Gravel Delivery and Ordering Questions for Florida Ground

Most people arrive here part-way through the same job: a driveway, a shed pad or a parking spot going in over loose sand that drains in minutes and then gives way under a wheel. Almost every gravel delivery question below comes out of that one job, in roughly the order it gets asked, from working out what the material is called to knowing which stretch of the year will let you roll it.

What to call it, and what to order, on a sand lot

A contractor told me to put down limerock. Which product is that?

Limerock Base. It is the same 1 inch minus graded mix of crushed stone, gravel and binding fines that Florida jobs call limerock, lime rock or FDOT limerock base, listed here under the catalogue name. Other translations worth knowing: screenings are Stone Screenings, pea rock is 3/8" Natural Pea Gravel, and #57 rock is #57 Limestone, which in this state is nearly always crushed limestone rather than river gravel.

Specification names work the same way. FDOT describes base material by type and tests it with the Limerock Bearing Ratio: Section 911 covers limerock, shell-rock, cemented coquina shell and recycled concrete base, Section 204 covers graded aggregate base, and limerock base is held to an average LBR of at least 100. That is how material gets written into a local specification, not a certification this storefront holds, so a written spec is compared against the size and grading on the product page.

Limerock Base underneath and #57 on top: is that one measurement or two?

As two quantities, not one. Measure the same footprint twice, once at the base depth and once at the surface depth, and run each through its own calculator so the tonnage matches each material's weight. Order the base first in your own head, because the depth the surface course needs depends on how well the layer underneath it has been rolled. Both products can go on a single order.

The lot is soft, or it holds water after every storm. What then?

Fix the grade before you buy rock. A low corner wants Fill Dirt brought up and compacted, and that is a separate quantity from the base. If water sits because the whole lot is flat flatwoods sand over a hardpan, the answer is usually a drain rather than more rock: a trench with clean Drain Rock or #57 in it, at the 12 inches or more of depth the site's own guidance calls for. Rock laid over ground that is still pumping water will keep sinking into it.

Driveway layers and how far a cubic yard goes at 3 inches

Which layers build a drive over loose sand, from the stripped subgrade up?

Strip the sod and roots, shape the sand so it already falls the way you want the finished surface to fall, then lay the base. Limerock Base or Crusher Run, spread in two thin lifts rather than one thick one, each rolled, dampened lightly as you go. Then the surface: Driveway Gravel, #57 Limestone or #67 Stone. Build a shoulder past the finished edge or set an edge restraint, because sand gives way at the perimeter first.

Spread three inches deep, how many square feet does one yard reach?

A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, so coverage is 27 divided by the depth in feet. At 2 inches that is 27 / 0.167 = about 162 square feet. At 3 inches, 108 square feet. At 4 inches, 81. At 6 inches, 54. At 12 inches, 27. Those are loose volumes before anything is compacted.

The storm calendar, and the jobs a catalogue cannot settle

When in the year is a Florida job easiest to build?

It depends where you are. South of Lake Okeechobee the dry season, roughly November into April, is the clear window: the water table drops and a cut pad stays dry long enough to roll. Central and coastal lots follow the same pattern less sharply. In North Florida and the Panhandle, winter cold fronts bring their own soaking rain and clayey subsoil holds it, so the window there is whatever dry stretch you can see coming. Statewide, the rainy season runs roughly late May into October and hurricane season June through November, which mainly governs what you are prepared to leave exposed overnight.

A seawall, a slab, work near a canal bank: does this storefront answer those?

Not this site. What can be answered here is what a material is, what size and grading it carries, and how much of it your measurements come to. A seawall, a structural slab, a retaining wall of any height, work near a canal bank or anything that needs a permit is a question for a designer or engineer and for your county building department. Get that answer first, then come back for the quantity.

The rest is process rather than material. Quantities, rounding and an L-shaped pad are what the material calculators are for. The delivery page sets out what checkout settles and where the pile lands, and it answers the question a short load raises: buy the balance as a fresh order instead of reopening the booked one. The refund and order-change policy is published alongside it.

Who operates Florida Rock Supply?