Gravel & Rock Delivery in Boca Raton
Twenty-two miles north. Design-controlled, association-governed and hardscape-heavy.
Boca Raton is twenty-two miles from our yard, close enough for same-day on an early call, and it is the most design-conscious market in our service area.
The city maintains genuine architectural and landscape standards, and most of the residential areas add an association layer on top. The material demand is heavily weighted toward hardscape and landscape rather than structural base.
Building in Boca Raton
Paver work dominates. Driveways, pool decks, patios and walkways, mostly replacing original concrete on properties built through the 1970s and 80s. The order is almost always the same: limerock base and washed concrete bedding sand on one truck.
It is worth repeating the detail that determines whether that work lasts. Base compacted and graded flat with proper fall, then exactly one inch of screeded bedding sand, then pavers vibrated in and joints swept. Not a thick sand bed correcting an uneven base. Boca has a great deal of paver work and the failures are almost always this.
Landscape renewal is the second pillar — topsoil for re-sodding and bed replacement, pea rock for borders and decorative areas, with colour selection sometimes subject to approval.
Pool work generates fill sand for backfill. Drainage retrofits generate #57. The Glades Road and Palmetto Park corridors and the corporate parks around Broken Sound provide the commercial base volume.
Waterfront properties along the Intracoastal and in Royal Palm add seawall and rip rap work, with the access constraints that always come with them.
Materials we deliver to Boca Raton
We carry 19 materials and will haul any of them here. These are the six Boca Raton orders most, with the specification detail you need to order correctly the first time.
Limerock Base in Boca Raton
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 Boca Raton 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.
Paver Sand in Boca Raton
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
| Bedding material | Washed concrete sand to ASTM C33 fine aggregate grading |
| Bedding thickness | 1 inch screeded — consistent, never variable |
| Joint material | Fine washed joint sand, or polymeric sand for stabilised joints |
| Joint width | Typically 1/16" to 3/16" for interlocking pavers |
| Base beneath | Compacted limerock, crushed concrete or shell rock |
| Approx. weight | 1.4 tons per cubic yard |
| Coverage at 1" | ~215 sq ft per ton |
What Boca Raton 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.
Pea Rock in Boca Raton
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 Boca Raton 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.
Topsoil in Boca Raton
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
| 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 |
What Boca Raton 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.
#57 Rock in Boca Raton
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 Boca Raton 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".
Fill Sand in Boca Raton
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 Boca Raton 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.
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 Palm Beach County
Palm Beach County is more geologically varied than the counties south of it, and that variation shows up in what jobs need.
The coastal ridge and the sand
The eastern edge of the county runs along a coastal ridge, and soils through much of the developed area are sandier than the thin-cap-over-rock profile typical of Miami-Dade. Sandy subgrade drains well, which is helpful, but it also means less inherent bearing capacity and more attention needed to compaction.
That is why fill sand and properly compacted limerock base matter here. Sand placed dry and left will keep settling; sand placed in lifts, watered and vibrated reaches a stable density that will carry a slab.
Water management
The county is threaded with an extensive drainage and water management canal network, and a great deal of residential development sits within managed drainage districts. Properties on the western edge in particular sit low relative to those systems, and grade correction with fill dirt is routine work.
Landscape rather than structure
The material mix in this county skews away from heavy structural work and toward hardscape and landscape. Paver driveways, pool decks and patios mean base and washed concrete bedding sand; planting renewal means topsoil and pea rock.
The standard of finish expected is high, and appearance genuinely matters — stone colour and consistency are things clients notice here in a way they do not on an industrial yard in Medley.
Getting a truck onto your Boca Raton site
Association rules govern most deliveries here, and they are enforced. Permitted delivery windows, gate registration, restrictions on how long material may sit visible in a driveway, and occasionally weight limits on internal roads.
Give us the association name, the window, the gate procedure and a contact at order time. We schedule to the window rather than arriving and negotiating.
Physical access is generally good once inside — wide streets, generous driveways, firm ground. The exceptions are the older waterfront streets in Royal Palm and along the Intracoastal, where canopy and turning room can be restrictive.
One local consideration: many Boca properties have decorative driveway surfaces and irrigation close to the surface. Tell the driver where not to put the truck.
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 Boca Raton
Downtown Boca, Boca Raton Resort area, Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club, Boca Bath & Tennis, Broken Sound, Boca West, Sandalfoot Cove, Boca Del Mar, Mizner Park, the Glades Road corridor and the Palmetto Park Road 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.
Boca Raton — common questions
Do you deliver inside Boca Raton gated communities?
What sand goes under pavers?
Can I choose the colour of decorative stone?
Palm Beach County — general questions
How far north do you deliver?
How fast can you deliver to Palm Beach County?
Do you deal with HOA delivery restrictions?
What is the most common Palm Beach County order?
Nearby cities we also serve
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