Gravel, Sand, Stone and Mulch Delivery in Jacksonville, FL

Fine Sand That Fills From Below

ZIP 32207 lies in Duval County. At the ZIP's center point, the USDA soil survey maps the Urban land-Leon-Boulogne complex, 0 to 2 percent slopes. Leon is the main named series and makes up 30 percent of that unit, while 35 percent of it is mapped as urban land, meaning ground already paved or built over.^[1]

The top mineral layer at the center point is fine sand, yet the survey rates the soil poorly drained. Sand on its own lets water pass quickly. The trouble comes from a water table that can climb close to the surface in a wet spell, so the sand fills from underneath and has no room left for the next storm.^[1]

Hydrologic group A/D sums up that split behavior in two letters. While the water table is high, the soil acts as group D, the slowest class for taking in rain. Where it has been drained, it acts as group A, the quickest. A yard on this kind of ground can swallow a summer shower one week and hold a puddle for days the next.^[1]

Shrink-swell in the top 100 cm rates low, at 1.5 percent. Fine sand does not swell when wet or split open when dry the way clay does, so pavers and slabs laid over it rarely lift. The failure worth planning for is softness, where saturated sand loses its grip under a wheel or a foot.^[1]

Deeper down, the state geologic map places the center point on Undifferentiated sediments of Pleistocene age, a mix of sand, clay, silt, marl, peat and gravel. Layers like these can change within a short dig. A trench may pass from clean sand into a grey clay band or a dark, spongy streak of peat, and both of those hold water and squash down under weight.^[2]

Any peat or soft clay found under a planned drive or patio should come out. Fill Sand, spread in thin lifts and packed with a plate compactor, takes its place with material that stays firm when wet and drains once the water drops.^[2]

Rain and Rare Frost at the Nearest Station

The closest NOAA normals station is Jacksonville Nas, FL, about 4 miles away. It averages 47.6 inches of precipitation a year and no measurable snowfall. Much of a total that large can arrive in short, heavy storms, so runoff deserves more thought here than cold does.^[3]

Freezing nights are rare at Jacksonville Nas. The low there reaches 32 F or colder on 4 days in an average year. The station's median first freeze date is January 5, and its median last freeze date is February 1.^[3]

With so few hard freezes, water does far more harm to a base on this ground than cold. A stone layer sitting in saturated sand loses strength, and the edges of a drive can rut long before anything cracks from cold.^[3]

Tender plants are the one thing a short cold snap can hurt. A blanket of Brown Shredded Mulch or Wood Chips over beds ahead of the January 5 median date shields roots near the surface, and it softens the impact of heavy rain on bare sand too.^[3]

A USGS elevation query puts the ground at the center point 20 feet above sea level. The map unit's slopes run only 0 to 2 percent, and on ground that flat, runoff gets little push, so a swale or trench needs its fall shaped in by hand.^[1],[4]

A Driveway Raised Above Wet Sand

On poorly drained fine sand, the best drive is one built up rather than dug down. Cutting a deep box into ground that already holds water only makes a bathtub for the stone. Strip the grass and the dark top layer, then shape the sand so it sheds water toward one side.^[1]

Woven fabric laid over the shaped sand comes next. Fine sand grains can work their way up into stone when the ground is wet, and the fabric keeps the two apart so the stone keeps its full thickness year after year.^[1]

Road Base or Crushed Concrete makes the structural course. Each of them has angular pieces plus fines, and when either one is dampened and packed in two or three lifts, it locks into a stiff layer that spreads wheel loads across the soft sand below.^[1]

For the surface, #57 Crushed Stone gives a clean, open top that drains quickly after a storm, while Driveway Gravel packs tighter and holds a smoother face. On a drive that stays damp, the open stone has the edge because it never holds a skin of water.^[1]

Finish with a shallow trench of Drain Rock along the low side. It gives water running off the crown somewhere to go other than into the base, which matters most in the months when the water table stands high.^[1]

Beds, Lawns and Paths in Sandy Ground

Fine sand drains fast near the top whenever the water table is low, and it holds few nutrients. Garden Soil or Compost worked into the top few inches gives roots something that keeps water between rains. In low spots that stay wet, a raised bed filled with Topsoil keeps roots above the soggy layer.^[1]

Paths across a sandy yard hold up best on a firm base. Stone Dust Screenings over a thin course of Road Base packs into a walkable surface, and Pea Gravel makes a softer path where foot traffic is light. Edging keeps either one from drifting into the loose sand at its sides.^[1]

Downspouts deserve a look as well. Roof water dropped onto saturated sand can scour a hole in a single storm. A splash pad of River Rock spreads that flow out, and a short trench of Drain Rock carries it toward a lower corner of the yard.^[3]

Playground Sand under a swing set suits this ground, since the native soil is sandy already and the play area drains once the water table falls. Wood Chips are the other common pick for a play space and stay put better on a slope.^[1]

Housing in ZIP 32207

The Census Bureau counts 19,402 housing units inside ZIP 32207, set against 430,825 across all of Jacksonville.^[5]

Detached single-family houses make up 53 percent of the homes in the ZIP. Across the whole city, the share is 59 percent.^[5]

The median construction year for homes in ZIP 32207 is 1964. For Jacksonville as a whole, the median is 1987.^[5]

Owners live in 51 percent of the occupied homes in the ZIP, and renters occupy the remainder.^[5]

For state road work, the Florida Department of Transportation sets out its rules for the stone layer under its pavements in Section 204, Graded Aggregate Base, of its Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction.^[6]