Gravel & Rock Delivery in Marathon
The middle Keys hub, at the eastern foot of the Seven Mile Bridge.
Marathon sits between roughly mile marker 47 and 63 and functions as the commercial centre of the middle Keys. It has an airport, a hospital, a working harbour and the largest concentration of services between Key Largo and Key West.
At about a hundred and forty-five miles from our yard it is a properly long haul, and one we schedule carefully — particularly because everything arriving from the north has crossed a lot of bridges to get there.
Building in Marathon
Marathon is the middle Keys hub, so it carries more commercial and institutional construction than the islands either side of it. Pavement, pads, parking and municipal work in addition to the residential base.
Boot Key Harbor and the marine industry generate waterfront and bulkhead work, and the exposure on both the ocean and gulf sides means rip rap and shoreline protection are constant needs.
Residential work skews heavily toward elevation, resilience and rebuilding. The middle Keys took significant hurricane damage in recent memory and a great deal of the construction reflects that — raised structures, improved drainage, better shoreline protection. That means fill, base and armour stone.
Key Colony Beach, immediately adjacent, is a small incorporated city with its own character and its own permitting, and it generates steady residential and landscape material demand.
As everywhere in the Keys, landscaping is stone rather than turf, and pea rock moves well.
Materials we deliver to Marathon
We carry 21 materials and will haul any of them here. These are the six Marathon orders most, with the specification detail you need to order correctly the first time.
Limerock Base in Marathon
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 Marathon 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 Marathon
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 Marathon 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.
Rip Rap in Marathon
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 Marathon 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.
Fill Dirt in Marathon
Bulk soil for moving grade. Cheap by the ton, and the material most often ordered in the wrong quantity.
Fill dirt is screened soil sold by the ton for moving volume. The word that matters is clean: no roots, no construction debris, no trash, no significant organic content. Organic material rots, and soil with organics in it keeps settling for years after you thought the job was finished.
Where a specification calls for structural fill, the requirements are tighter — a specified gradation and a compaction standard, usually verified by a testing lab. If your drawing says structural fill, tell us, because that is a different order from generic clean fill.
For most residential and light-commercial work — raising a low corner of a yard, building a pad, backfilling an old pool — clean fill is what you want and what we deliver.
Full Fill Dirt specification, coverage figures and FAQ →
Specification
| Material | Screened soil, free of debris, roots, trash and organics |
| Grades | "Clean fill" for general use; "structural fill" where bearing is specified |
| Compaction | Place in lifts, water, compact — do not dump and leave |
| Approx. weight | 1.25 tons per cubic yard |
| Coverage at 6" | ~39 sq ft per ton |
| Coverage at 12" | ~19 sq ft per ton |
What Marathon customers use it for
- Raising lot grade and correcting low spots
- Building up pads before base and slab work
- Backfilling excavations and old pool removals
- Landscape berms, mounds and contouring
- Filling behind retaining walls and seawalls
- General bulk volume where bearing is not critical
How many tons of fill dirt do I need?
Work out cubic yards (length × width × depth in feet, divided by 27), multiply by about 1.25 to get tons, then add 15 to 25 percent for compaction. Our tonnage calculator does this and converts to truckloads.
Fill Sand in Marathon
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 Marathon 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.
Pea Rock in Marathon
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 Marathon 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.
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 Marathon site
Distance and bridges are the constraints. A hundred and forty-five miles each way, with the Seven Mile Bridge immediately west and dozens of others behind you, makes this a genuinely planned operation. We would prefer a week of notice on Marathon deliveries and will schedule multiple loads into a single run wherever possible.
On the island itself, access is better than Islamorada — Marathon is wider, has a real street network, and has commercial properties built for delivery vehicles.
Waterfront and canal-front residential sites carry the usual constraints: limited frontage, narrow approaches and drop points a loaded truck often cannot reach directly.
Backhaul is worth asking about here. Disposal in the middle Keys is difficult and expensive, and a truck that comes down with base and goes back with clean concrete or fill solves two problems on one trip.
Before you order
Four things worth reading once if this is your first load into Marathon. Each opens the full guide.
Areas we cover in Marathon
Marathon, Key Colony Beach, Grassy Key, Crawl Key, Duck Key border, Boot Key, Vaca Key and mile markers 47 through 63.
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.
Marathon — common questions
How much notice do you need for Marathon?
Can you take debris back on the return trip?
Do you deliver to Key Colony Beach?
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
Stop Babysitting Your
Material Suppliers. Call Us.
Material on site in Marathon when you need it, at a price that was locked before the truck left.