My husband and I are building a new home with a 420 foot driveway, approximately 10 feet wide. My contract says this is a temporary driveway until asphalt is put down. It was excavated about 12 inches deep, fabric put down and a combination of dense grade limestone and crushed limestone. We just received the bill from the contractor, stating they used 565 tons of gravel for this ‘temporary’ driveway — total cost of about $14,000 vs. a bid amount of $6,000. Builder insists this is correct and I have copies of invoices. 565 tons of gravel seems like an insane amount. I’m thinking this might be a mistake on the invoice. Would 565 tons be reasonable? Thanks in advance!
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If $6K was bid for the job then that's what you should pay, unless the contractor can come up with "extenuating circumstances".
420' x 10' x 12" depth would be about 280 ton, assuming CR-6 (google "gravel calculator" and a number of sites will pop up that allow you to calculate this.
I got 155 yards and mine said 1.35 tons per yard so mine came up 210 tons.... I think I would be asking the contractor to question the trucking company. Don't accuse him at the outset but make it out that the trucking company made a mistake. You can even go to the yard where they hauled it from and get them to give you an estimate on the number of tons needed and show it to him.
https://www.contractors-stone.com/calculator.html
Mistake: poor choice of contractor who cannot honor bids?
BTW, for $14k, you could buy a used small dozer or skid steer, buy the rock, and have the machine left for future DIY..
Thanks for the help everyone. I was assuming this was a crazy amount, but wanted to make sure there wasn't something else I wasn't thinking of. I'm going ask my contractor to double check this for an invoicing mistake. Hopefully we'll resolve it quickly. Thanks again!
Tell him you ran the numbers and it calcs out to 155 yards (cubic yards) and its seems like 565 tons is way too much for that many yards. If you know any civil engineers that would be the best but any engineer at your company or you are related to can lend a level of credence to your argument. Also, you are talking about 20-25 truck loads and around here you will get a scale ticket for every load. Its not unreasonable to ask to see the scale tickets and check the time and date on those tickets to make sure he doesnt have you 10 from the day they did your drive and and 15 from another job. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, he could have combine your driveway gravel with your foundation and basement gravel but then you shouldnt pay on that twice.
Thanks! The gravel for the basement is a line-item on one of the invoices, so definitely not being double counted. Very possible some of this is from another job - I'll look into that. Thank you!
I don't think that $14000 is an outrageous price for a 420' drive way on that kind of compacted base. I think that the contractor seriously underbid it and is trying to make up for that by exagerating the the amount of gravel. How could this come as a suprise to him if he knew what he was doing in the first place?
@Mike_Mahan - are you saying it's possible to use that much gravel on a driveway this size? Trying to anticipate what my contractor might say about using that much gravel.
You will "lose" some gravel as it just burys itself below the 1 foot depth but there is no way its 2.5 times. Eventually, the gravel will establish a base and stop sinking
No. You can calculate the amount of gravel as others have done here and he should have done before giving you the $6000 bid. I'm saying that he is exagerating the amount of gravel to get you to pay for his bad bid. Any contractor who goes over this bid by 133% shouldn't be in that business.
A SOLID block of limestone 420'x10'x12" is 155.556 Cubic Yards. Solid limestone apparently weighs 2.26 tons per cubic yard sooooo....
155.556 x 2.26 tons = 351.5556 tons in total
Lucy, you got some splainin' to do......you cant stuff 10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound sack
http://www.pacificmountainmasonry.com/Construction-material_weights.htm
https://www.aqua-calc.com/calculate/volume-to-weight
Note: Just so its clear, crushed limestone will weigh SUBSTANTIALLY LESS per cubic yard than a solid block. Dont let him tell you they will bill you for 352 tons then cause thats still not right.
Really appreciate all the help, everyone. Nice to know that I'm not crazy to question this. My builder is currently avoiding me, ever since I brought this up. Will be interested to know what they'll say about it. I'll update the post when I hear from them.
Well I hope every thing will end fine cuz unfortunately seems like he deceived you Vicki.
If u have all papers for this work u shouldn't be worried.
All best
I guess it just depends on how you look at money, for me personally that's a bit too much.
Would always be nice to know how some things like this turn out.
Looked to me liked either their GC or the sub who did the hauling was trying to rob them.