Gravel & Rock Delivery in Key West
End of the road. A hundred and ninety miles, and the tightest streets we deliver into anywhere.
Key West is the end of US-1 and about a hundred and ninety miles from our yard — the longest haul we run and one we plan properly.
It is also the most access-constrained city we deliver into. Old Town streets were laid out in the nineteenth century, they are narrow, the houses sit close to the road, and much of the area is under historic district review.
Building in Key West
Old Town and the historic district are the defining challenge and the defining character. Renovation there operates under Historic Architectural Review Commission oversight, which governs what can be changed and how, and the streets themselves were built for horses.
The material demand is real but the quantities per job are modest and the deliveries are delicate: base for driveways and patios, sand and pea rock for courtyards and landscaping, #57 for the drainage problems that come with old buildings on low ground.
New Town, along the North Roosevelt corridor and out toward the airport, is the opposite — conventional twentieth-century development with normal streets, commercial property and pavement work at proper quantities. Crushed concrete and limerock base for parking and pads.
The waterfront and the harbour generate marine work and rip rap demand, and the island's exposure means shoreline protection is a continuing concern.
Stock Island, immediately adjacent, carries much of the working industry — boatyards, marine services, workforce housing development — and orders more like a conventional market.
Materials we deliver to Key West
We carry 19 materials and will haul any of them here. These are the six Key West orders most, with the specification detail you need to order correctly the first time.
Limerock Base in Key West
The material South Florida is built on. If it is paved, there is almost certainly limerock underneath it.
Limerock is mined limestone crushed and graded so that it runs the full range from roughly three and a half inches down to powder. That full gradation is the entire point. The coarse pieces carry load, the fines fill the voids between them, and when you add water and roll it, the fines cement the whole thing into a slab you can drive a loaded truck across.
South Florida sits on limestone, which means the material is quarried locally and hauled short distances — and that is why base here costs what it costs. In most of the United States, road base is crushed granite or gravel trucked in from a distance. Here, the Miami oolite formation in Miami-Dade and the Ocala limestone further north put the quarry inside the market.
You will see it written as limerock, lime rock and crushed limestone depending on who wrote the document, and heard as base rock or DOT base on site. Engineers specify it by FDOT section number. It is all the same product.
Full Limerock Base specification, coverage figures and FAQ →
Specification
| Common specification | FDOT Standard Specifications Section 911 — limerock base course |
| Bearing value | LBR 100 typical for base course; lower grades exist for sub-base |
| Material | Mined limestone — Miami oolite in Dade, Ocala formation further north |
| Gradation | Well-graded from roughly 3-1/2" down to fines — the fines are what make it bind |
| Compaction | Placed in lifts, typically 6" compacted, to 98% modified Proctor |
| Approx. weight | 1.65 tons per cubic yard compacted (1.4 loose) |
| Coverage at 4" | ~45 sq ft per ton compacted |
| Coverage at 6" | ~30 sq ft per ton compacted |
What Key West customers use it for
- Base course under asphalt roads, driveways and parking lots
- Base under concrete slabs, aprons and sidewalks
- Compacted base beneath paver installations
- Structural fill and sub-base where bearing capacity is specified
- Stabilised construction entrances and haul roads
- Pads for equipment, containers and modular buildings
What is the difference between limerock and crushed limestone?
Nothing meaningful in this market. "Crushed limestone" is the generic description, "limerock" is the South Florida term, and FDOT documentation calls it limerock base. Same material.
Crushed Concrete in Key West
Recycled, cheaper than virgin rock, and it gets harder with age. The most under-rated base material in the market.
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.
Full Crushed Concrete specification, coverage figures and FAQ →
Specification
| 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 |
What Key West customers use it 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
Is crushed concrete allowed as base on permitted jobs?
Often, but not universally. Many private and municipal specifications accept it; some require virgin limerock. Check the specification for your job before building on it.
Fill Sand in Key West
Unwashed, inexpensive, and bought by the load. The volume sand for moving grade around a site.
Fill sand is the cheapest way to move a large volume of granular material onto a site. It is natural, unwashed sand — some silt content, variable gradation depending on where it came from — and it is bought when what you need is bulk and compactability rather than cleanliness.
The most common uses in our area are backfill and grade raising. Pool contractors use a lot of it for over-dig backfill. Septic installers use it around tanks and in drainfields. Site contractors use it to bring a lot up to grade before base goes down.
Because it is unwashed, it is not the right choice anywhere fines would cause a problem — not under pavers, not in concrete, not as drainage stone. For those, buy concrete sand or #57 rock.
Full Fill Sand specification, coverage figures and FAQ →
Specification
| Material | Natural unwashed sand with some silt content |
| Gradation | Variable by source |
| Washed | No — use concrete or mason sand where cleanliness matters |
| Drainage | Good, though less free-draining than washed sand |
| Approx. weight | 1.35 tons per cubic yard |
| Coverage at 6" | ~36 sq ft per ton |
What Key West customers use it for
- General site grading and grade raising
- Backfill around foundations, walls and structures
- Septic system installation and drainfield sand
- Pool backfill and over-dig fill
- Pipe bedding where a washed product is not specified
- Bulk volume fill beneath slabs and pads
What is the difference between fill sand and fill dirt?
Fill sand is granular, free-draining and compacts predictably — better under structures. Fill dirt is soil, cheaper, holds moisture, and is used for landscape grade changes and general volume.
Rip Rap in Key West
Armour stone for the places where water is actively trying to take your property back.
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.
Full Rip Rap specification, coverage figures and FAQ →
Specification
| Common classes | Bedding stone, rubble rip rap, bank-and-shore rip rap |
| Size range | Roughly 6" to 36" depending on class and exposure |
| Material | Quarried limestone; occasionally recycled concrete rubble where permitted |
| Shape | Angular, blocky — interlocks and resists rolling |
| Approx. weight | 1.4 tons per cubic yard placed |
| Filter layer | Geotextile or bedding stone almost always required beneath |
What Key West customers use it 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
Do I need a permit to put rip rap on my seawall?
Almost certainly, if any part of the work sits below the mean high water line. Depending on location that can involve FDEP, the South Florida Water Management District, the Army Corps of Engineers and a local marine permit. Confirm before ordering material.
#57 Rock in Key West
The workhorse drainage stone of South Florida. Open-graded, angular, and the default answer whenever water has to move through rock instead of sitting on it.
#57 is a gradation, not a rock type. The number comes from the AASHTO/ASTM sizing chart, and it describes stone that passes a 1-1/2 inch sieve and is retained on a No. 4 — in practice, pieces running roughly three-quarters of an inch to an inch, with the fines washed out.
In most of the country #57 is granite or trap rock. In South Florida it is crushed limestone, quarried locally, which is why it costs a fraction of what the same gradation costs in Georgia and why nearly every drainage detail on a Broward or Miami-Dade plan set specifies it. You will hear it called #57 stone by engineers and spec writers and 57 rock by everyone actually standing on the job. Same material.
The defining property is what has been removed. Because the fines are washed out, the stone will not knit together and will not compact. Stack it and it stays a pile of loose angular rock with roughly a third of its volume as open void. That void is the whole point: water runs straight through it instead of perching on top.
Full #57 Rock specification, coverage figures and FAQ →
Specification
| Gradation | AASHTO / ASTM No. 57 — passes 1-1/2", retained on No. 4 sieve |
| Material | Crushed limestone (South Florida oolite or Ocala formation) |
| Shape | Angular, crushed faces |
| Washed | Yes — minimal fines |
| Drainage | Free-draining; roughly 30–40% void space |
| Compaction | Does not compact — consolidates only, no proctor spec |
| Approx. weight | 1.35 tons per cubic yard (2,700 lb) |
| Coverage at 2" | ~110 sq ft per ton |
| Coverage at 4" | ~55 sq ft per ton |
What Key West customers use it for
- French drains and trench drains — the standard backfill stone
- Septic drainfields and pump chambers
- Under-slab drainage layer beneath concrete
- Pipe bedding and backfill where flow matters more than support
- Coarse aggregate in ready-mix concrete
- Loose driveways and equipment pads where mud is the enemy
- Erosion control at downspouts and swale outfalls
Is #57 stone the same as #57 rock?
Yes. "Stone" is the term on plan sets and in ASTM/AASHTO documentation; "rock" is what it is called on job sites throughout South Florida. Both refer to the same washed, open-graded gradation running roughly 3/4" to 1".
Pea Rock in Key West
Small, rounded and smooth underfoot. Called pea gravel everywhere else — in Florida it is pea rock.
Same material, different vocabulary. The rest of the country calls it pea gravel; South Florida calls it pea rock, and if you ask a yard here for pea gravel you will get a slight pause before they hand you the same thing.
It is a small, naturally rounded stone at about three-eighths of an inch nominal, washed clean, in a mix of tans, greys and off-whites. The rounded shape is what distinguishes it from #89 rock, which is a similar size but crushed and angular.
That difference drives where each one is used. Rounded feels good underfoot and looks softer, so pea rock goes on pool decks, paths and decorative areas. Angular locks under load, so #89 goes under pavers and around pipe.
Full Pea Rock specification, coverage figures and FAQ →
Specification
| Nominal size | 3/8 inch |
| Shape | Rounded and water-worn, not crushed |
| Washed | Yes |
| Colour | Mixed tans, greys and whites depending on source |
| Approx. weight | 1.4 tons per cubic yard |
| Coverage at 2" | ~105 sq ft per ton |
| Coverage at 3" | ~70 sq ft per ton |
What Key West customers use it for
- Pool deck surrounds and landscape borders
- Walkways, paths and courtyard surfaces
- Drainage beds and dry creek features
- Playground surfacing
- Exposed aggregate concrete finishes
- Ground cover in planting beds and side yards
- Under decks and in side-yard drainage runs
Is pea rock the same as pea gravel?
Yes. "Pea gravel" is the national term and "pea rock" is what it is called in South Florida. Same 3/8-inch rounded washed stone.
Choosing the right material
Most ordering mistakes are not quantity errors — they are the wrong material bought for the job. This is the short version of what goes where.
| If the job is… | Use | Not | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base under pavement, inspected | Limerock base | Shell rock | Spec work needs the certified bearing value. Shell rock will not satisfy LBR 100. |
| Base under pavement, not inspected | Crushed concrete | Virgin limerock | Performs at or near limerock, gains strength over time, costs less. |
| Driveway, pad or ranch road | Shell rock | Spec limerock | Nobody is testing the bearing value. Put the saving into thickness. |
| Driveway wearing surface | Asphalt millings | Loose stone | Binds in the sun into a firm dark surface that does not wash out or dust. |
| French drain or drainfield | #57 rock | Crusher run | Washed and open-graded, so water moves through it. Anything with fines clogs. |
| Under pavers — bedding | Washed concrete sand | Mason sand or stone dust | Only well-graded coarse sand locks under load. One inch, screeded. |
| Permeable paver bedding | #89 rock | Concrete sand | Permeable systems are a different detail — open-graded stone, not sand. |
| Mortar, play areas | Mason sand | Concrete sand | Fine and uniform, so it trowels smoothly and is soft underfoot. |
| Raising grade under a slab | Fill sand | Fill dirt | Drains freely and compacts predictably. Dirt holds moisture and moves. |
| Landscape grade, berms | Fill dirt | Fill sand | Cheaper per ton, and bearing capacity is not the concern. |
| Under new sod | Topsoil | Fill dirt | Fill is deliberately low in organics. Sod on fill declines once it exhausts what it arrived with. |
| Pool deck, path, borders | Pea rock | #57 rock | Rounded and smooth underfoot. Angular stone is uncomfortable and looks harsh. |
| Seawall, shoreline, scour | Rip rap | Anything smaller | Stone has to be heavy enough that design-storm flow cannot move it. |
Not sure? Call and describe the job. We would rather spend two minutes on the phone than deliver the wrong thing.
Ground conditions in the Florida Keys
The Keys are geologically unlike anywhere on the mainland, and building here reflects that at every turn.
Rock, not soil
The upper Keys are built on Key Largo Limestone — fossil coral reef — and the lower Keys largely on Miami oolite. Either way, what sits under your feet is rock with a very thin and often nonexistent soil cap.
That means excavation is breaking, not digging. It means anything requiring depth costs more than the mainland equivalent. And it means that when a job calls for soil, planting medium or fill, all of it has to be imported — there is nothing local to win it from.
No aggregate production at all
There are no quarries, no pits and no processing anywhere in the island chain. Every ton of base, fill, sand and stone used between Key Largo and Key West is hauled down US-1 from the mainland. That is the single dominant economic fact of construction here, and it is why material costs more the further down the chain you go.
Elevation, flooding and why fill is regulated
The islands are very low. Much of the developed area sits only a few feet above sea level, and essentially all of it is within flood zones. Adding fill changes drainage patterns on neighbouring property and alters flood behaviour, which is precisely why Monroe County scrutinises fill placement and grade changes far more closely than any mainland county in our service area.
Do not order fill for a Keys job until the permitting is settled. It is a long way to send material that cannot legally be placed.
Salt, storms and material choice
Everything here is exposed to salt air and periodically to storm surge. Shoreline protection is not a one-time improvement but an ongoing maintenance obligation, which is why rip rap and armour stone move in the quantities they do.
Getting a truck onto your Key West site
Old Town is the hardest delivery environment in our entire service area. Streets are narrow, frequently one-way, lined with parked cars and overhung with vegetation, and many properties have no driveway at all.
On a great many Old Town jobs a tri-axle simply cannot get to the site or cannot raise a bed if it does. The realistic approach is staging the material at an accessible point and moving it in small quantities, and you should budget for that in your labour.
Tell us exactly what the street looks like — width, one-way direction, parking, overhead, and whether there is anywhere at all to put material. We would far rather plan around it than send a truck a hundred and ninety miles to find out it cannot deliver.
New Town and Stock Island are conventional and straightforward by comparison.
Give us a week where you can. This is the longest run we do and we schedule multiple loads into it wherever possible.
Timing the work around the weather
South Florida has two seasons that matter to anyone moving material, and planning around them is worth real money.
Wet season, roughly May to October
Afternoon storms are close to daily and they are heavy. Three practical consequences:
- Ground goes soft fast. A site that carried a loaded truck on Monday may not on Wednesday. A tri-axle raising its bed puts enormous load through the rear axles, and we would far rather drop on firm ground near the road than bury a truck on your lot.
- Compaction gets harder. Base and fill compact best at near optimum moisture. Saturated material pumps under a roller instead of densifying, and no amount of extra passes fixes it.
- Uncovered piles absorb water. Topsoil and fine sand are worst affected — a soaked pile is significantly harder to spread. Tarp anything that will sit more than a day or two.
Dry season, roughly November to April
Better ground, easier compaction, and the busiest construction period of the year — which means pits and trucking are in higher demand and lead times stretch. Book earlier than you would in August.
The exception is asphalt millings, which want heat. Millings laid and rolled in June bind within days; the same load in January can take weeks and may need re-rolling.
Hurricane season, June through November
Two effects. Before a storm, demand for rip rap and shoreline protection spikes and everything gets tight. Afterwards, cleanup and repair work absorbs regional trucking capacity for weeks.
If your project involves shoreline protection, do it in the spring. Trying to armour a seawall with a named storm in the forecast is how people end up paying premium rates for whatever stone is left.
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.
How ordering works
There is no account to open and no portal to log into. You tell us the material, the tonnage, the site address and when you need it on the ground, and we come back with a locked, all-in delivered price — usually within the hour during business hours.
That price includes the haul. We quote delivered, not ex-pit, so the number we give you is the number on the invoice. If you are comparing quotes, check whether the other one has trucking in it.
What we need from you
- Material and gradation. If you are working from a plan set, send us the page — it saves a conversation.
- Quantity in tons, or the dimensions. If you have length, width and depth we will work the tonnage out. The tonnage calculator does it too.
- Site address and access notes. Overhead wires, gate widths, soft ground, HOA windows, where exactly the pile goes.
- When you need it. Same-day, a date, or a window against a construction programme.
Payment
First-time customers are COD or prepay for the first few loads. Once there is a clean payment history we move qualified customers onto standard credit terms with a signed credit application. We take ACH, check and major cards, and terms are confirmed at quote rather than negotiated at delivery.
On jobs where we are delivering material to real property we can preserve lien rights under Florida statute by filing a Notice to Owner within 45 days of first delivery. It protects everyone in the payment chain, and it means we get paid, which means you keep getting material on time.
Areas we cover in Key West
Old Town, the Historic District, Bahama Village, New Town, Casa Marina, Truman Annex, Stock Island border, the North Roosevelt corridor and mile markers 0 through 4.
If your street is not on that list, we still deliver there — it is not an exhaustive index, just the areas we are asked about most.
Key West — common questions
Can you deliver into Old Town Key West?
How far in advance should I order for Key West?
Do you deliver to Stock Island?
Can you take material back on the return trip?
Florida Keys County — general questions
Do you really deliver to the Florida Keys?
How much lead time do you need for a Keys delivery?
Are there quarries in the Keys?
Do I need a permit to bring in fill?
Can you haul debris back to the mainland?
Nearby cities we also serve
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Material on site in Key West when you need it, at a price that was locked before the truck left.