Gravel Delivery Sized for Massachusetts Ground

The ordering mistake this page exists to head off is one load where the job wants two. Somebody measures a drive, orders a few tons of good angular stone, spreads it straight onto till that has been holding snowmelt since the thaw, and by the following March it is sitting in ruts. Gravel delivery goes far better when the base layer and the surface layer are worked out and ordered as two separate lines, because that is how the ground underneath has to be built here.

Twenty-four materials sit in this catalogue. They fall into five groups, and most Massachusetts lots draw on two of them.

Blends with fines, the layer that carries the weight

Processed Gravel is the state's standard base material at one inch minus, a graded mix of crushed stone, gravel and binding fines. MassDOT writes the equivalent layer into section M1.03.1 for subbase under town streets and sidewalks, which is how the material gets specified locally rather than anything that travels with a load. Plenty of yards call a similar blend dense grade.

Crusher Run does the same work at 3/4 inch minus, tighter and easier to screed flat under a patio. Stone Dust at 1/4 inch minus is the regional default setting bed under pavers, bluestone and packed paths.

All three pack because the fines migrate into the voids. All three hold water, which is the reason none of them belongs in a drain.

Washed stone, from 3/8 inch chips up to bank armor

Clean stone is the opposite trade: it drains because nothing fine is left in it, and it never locks up the way a blend does.

3/4" Crushed Stone and #57 Stone cover drainage beds, trench bottoms and foundation work, and Drain Rock is the washed grade for drywells and downspout runs. The sizes run down from there: #67 and 3/8 inch for pipe bedding and topping, #8 and #89 for paver joints, with #4 crushed stone at roughly 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches for construction entrances and railroad ballast under hard standing. At the coarse end RipRap at four to twelve inches and up holds a bank against nor'easter surge or a hill stream in spate.

Round stone for the layer people walk on and look at

Pea Stone at about 3/8 inch is the one most Massachusetts buyers ask for by that name rather than pea gravel. River Rock runs one to three inches and Large River Rock two to four, both rounded, both for beds, drip edges and dry creek work. Driveway Gravel tops a finished base, and Walkway Gravel is the finer version for a garden path.

Loam, soil, fill and mulch over stony ground

Native soil across most of the state is stony glacial till, which is why lawn and bed work here starts with imported material rather than with what you dig. Top Soil is screened loam, the term nearly every landscaper in the state uses. Garden Soil is the compost-blended version for raised beds. Fill Dirt, sold locally as clean fill, does the bulk of a grade change with loam reserved for the finish. Shredded Mulch goes on beds in a two to four inch layer.

Bedding sand splits two ways: Mason Sand for mortar, joints and play areas, and Washed Sand, which yards around here call concrete sand, for mixes, pipe bedding and leveling.

Forty-eight inches of frost, dense till, and sand on the Cape

Frost depth is 48 inches statewide by code. No driveway base goes near that, but the figure tells you how much seasonal movement the subgrade goes through, and it is why late winter is when thin gravel breaks up.

Ground behaves differently across the state. Dense, slowly draining lower till under Greater Boston, MetroWest and the Worcester plateau perches snowmelt near the surface. Silty old lake-bed soils on the Pioneer Valley floor are highly frost-susceptible and heave more than clean sand does. Deep outwash sand on Cape Cod, the Islands and around Plymouth and Carver sheds rain quickly, so the base there is carrying load rather than fighting water. Base, driveway and paver work runs spring through late fall; frozen ground takes no compaction.

Gravel delivery when the dump spot is the driveway itself

Work the quantity out first with the material calculators, then browse the full catalogue, set a quantity and a delivery date on the product page, and check out. Delivery is arranged at checkout from your ZIP code.

On a tight in-town lot the drop spot decides the order. Ten tons makes a real pile, so pick the ground it lands on before you book the date rather than while the truck idles in the street, and read how the drop works for the route and the marking. The questions that come up most are gathered on their own page, and who is behind the storefront covers what happens between checkout and the truck arriving.