GABC, Gravel and Stone Delivered Across Delaware

What do you put under a driveway, a parking pad or a shed base so it stays put? Delaware Rock Supply sells bulk gravel and aggregate delivery across Delaware, and the answer starts with GABC.

That is graded aggregate base course, the Delaware base material.

The ground decides how the rest goes. Sand drains fast until it meets the clay or hardpan beneath it, and then water perches.

Materials Delivered Across Delaware

Start with the job. A drive, a pad or a shed base wants a material that compacts and holds, and in Delaware that is GABC.

GABC Type B is the designation for ordinary road and site work.

Crusher Run is the everyday trade name for the same work. Fines bind the stone together so the layer compacts instead of shifting.

For bedding under pavers, flagstone or brick, order Stone Dust.

10 stone.

Drainage beds, underdrains and drive surfacing take #57 Stone.

#8 Crushed Stone is the same idea at a finer grading, good for paver joints and concrete work.

For drive surfacing over soft, sandy subgrade, 3/4" Crushed Stone gives you a compaction layer. 3/8" Crushed Stone suits fine drainage and pipe bedding.

Walkways, patios and play areas call for 3/8" Natural Pea Gravel, which Delaware calls Natural Pea Gravel rather than pea stone. Decorative beds and dry creek beds take River Rock.

Brick and block work, paver joints and play boxes use Mason Sand. Bedding under pavers and slabs uses Concrete Sand.

Lawns and bed prep want Top Soil.

Ground and Climate Across Delaware

Northern Delaware sits on the Piedmont and the Fall Line. Loamy soil lies over deeply weathered saprolite and hard crystalline rock, mostly gneiss, schist and gabbro, with rock close to the surface on the ridges.

Frost depth there is 32 inches, the New Castle County figure and the deepest in Delaware. That figure is set by the building official for footings, not as a target for a gravel layer.

Central Delaware and the Delaware Bay shore are deep Coastal Plain sand and silt. Greenwich loam, the state soil since 2000, is a deep, well drained silt-capped loam over sandy Coastal Plain sediment and is mapped in all three counties.

Frost depth is 24 inches, the Kent County figure.

Southern Delaware is Beaverdam Formation sand under most of the ground, with loamy silt caps on the better farmland. Sandy subsoils cave easily in an open excavation.

Frost depth is 24 inches, the Sussex County figure.

Along the Atlantic coast and the Inland Bays, dune and beach sand gives way to sandy loam a short way inland, then soft organic soil and salt marsh around Rehoboth Bay, Indian River Bay, Little Assawoman Bay and the lower Broadkill.

Water is the bigger driver statewide. Much of Delaware drains through tax ditches, and DNREC counts 234 tax ditch organizations looking after more than 2,000 miles of channel.

Shoreline erosion along the Delaware River, Delaware Bay, the Inland Bays and the Atlantic coast runs ahead of the global rate.

The working season runs most of the year. Frozen ground stops compaction for short spells in January and February, mainly in the north.

Wet, saturated ground after winter rain and summer thunderstorms takes more days off the schedule than frost does.

Where We Deliver in Delaware

Delaware Rock Supply delivers across all three counties. New Castle County covers the Piedmont, the Fall Line and the Delaware River shore, from the Brandywine, Red Clay and White Clay valleys down through the Middletown and Townsend farmland.

Kent County covers the Central Coastal Plain and the Delaware Bay shore, including the St. Jones, Murderkill and Leipsic river country.

Sussex County covers the inland sand country and the Atlantic coast, from the Nanticoke and Marshyhope headwaters out to the Inland Bays and the ocean shore.

How to Order and Size a Load

Order online and pick your quantity by the ton or by the yard. Each product page has a calculator to help you size the load before you check out.

Pick a delivery date at checkout. A dump truck tips the load on site in one pile, so have the spot clear and reachable before the truck arrives.

Order GABC and Stone for Delaware Ground

GABC is the base material Delaware ground asks for. Order it by the ton or by the yard, size the load with the calculator, and pick a delivery date at checkout.

Delaware Rock Supply delivers bulk gravel, stone, sand and topsoil across New Castle, Kent and Sussex counties. Place your order online when you are ready.