Gravel & Rock Delivery in Tampa

Tampa is about two hundred and seventy miles from our yard by road. It is our largest Gulf Coast market, and the work splits cleanly between dense urban infill and the industrial demand around the port.

Building in Tampa

Infill and renovation across Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights and South Tampa buys limerock base, bedding sand and fill sand on tight lots where every yard has to be placed by hand.

Ybor City is a historic district with brick streets and preservation constraints. Access is the whole problem there, not the material.

Westshore and the commercial corridors run larger base and crushed concrete orders for parking and access work, where recycled base is accepted and meaningfully cheaper.

Drainage is a standing concern across the county. #57 rock for French drains, dry wells and trench backfill is the steadiest single item we move here.

Waterfront work on the bay and the Hillsborough River brings rip rap and shoreline protection.

Materials we deliver to Tampa

We carry 20 materials and will haul any of them here. These are the six Tampa orders most, with the specification detail you need to order correctly the first time.

Limerock Base in Tampa

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

What Tampa 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.

#57 Rock in Tampa

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

What Tampa 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".

Crushed Concrete in Tampa

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

What Tampa 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 Tampa

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

What Tampa 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.

Paver Sand in Tampa

Two different sands do two different jobs in a paver installation. Using the wrong one for either is why patios go wavy.

A paver installation uses sand twice, for two completely different purposes, and the materials are not interchangeable.

Bedding sand goes under the pavers — a one-inch screeded layer that the pavers are set into and then vibrated down onto. Its job is to provide a consistent setting bed and to lock under load. This must be washed concrete sand, graded to ASTM C33.

Joint sand goes between the pavers after they are laid, swept into the joints and vibrated in. Its job is to transfer load from one paver to the next so the field acts as an interlocked surface rather than a collection of loose blocks. This is a finer sand, or a polymeric sand that sets when wetted.

Get either one wrong and the installation fails in a way that looks like bad workmanship.

Full Paver Sand specification, coverage figures and FAQ →

Specification

What Tampa customers use it for

• Bedding course beneath interlocking concrete pavers
• Bedding beneath flagstone, travertine and slab paving
• Joint filling and stabilisation between pavers
• Pool deck and patio paver installations
• Driveway paver installations over compacted base

What sand goes under pavers?

Washed concrete sand graded to ASTM C33, screeded to exactly one inch. Not mason sand, not stone dust, not fill sand.

Topsoil in Tampa

Screened growing soil by the load. The layer that decides whether new sod takes or dies in six weeks.

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.

Full Topsoil specification, coverage figures and FAQ →

Specification

What Tampa customers use it 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

How much topsoil do I need for new sod?

Two inches minimum, four is better. One ton covers roughly 130 square feet at 2 inches, so a 2,000 square foot lawn needs about 15 tons at that depth.

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.

Not sure? Call and describe the job. We would rather spend two minutes on the phone than deliver the wrong thing.

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.

Getting a truck onto your Tampa site

South Tampa and the historic neighbourhoods have narrow streets, mature canopy and on-street parking. Tell us the street before we load — a tri-axle that cannot turn is a wasted trip for both of us.

Downtown and Ybor need timing more than anything. Early weekday slots, and check whether the block has a permit requirement.

The suburban north and east of the county are straightforward.

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 Tampa

Downtown Tampa, Ybor City, Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights, Hyde Park, South Tampa, Palma Ceia, Westshore, Carrollwood, Temple Terrace, New Tampa, Town & Country and the Port Tampa Bay corridor.

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.

Tampa — common questions

Hillsborough County — general questions

Nearby cities we also serve

All of Hillsborough County → · Full service area →