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

Crushed stone has angular faces from the crusher, and a minus product keeps its fines so it binds and compacts into a firm surface. Natural Pea Gravel is rounded and washed, so it stays loose and lets water move through it. Use crushed stone for a base or a drive, and Natural Pea Gravel for play areas, dog runs and planting beds.

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

Both work, and the choice usually comes down to how you have measured the job. A ton is a weight and a yard is a volume, so the two do not convert at a fixed rate across materials. Each product page has a calculator to help size the load before you order.

Which stone is best for drainage in Thurston County?

Drain rock, also called 7/8 clean, is the washed drainage stone for footing drains, French drains and infiltration trenches. It has no fines, so it keeps its voids where perched water sits on the till.

Thurston County Landscape Rock and Gravel, WA

Washington Rock Supply handles gravel, stone and aggregate delivery in Thurston County, WA. The base material here is 5/8 minus, the crushed surfacing top course that packs hard and sheds water.

It goes down on driveways, parking pads and shed slabs.

Ground across the Puget Sound lowland is glacial: a dense till cap over outwash sand, with silt and clay below. Rain perches on the till and sits close to the surface all winter, so drainage matters as much as the surface course.

Materials delivered in Thurston County

Material is grouped by size, from the coarsest structural stone down to the fine bedding products. Each one has a job it does well, and the minus and clean split decides whether it compacts or drains.

5/8 minus carries the most weight on a Thurston County site.

Contractors shorten those to CSBC and CSTC.

That makes 5/8 minus the top course and 1 1/4 Minus the structural course beneath it. Both are minus products: the crusher fines stay in, so the rock binds and holds together.

Clean stone such as Drain Rock has those fines washed out, so water moves through it.

For drainage work, 3/8" Crushed Stone suits small runs and paver joints, while 3/4" Crushed Stone takes trench backfill and under-slab drainage.

Rounded stone is filed under round rock in Washington yards. Washington River Rock works in dry creek beds and splash pads, and Large River Rock armours swales, bank toes and culvert outfalls.

For shoreline and cut-slope protection.

Sand and soil round out an order. Washed Sand goes into concrete mixes and pipe bedding, and Top Soil is screened and blended for lawn repair and grading out settlement.

Ground conditions across Thurston County

The wet season runs October through April. Under the state stormwater manual for western Washington, exposed soil must be stabilized within two days in that window against seven days in summer.

Base, paving and paver work is scheduled for the dry months, and winter work needs the grade kept covered.

Across the Puget Sound lowland, the ground is glacial: a dense till cap, its lower part hard enough that crews call it hardpan, over advance outwash sand and, below that, the silt and clay of the Lawton beds. Recessional outwash gravel fills the valley floors.

That layering drives the drainage problem. Rain soaks the loose upper soil, reaches the dense till and stops, so the water table sits close to the surface all winter instead of draining away.

Anything built on till needs the water taken sideways to daylight, which is why footing drains and washed drain rock do so much of the work here.

Winter rain perching where the outwash sand meets the clay below it is what puts the bluffs of this area on the landslide maps. The same perched water undercuts cut slopes and fill on a smaller scale, so slope protection and outfall stone belong in the plan.

Winters here are mild and wet. The ground seldom freezes deep, so it is saturation rather than frost that softens a base, and a drive that was firm in August can rut in February.

Delivery across Thurston County

Washington Rock Supply delivers bulk material to Lacey, Olympia, Yelm, Rochester, Rainier and Tenino, along with the surrounding parts of the county. You order online, choose a quantity by the ton or by the yard, and pick a delivery date at checkout.

Each product page has a calculator to help size the load. A dump truck then tips the material on site as one pile, so it is worth thinking about where that pile should land before the truck arrives.

Choosing the right material

Mason County sits on the same ground as Thurston County: the same glacial till cap, outwash sand and Lawton beds of the Puget Sound lowland. The base and drainage choices are the same on both sides of the line.

Lewis County and Grays Harbor County span more than one ground region, taking in the Lower Columbia, the Chehalis valley and the Willapa Hills. Where a site moves onto that different ground, the base and drainage layer have to answer to it rather than to the lowland till.

On any of it, the choice comes down to two questions. Does the material need to compact and hold, which means a minus product, or does it need to pass water, which means a clean or washed one?

Order gravel, stone and soil for Thurston County

Washington Rock Supply delivers bulk gravel, stone, sand and soil across Thurston County, from Lacey and Olympia to Yelm, Rochester, Rainier and Tenino. Choose your material, size the load by the ton or the yard, and pick a delivery date at checkout.

Gravel, Stone and Soil for Thurston County, WA