Bulk Order Pack

Sold by weight, used by volume, and it shrinks in between

Sold by weight, used by volume, and short by the time it is compacted. What to order by area and depth, how deep the base goes for what stands on it, where bags stop being worth it, why you cannot top up a concrete pour, and the short-load fee that is not in the price per yard. Then the page nobody writes: getting it from the pile to the hole. A barrow full of wet sand weighs 720 lb, so you move about a quarter of what it holds — and a 4-yard delivery becomes 65 loads and three hours of wheeling before any of it is spread. 11 pages, printable, with a fill-in order sheet.

Look inside

Two full pages from the pack, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• Why a finished volume is not an order, and the factor that converts one to the other
• Loose density and order factor for six materials, matched to this site's own calculators
• What to order by area and depth: base at 4in and 6in, bedding sand at 1in
• Base depth by what stands on it — walkway, patio on clay, shed, driveway, heavy driveway
• Tonnage per 100 sq ft with the compaction allowance already included
• Why an 8in base has to go down as two lifts, and what happens when it does not
• The bags-versus-bulk crossover, with both costs shown rather than a verdict
• What a bag of concrete actually yields, and bags per cubic yard for three sizes
• Slab volumes for seven common sizes, with the over-order allowance applied
• The thickened-edge correction — why perimeter times width overstates the beam
• The short-load fee, what it costs at each order size, and when to order MORE because of it
• A parking pad worked end to end, from area to what to say down the phone
• What a barrow really carries — the load is set by weight, not by its rated volume
• Your delivery in barrow loads and hours, on your own and with a crew
• What double handling costs when the truck cannot tip where the material is going
• What to settle before the delivery, and a fill-in sheet for your own job

The pack complements the free calculators — they do the arithmetic, it carries the specifications and the plan they cannot know.