Gravel, Gravel and More Gravel
On Saturday at 8:00 am, we had 14 tons of gravel delivered to the Sheridan House. Sound like a lot? It is. There was a slight mix-up that led to my ordering about 7 tons too much. While slightly humorous in many ways, there’s no way around the fact that it’s a lot of work to move 7 tons of gravel by hand.
Last week I needed to order gravel for the driveway. We figured that we needed about 4.5-5 cubic yards of what is called road rock. I called to inquire about the price per yard. I was informed that they don’t measure gravel by the yard, but instead by the ton. I was told that it costs “four eighty five per ton.” I asked the lady if she know how many tons it is per yard approximately. “No sir,” she replied. “Would you be picking it up or having it delivered?” I told her that I had a small trailer that could hold about half a ton and could maybe use that. “Keep in mind that there’s a $15 minimum” she said. Really having no idea about anything to do with gravel, I asked, “Are we talking four dollars and eighty-five cents per ton, or four hundred and eighty-five dollars per ton?” She chuckled and replied “four dollars.” Oh. wow. That’s ridiculously cheap. What the heck else can you buy a ton of for less than $5??
Still unsure of how much I needed, I did get the lady to tell me that a full dump truck load was about 15 tons. A friend told me that dump trucks are usually 5 or 10 yards, and that he figured 15 tons was a 5 yard load. So, that’s what I went with - and ordered a full load.
It was delivered Saturday morning and turned out to be about 10 yards - twice as much as we had figured. The driver was supposed to dump half the load in front of the house and the rest behind the garage. Instead, it all came out at once, so it’s all in the front driveway. We shoveled and moved several tons, but still have another 2 tons or so to move. Anybody need some gravel?
September 4th, 2007 at 8:34 am
Hi, I searched gravel, Rockford and came up with your remodeling blog. I am in Rockford and need gravel too. Do you really have extra and may I purchase it from you? Keeps me from the minimum problem.