What is the difference between crushed stone and Natural Pea Gravel?

Crushed stone is angular rock broken from limestone, and the fines left in a roadstone let it bind and compact. Natural Pea Gravel is rounded, washed stone about 3/8 inch across, sold in Iowa as 3/8" Natural Pea Gravel. It works for walkways, play areas and patio bedding. Rounded stone does not lock together, so it is not a base course.

Should I order material by the ton or by the yard?

Both work, and either can be selected when you order. The ton is a weight and the yard is a volume, so the same pile reads differently on each. Each product page has a calculator to size the load. Pick the unit you are comfortable with and let the calculator handle the rest.

Which stone is best for drainage in Dallas County?

Clean rock is the drainage stone. It is washed and open graded, so water moves straight through instead of sitting in the fines. Use it for subdrains, drainage tile backfill, pipe bedding and behind retaining walls. Where the clay subsoil perches water, that open graded layer is what carries it away.

Dallas County Class A Roadstone and Gravel Delivery, IA

Iowa Rock Supply handles gravel, stone and aggregate delivery in Dallas County, IA, and the material the county runs on is Class A roadstone. That is the 3/4 inch crushed limestone base course with the fines left in, so it binds and compacts under a drive, a parking pad or a shed base.

Dallas County spans two very different ground regions. Around Waukee, West Des Moines, Urbandale and Perry the ground is young glacial till.

Around Van Meter, De Soto, Redfield and Dexter it is older till under a loess mantle, and that clay changes how a base has to go in.

Materials delivered in Dallas County

Class A roadstone is the standard Iowa base course.

11 and Class C gravel to Gradation No. 10.

County engineers and city entrance standards call the same material roadstone and write it as Class A roadstone. It goes under driveways, parking pads, shed bases and farm lanes.

Order it as Class A Roadstone.

Above that base, a coarser stone can go down first on a new drive or a soft spot. Below it, the fine materials bed and finish the surface.

Ground conditions across Dallas County

Start with the working season, because it decides when a load can actually be compacted. In the Des Moines Lobe, compaction waits for the frost to come out and for flat ground to shed its spring water.

Base and paver work runs from late spring to the fall freeze.

In the Southern Iowa Drift Plain the season is longer, but clay soils need to dry before anything gets compacted. A wet spring pushes base work back several weeks there.

The ground itself splits the same way. In the Des Moines Lobe the soil is thick, compact pebbly loam till of the Dows Formation, with sand and gravel along old meltwater channels.

It is pothole country: kettles and closed depressions hold water, and most ground drains only because it is tiled.

In the Southern Iowa Drift Plain, old till sits under a windblown loess mantle. Beneath it is the Yarmouth-Sangamon paleosol, a thick, gummy grey clay that water will not move through.

Farmers call working in it gumbo.

That clay perches water. Steeply rolling ground drains at the surface, but the subsoil does not take it, so drives go soft at the bottom of a grade.

Erosion follows the same split. The Des Moines Lobe sees less slope erosion, but ditch and tile outlet scour and washouts where runoff concentrates on the moraine ridges.

The Southern Iowa Drift Plain is Iowa's most eroded landscape, with deep stream cuts and gully erosion after heavy rain.

Frost matters on both sides. Long, cold winters bring repeated freeze-thaw that heaves gravel drives, lanes and field entrances as the ground lets go in spring.

In this part of the state, frost depth is commonly 42 inches, and the local building official sets footing depth.

Delivery across Dallas County

Iowa Rock Supply delivers bulk aggregate across the county, including Waukee, West Des Moines, Urbandale, Perry, Adel, Dallas Center, Van Meter, De Soto, Woodward, Redfield, Dexter, Minburn, Linden and Bouton.

You order online. Quantities are ordered by the ton or by the yard, and each product page has a calculator to size the load.

You pick a delivery date at checkout, and a dump truck tips the material in one pile on site.

For ground that stays wet, a clean open graded stone is the drainage layer. For a surface that has to bind, a roadstone with the fines left in is the base.

Choosing the right material

Dallas County's neighbours to the south and west sit on the Southern Iowa Drift Plain. Warren County and Madison County both carry old pre-Illinoian till under a loess mantle, with the same gummy grey paleosol beneath.

That is the same ground you find around Van Meter, De Soto, Redfield and Dexter. On that clay, water perches instead of soaking away, so a drainage layer of clean rock matters as much as the base itself.

Guthrie County spans more than one zone, reaching into the Des Moines Lobe as well. Where the ground is young glacial till, the base and drainage choice looks more like Waukee, West Des Moines, Urbandale and Perry.

Order aggregate delivery in Dallas County

Iowa Rock Supply delivers Class A roadstone, clean rock, sand, topsoil and decorative stone across Dallas County, from Waukee and West Des Moines to Perry, Adel, Van Meter and Dexter. Choose your material, order by the ton or the yard, and pick a delivery date at checkout.

Order Class A Roadstone and Crushed Stone in Dallas County, IA