Fill dirt, clean fill, millings or topsoil: what to order

Start with what goes on top

The right material depends on what ends up sitting on it. A slab, a driveway, a lawn and a garden bed each want something different underneath. Get it wrong and it shows up later as a sunken corner, a rut, or grass that won't take.

Fill dirt

Fill dirt is the general-purpose material. In Brevard it's usually sandy, and it's what you order to raise a low corner, fill a washout or build up a yard. Depending on where it was dug, it can carry some roots, rock or clay.

For a yard or a low spot that's usually fine. If it's going anywhere that has to hold weight, ask what's in it. Fill dirt delivery has more on ordering it from us.

Clean fill

Clean fill is fill with the junk left out: no roots, stumps, trash, concrete chunks or other debris. It's what builders usually want under a building pad, because anything organic inside a pad rots and settles under the slab.

Some plans go further and set a structural fill spec, with compaction and testing requirements. If you're building, the plans or the engineer decide what goes under the house. Send us that page with your quote request.

Asphalt millings

Millings are old asphalt ground off a road when it's resurfaced. Spread, graded and packed down, they make a firm, dark surface that sheds water and handles traffic better than bare sand. People use them for long rural driveways, parking spots beside a garage, and lanes into the back of a property.

Keep them out of planting beds and out from under a slab. Some HOAs and deed restrictions don't allow a millings driveway, so check yours before you order. Asphalt millings covers delivery and millings driveways.

Topsoil

Topsoil is the darker, organic soil plants grow in. It goes on last, a few inches deep, wherever you want sod, seed or a garden. That organic matter is why it never belongs under a pad or a driveway. It compresses and breaks down, and whatever sits on it sinks.

On a yard that's been raised with sandy fill, a layer of topsoil on top can help new grass get going.

Side by side

If you're still not sure which one fits, describe the job when you call and we'll tell you what we'd use.

What to tell us when you order

Fill and millings are counted in cubic yards, and a cubic yard is 27 cubic feet. For a rough count, multiply length by width by depth in feet and divide by 27. Then tell us:

• What it's for: a pad, a yard, a driveway or a low spot.
• Whether you want it dumped in a pile, or spread and graded.
• Where the truck can dump and turn around. A loaded tri-axle dump truck is heavy, and soft ground, a drain field or a thin driveway edge can't take it.
• Whether the fill goes near trees you're keeping. In unincorporated Brevard, filling over a tree's roots counts as land clearing under the county code (s. 62-4338).
• Whether any of the area stays wet. Filling a wetland can need a state permit from the St. Johns River Water Management District or FDEP, depending on the project (SJRWMD).