Gravel & Aggregate Delivery in Hillsborough County
Tampa, Brandon and Riverview. The largest market in our Gulf Coast operation.
Hillsborough is roughly two hundred and seventy miles from our Fort Lauderdale yard.
What makes it worth running is that Tampa Bay is a genuine aggregate market with its own pits to the north, in Hernando and Pasco. We are a sourcing and trucking operation rather than a quarry, so a Tampa job is supplied from a Tampa-area pit — not hauled the length of the state. The distance that matters is the pit to your site, not our yard to your site. Pricing on this coast is quoted per job, so call and we will work it out with you.
Cities we deliver to in Hillsborough County
Ground conditions in Hillsborough County
Hillsborough does not behave like South Florida underfoot, and assuming it does is how people get surprised.
Karst and sinkholes
Tampa Bay sits on karst limestone with a sand overburden, and sinkhole activity is a real, insurable concern here in a way it simply is not in Broward or Dade. Loading a soft spot with fill does not fix it. If a depression is opening, that is an engineering question before it is a material question, and we would rather say so than sell you forty yards of fill.
Sandy subgrade
Fine sand through most of the county, with organic hardpan in places. It offers very little bearing until it is properly compacted, so base depth and compaction matter more than the thickness of whatever goes on top.
Different limerock
Rock up here comes from the Ocala formation pits north of the bay, not the Miami oolite that supplies the southeast coast. It is the same FDOT Section 911 specification and it performs the same, but it looks different — usually lighter and greyer. Expect that if you have worked with South Florida rock.
Water
The Hillsborough River, the bay frontage and a long history of stormwater problems mean drainage work is constant. #57 rock for French drains and dry wells moves steadily.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hillsborough — common questions
Do you really deliver as far as Tampa?
Would a Tampa yard be cheaper?
Where does the material actually come from?
Every material, delivered anywhere in Hillsborough County
Stop Babysitting Your
Material Suppliers. Call Us.
A locked quote in under an hour. Trucks on site when you need them. One invoice when the job's done.