We love seeing you out and about when we’re hauling materials throughout the state, but have you ever wondered what’s in the back of our trucks? We move a lot of materials in our travels around Florida—fill dirt and topsoil, hot asphalt, stone, and gravel—just to name a few. But much of the time, we’re carrying loads of aggregates headed to construction sites to be used as base materials. Base materials are a ‘frequent flyer’ with us because of their VIP status in the civil engineering world.
What ARE Base Materials?
Base materials are exactly what they sound like. These aggregates, which are naturally quarried or recycled stone materials crushed to a coarse or medium grain, are used to form the base layer of building projects like roads or new construction. Base materials are vital to the stability of initial construction and the long-term life of the project. That’s why choosing the most suitable base is also crucial for success. The most commonly used base materials in Florida are recycled crushed concrete, shell rock, and lime rock.
While choosing the right base material is always important, it feels even more so in Florida with its unique, low-lying geography and vulnerability to tropical storms. Having a solid foundation for any construction project in Florida can make a tremendous difference in how long a building or road endures the elements.
What’s the Best Way to Choose The Correct Base?
It’s Florida’s geography that makes it vital to choose the correct base materials, but it’s Florida’s geology that can make the decision a little bit easier. When selecting a base material, you want to use something that is:
- Durable, to ensure the life of the project
- Readily available, to keep sourcing and hauling fees down
- Native, if possible, for a safe, homogenous fit with the landscape
Thankfully, shell rock (a mixture of crushed seashells, minerals, and rock) is abundant in parts of Florida, especially in Charlotte, Sarasota, and Manatee Counties. Most contractors in these areas choose to use shell rock because it’s naturally occurring, sustainable, easy to source, and makes a terrific native base for projects in those areas. Similarly, Lee and Collier Counties have reserves of mineable lime rock, so that makes the best choice for construction in those locales.
We Work With You to Determine Your Options
One of our favorite things (other than trucking, of course) is helping people choose and source the best materials for their jobs. Often, we work with out-of-town contractors who aren’t overly familiar with the types of base materials available in Florida, and that’s where we come in. Many times, their issues stem from not knowing our geology.
But we know Florida because we’re from Florida! We know where lime is mined, and where it isn’t. We know the quarriers who are crushing the best shell rock and how much it will cost you to haul it. Florida is a state with a massive variance in its native bedrock, and some things simply just aren’t available where you’d like them to be. In some parts of Florida, for instance, you could dig for lime forever, and never find a single bit. Granite, which is a popular base material in other areas of the country, doesn’t show its face in Florida. We just don’t have a lot of consistency in what’s underground.
It’s tough to remember all this stuff, but that’s what we’re here for. We can help you get a fair price on the right materials and help you get those materials from the source to your site. So, whether you’re from Florida or from out of state, you can give us a call, and we’ll help you determine your best options for base materials.
Discover a Network of Suppliers
We’d love to build a relationship with you and help you connect with our trusted network of aggregate suppliers. Over our 40+ years in business, we’ve come to know hundreds of the best, highest-quality mining and quarry operations throughout Florida, and we only work with people who take safety, service, and reliability as seriously as we do. Best of all, they know their stuff! Like us, they won’t steer you wrong on what you need, how much you need, and how much it will cost you. Working with us Floridians means you’ll reap the benefit of generations of native expertise.
Get In Touch to Get Started
If you need more information about aggregate base material, or any other commercial or residential materials, get in touch today! We’ve got friendly office staff, awesome dispatchers, and over 1,000 drivers available 24/7 to get your materials to you safely and on time. It’s easy to get started, and we can’t wait to serve you. Call us at (844) 258-7825 or fill out our contact form, and let’s talk. Your project’s success is just a quick chat away.
