Fill dirt delivery and spreading in Brevard County

How much fill? Start with the plans

Nobody can tell you how much fill a lot needs by looking at it from the road. The number comes from comparing the lot's existing elevations, from a survey, with the finished floor and grades on the house plans. The difference, carried across the pad and yard, gives a volume in cubic yards. Your builder or engineer can usually give you that figure.

Order in cubic yards, not truckloads. Truck sizes vary and fill shrinks as it's compacted, so a quote should say how much is delivered and how it's measured. The fill dirt guide walks through the math.

What kind of fill

Fill for a house pad and dirt for a lawn are different materials. Pad fill has to compact well and stay put. Topsoil grows grass. Ask what the material is, where it comes from, and whether it's free of roots, trash and broken concrete. If the builder has a spec, hand it to the crew before they price.

Rules that touch fill

Dumping a few loads of sand sounds simple. These rules can still apply:

• Spreading fill moves earth, and Sunshine 811 counts moving earth and grading as digging. Give two full business days' notice (Sunshine 811).
• Filling wetlands may need an Environmental Resource Permit from the St. Johns River Water Management District or FDEP (SJRWMD).
• Fill over the roots of a tree you're keeping counts as land clearing damage in the unincorporated county (Brevard County Code s. 62-4338).
• Palm Bay's grubbing permit doesn't authorize filling land (s. 175.015).
• Disturbing 1 acre or more can bring in the state construction stormwater permit (FDEP).
• Brevard lists filling and grading as a specialty trade exempt from county testing that still needs a county business tax receipt (s. 22-477).

Getting trucks on and off the lot

Loaded dump trucks and soft sand don't mix. Before delivery day, walk the route with the crew: where the trucks back in, where the pile goes and what's in the way. Mailboxes, sprinkler heads, a neighbor's driveway apron and the culvert under the swale are the usual casualties.

Ask how sand will be kept off the street and out of the storm drain. If the permit calls for silt fence, it goes up before the fill does.

Questions for the crew

Fill quotes can look the same and cover very different work. Ask:

• How many cubic yards, measured delivered or compacted?
• What's the material, and where does it come from?
• Is spreading and compaction included, or delivery only?
• Will the pad be built in layers to the builder's elevation?
• Who fixes ruts, a cracked curb or a crushed culvert?