Buying Fill Dirt in Navarre: What to Ask a Supplier
You need fill on your lot, you have started calling around, and every supplier says the same thing, sure, we can get you some dirt. The problem is that fill dirt is not one thing and a load is not one amount, and the differences do not show up until the truck has already dumped. We run our own pit on River Rd in Navarre, and these are the questions we would want answered by anybody selling us dirt, including us.
Where does it come from
Ask where the pit is, and ask to see it. Dirt from a working pit with an open face is the same material load after load, because it all comes out of the same ground. Dirt from a broker sourcing it off a job site strip or somebody's spoil pile can be sand on Monday and something else on Wednesday, and you will not know which until it is in a pile on your lot.
Around here the ground changes fast. The sugar sand that runs from Navarre through Gulf Breeze and out to Pensacola Beach is what most people mean when they say fill. Inland toward Milton and Pace it turns to clay, and clay is not what you want under a pad in this climate. A supplier who cannot tell you which side of that line the dirt came from is telling you something.
What is in it
Clean fill sand has nothing in it that rots and nothing in it that will not compact. That means no roots, no stumps, no palmetto, no dark topsoil, no chunks of concrete, no trash. Any of those buried in a pad settle later, and it shows up as a low spot in the yard or a crack in the slab.
Ask what the material is, then go grab a handful. Clean sand squeezes into a loose ball and falls apart. If it stains your hand dark, there is organic material in it. If it holds a shape like modeling clay, it holds water too. If you see roots or bark in the pile, the dirt did not come out of a clean pit face. None of this needs a lab.
How is it measured
Dirt is sold by the load, by the cubic yard, or by the ton, and those are not the same thing. A load is only a number once you know which truck is bringing it. A tandem dump truck and a tri axle do not carry the same amount, and a dump trailer behind a pickup carries a lot less than either. Ask how many yards that truck actually holds when it is heaped.
Then ask whether the yards are loose or in place. Sand sits loose in the truck bed and packs tighter under a roller, so a pad that needs a certain number of compacted yards takes more loose yards than that to build. If a supplier quotes loose yards and your builder gave you an in place number, the two will not line up and the shortfall is yours. Sold by the ton, moisture matters, because wet sand weighs more than dry and a ton out of a wet pit is less dirt.
How does it get to you
A dump truck dumps in a pile. It does not spread. If you need the dirt spread and compacted, that is machine work, and it is worth knowing up front whether the supplier does that or just delivers. We do both, which is a big part of why we run a pit at all, and the longer rundown on our fill dirt work is on the site.
Then walk your own access with a loaded truck in mind. A tri axle is long, heavy and needs room to swing. A soft shoulder, a narrow drive, low limbs, a tight turn at the gate, or a lot still wet from the last storm can all mean the truck cannot get to where you want the pile. Tell the supplier what the way in looks like before the truck leaves the pit, and exactly where the pile goes, because a pile in the wrong spot gets moved with a machine and the same dirt is handled twice.
What the load ticket shows
Every load that leaves a real pit comes with a ticket, and the ticket is your proof. It shows the date, the truck, the material, the quantity, where it was loaded and where it went, and usually a signature at the delivery end. Keep every one. When the invoice comes, the ticket count and the invoice should match, and if your builder's engineer ever asks what went into the pad, the tickets are the answer. If a supplier cannot produce a ticket, the dirt did not come from a pit that tracks its loads, which tells you about the material too.
Our pit on River Rd
We pull from our own 30 acre pit at 3125 River Rd in Navarre, which is why we can answer every question above ourselves. The material is the same sand that is under most of Navarre and Gulf Breeze, and the trucks that haul it are ours. Fill can be ordered online at order.noblsitework.com if you already know what you need, or call and we will work out the count from your pad size and the elevation your builder wants.
What drives the cost is the same for us as for anybody else: how far the truck runs, how many loads it takes, and whether the dirt gets dumped or spread and compacted too. Ask those three questions of anybody and you will know what you are buying.
NOBL Sitework is a licensed general contractor (CGC1537340) hauling fill across Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, Escambia and Bay counties. If you are not sure how much dirt your lot needs or what kind, call us at 850-238-3307 and we will walk it with you and figure out the count before a truck ever leaves the pit.
