15 tons per cubic yard |
| Coverage at 2" | ~130 sq ft per ton |
| Coverage at 4" | ~65 sq ft per ton |
| Coverage at 6" | ~43 sq ft per ton |
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
- Sod preparation and lawn establishment
- Filling and levelling planting beds
- Lawn repair and low-spot correction
- Raised beds and vegetable gardens
- Topdressing over fill before landscaping
- Tree and shrub planting backfill
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.
Topsoil — common questions
How much topsoil do I need for new sod?
Can I use fill dirt instead of topsoil under sod?
Do you carry garden mix or compost blends?
Where we deliver Topsoil
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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