Bulk Landscape Materials, Sorted by What the Job Asks For
Mason Sand
Choosing coarse sand for a smooth finish is a common mistake. Georgia Mason Sand suits mortar, paver joints, and soft play surfaces. Size: Ultra-fine, consistent grain size. Grading: Washed to remove clay, silt and organic impurities.
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Washed Sand
For a Georgia crawlspace pad or concrete form, Washed Sand provides clean material for bedding, fill, and leveling. Size: Coarse-grained. Grading: Washed; free of clay, silt and organic debris.
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Nobody stands in a red clay yard wanting a number 57. They want a drive that stops rutting, a bed that stops washing into the lawn, or a trench that carries water away from a foundation. The bulk landscape materials below are the answers to those jobs, and the quickest way through the list is to work out which of the four questions below your job is really asking.
Does water move through it, or stop against it?
This is the split that most of the stone half of the catalogue turns on. Washed and clean stone has the fines taken out, so the gaps stay open and water keeps moving: #57 Granite, #67 Stone, Drain Rock, #8 Crushed Stone and, where the volume is heavy, #4 Crushed Stone. These are the trench, French drain and behind-a-wall materials, and on Piedmont clay that holds water once it is saturated they earn their place.
Material with fines does the opposite. GAB (Graded Aggregate Base) at 1 inch minus and Crusher Run at 3/4 inch minus both carry stone dust through the mix, and under a compactor those fines wedge the larger pieces together into a layer that stays where it is put. Screenings are the fine end of the same idea. GAB is the designation a Georgia spec writes for graded base, and a rock name on a listing is local usage; the size and grading on the product page are what an order is made against. 3/4" Crushed Stone and 3/8" Crushed Stone sit between the two, angular enough to lock up but open enough to drain.
Is it the layer nobody sees, or the one they do?
Buried layers are chosen for behavior. GAB and crusher run go underneath. Railroad Ballast is the coarse end, for hard standing and severe drainage. RipRap armors a creek bank or a culvert outlet against storm runoff, which in Georgia is what takes out a bank rather than frost.
Visible layers are chosen for how they wear and how they look. Driveway Gravel is graded to knit under tires; Walkway Gravel and #89 Crushed Stone suit paths and paver joints. 3/8" Natural Pea Gravel gives a smooth rounded surface for patios and play areas. River Rock and Large River Rock cover beds and hold a dry creek bed together.
Sand, soil or dirt: what is the ground asking for?
Mason Sand is ultra-fine and washed, for mortar, paver joints and play sand. Washed Sand is coarser, for bedding, leveling and work under slabs.
On the soil side, Fill Dirt raises a grade and backfills, Top Soil is the screened upper few inches where roots live, Garden Soil carries compost for beds and planting holes, and Shredded Mulch goes over a finished bed to hold moisture through a hot summer.
Tons or yards, and how do you get there from a tape measure?
Stone and gravel are sold by the ton, soils and mulch by the yard. The material calculators return both, using the weight this site publishes for each product, which is why a yard of mulch at roughly 600 lb and a yard of crusher run at roughly 3,000 lb come out five times apart on the same measurements. Measure in feet, enter depth in inches, and size each layer as its own calculation.
Common questions
The trench and the pad are a yard apart. Why can they not take the same stone?
Because the fines decide it. A trench needs the gaps between pieces left open, so washed stone such as #57 or drain rock is right. A pad needs the gaps filled and locked, so crusher run or graded aggregate base is right. Put the drainage stone under the pad and it rolls underfoot; put the base material in the trench and the dust packs solid and the trench holds water instead of shifting it.
I ordered fill dirt for a bed and nothing has taken. What went wrong?
Fill dirt is screened to have very little organic matter in it, which is what makes it good for building a grade and useless for growing. Cap it with four to six inches of screened topsoil for lawn, or use garden soil where you are planting. The three are ordered separately for that reason, not as one heap of soil.
Can a landscaping business order to a jobsite address?
Yes. Residential and commercial orders run through the same checkout, and the destination is set by the delivery ZIP code you enter, so it need not match the billing address. Note any site access restriction through the contact page before the order.
Do I add anything to the figure for a layer I am going to roll?
Leave the allowance ticked in the calculator for anything compacted, as it is by default (5%, or 10% on the dirt, crusher run, road base and paver base calculators). A specified base thickness is measured after compaction, so what you spread starts thicker than the finished layer, and a little always goes into the grass. Decorative beds and mulch do not need it.