Gravel Delivery Questions from Connecticut Lots, in the Order They Come Up

Most of what follows is not really about gravel. It is about a decision: how much to order, of what, for ground that has ledge under part of it and 42 inches of frost working on all of it. The first group covers the things buyers get wrong before they have bought anything. The rest follow the job through to the morning the truck arrives.

Yardage, the local names, and the month you build in

Why do 27 cubic feet cover 108 square feet at one depth and 27 at another?

A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet, and coverage collapses as depth increases: about 108 square feet at 3 inches, and 27 square feet and no more at a foot deep. That last figure is worth remembering before working out a drainage trench in yards. Divide 27 by your depth in feet for any depth you like, or let the calculators do it and hand you the tonnage at the same time.

The mason wrote "process" on the quote. Which pile is that?

Process, three-quarter process, stone dust and trap rock are the local names, and they are what you will hear from anyone who has been grading drives in this state for any length of time. Process is the graded base aggregate, listed here as Processed Gravel at one inch minus. Stone dust is the fine bedding material sold as Stone Dust. Trap rock is the local quarry rock, listed as 3/4 inch trap rock. These are naming conventions, not certifications anyone holds. If a contractor or a road-agency document such as a CTDOT specification sets a grading, compare it against the size and grading printed on the product page before ordering.

Which months will actually take a rolled base up here?

Spring through fall. Frozen ground will not compact, so a course rolled onto frost is a course you will be rebuilding, and that rules out most of the winter. Early spring has its own problem: saturated till will not carry a plate compactor or a loaded truck well. The workable window usually opens once the thaw has drained and closes when the ground starts freezing at night. Patio and paver work follows the same calendar.

The point where a catalogue stops being the right answer

Wall, footing or work near a brook: who signs that off?

Not a material catalogue. Retaining walls above a modest height, structural footings, anything in or near a watercourse, and drainage changes that push water toward a neighbor are all questions for your town's building office and, where it applies, a licensed engineer. What this site can do is publish the size, grading and type of each material so you or your engineer can check it against the specification you have been given, and answer questions about the material itself through the contact page.

Fines in or fines washed out: the fork behind most wrong orders

#57 in a footing trench, processed gravel under a pad: what decides which is which?

Washed stone has had its fines removed, so the voids between the pieces stay open and water moves through: #57 Stone, #67 Stone, Drain Rock and #4 Crushed Stone belong in trenches, behind walls and around footings. Material with its fines left in binds and compacts: processed gravel, Crusher Run and stone dust belong where the ground has to be firm. Putting a binding material in a drain is the mistake that turns up most often, and it stops the drain working in the first wet spring.

Can screened topsoil do the work of fill dirt in a settled corner?

No, and using one for another is expensive in labor. Fill Dirt is bulk material for raising a grade or filling the lower part of a hole, and it weighs about 2,400 lb per yard dry. Top Soil is screened and goes in the finishing lift, usually the top four to six inches under lawn or beds, at about 2,200 lb. Garden Soil is a blend for raised beds and planting areas, the lightest of the three at about 2,000 lb. Filling a hole with topsoil will settle for years.

Till underfoot, and whether fabric earns its place

Till over ledge: what does it rule in and rule out?

Two ways. Rocky glacial till with ledge close to the surface makes excavation depth and fill volume hard to predict, so probe before you fix a depth and expect the quantity to move. And because water travels sideways over that ledge rather than soaking down, a site can look dry in August and be fed from uphill every spring. Deal with where the water arrives before choosing a base depth, because a course over a subgrade that stays wet will pump its fines out however well it was rolled.

Is there a case for putting fabric down first?

Sometimes. Over a soft or wet subgrade it acts as separation and slows the mixing of fines up into a clean course, which is worth having under a drainage trench or a base on till that holds water. Under decorative stone laid over soil it stops the stone disappearing into the ground. What it will not do is drain anything or replace compaction. It is not a catalogue item here either, so it comes from a local landscape supplier rather than onto this order. RipRap on a bank or a shoreline edge is normally placed over fabric for exactly the separation reason.

Two other pages carry the rest. Rounding, a dooryard that bends round a stone wall and the tape-to-tonnage arithmetic sit in the calculators, one material at a time. What the driver needs cleared, whether you have to be there, and everything the checkout screen decides are on the delivery page.

How far does a cubic yard go at 3 inches, and at a foot deep?