About Tennessee Rock Supply and Ordering by the Ton

Most of the ground people around here are working on is cherty clay over limestone, thin and rocky where the ridges and the plateau put sandstone close to the surface, and silty and quick to wash out in the western counties. None of it behaves the same way in February as it does in September. That pattern, more than any preference for one stone over another, is what sets when a load gets ordered and what goes on the order.

What the Tennessee year does to an order

The wet stretch from late winter into early spring is the hardest one to build on. Saturated clay has no strength to lend, so a base course rolled into it in March will still be finding its level in May. The orders that make sense then are drainage and armoring rather than structure: drain rock and #57 stone into trenches and behind walls, where wet ground is the reason for the work rather than an obstacle to it, and RipRap on the bank and culvert repairs that get done while the damage is fresh and visible.

From late spring the rain changes character, arriving in short heavy storms that cut gullies in bare clay and fill a ditch with silt. The ground between storms is workable, though, and four or five dry days are enough to strip a footprint, shape it and roll crusher run into it. Anything spread and left bare through August is at the mercy of the next thunderstorm, which is why beds go in with shredded mulch over them.

Autumn is the steadiest window of the three. The ground has given up its summer water, there is still warmth for seed to take, and there is time to get a surface tight before the winter rain sets in, so drives get rebuilt and bare ground gets screened top soil and a seeding. Winter is milder than the work calendar suggests: frost reaches about 12 inches across most of the state, which is also the minimum footing depth in the residential code, and it is wet ground rather than frozen ground that holds a job up here.

An online shop stocked for cherty clay and ridge rock

It is an online shop for bulk aggregate. You browse the catalogue, work out a quantity with the material calculators, choose the amount and a delivery date, and pay at checkout. Delivery is arranged there by ZIP code, and the truck needs clear access to a spot where it can tip a load. Deliveries run on weekdays, unloading takes roughly ten to fifteen minutes once the truck is in position, and there is a field at checkout for where you want the load put down. The refund and order-change policy is published and applies the same way to every order. What the truck needs covers the access side of it in full.

The catalogue is stocked for the ground described above rather than for a national list. Crusher run is first because it is the standard driveway and pad stone in this state, washed sizes are stocked by number because that is how material gets specified locally, and the range runs from armor stone down through screenings and sand to soil and mulch. If you cannot tell which of two similar products your job wants, the range page sets them out by size, and contact will take a description of the site.

Common questions

There is no counter to walk up to. How does a bulk load actually get bought and delivered?

This is an online storefront, not a counter. Material is bought through the site and brought to the property by dump truck, with delivery arranged at checkout against the ZIP code you enter. That suits bulk quantities, where a truck load is the sensible unit anyway. What it means in practice is that the measuring happens before you buy rather than while you are standing in front of a pile, so the calculators and the product pages are doing the job a yard hand would otherwise do.

Crusher run and Dense Grade Base both read as base rock. Which top size belongs under what?

Crusher Run is three quarter inch minus, the everyday choice under a house drive, a shed pad or a patio. Dense Grade Base is one inch minus with a graded mix of stone, gravel and binding fines, which is the one to use where a tractor, a stock trailer or a delivery truck is on it regularly. They are listed separately so you can pick by what will be driving on it rather than by name.

Does ordering into a wet March change whether the job will work?

It changes what will work rather than what is available. A compacted base needs a stretch of dry days to be worth doing, so a pad ordered into a wet March is a pad that will need reworking. Drainage stone and armor rock are the opposite, since the wet months are when you can see exactly where the water is going. Seeding and top soil want the growing weather at either end of summer. If the job is not urgent, autumn is the easiest window in this state.

Who do I send the dimensions and the access details to if two products look interchangeable?

Questions go through the contact page, and it is worth sending one when two products look interchangeable or when the site is awkward. Include the dimensions, the depth you think you need, and a line about the ground and the access. Orders themselves are placed through the product pages, where the quantity and the delivery date are chosen.

About Tennessee Rock Supply and Ordering Around a Wet Year