Hey guys i'm looking for a table or some thing better too figure crushed limestone for jobs. I found the one I have been using on the internet but have been comming up off on jobs just would like too be able too get a little closer. I use # 8, 53, and 2 on jobs that I bid on. Any help would be great!
How far off are your totals from your estimates? Thats going to tell us a bit of the story. How much waste are you getting from spilling out to areas not supposed to be stone. How much are you losing to poor subgrade finish? How much moisture is your material coming in at. Are you buying water from the quarry too?
I don't know about a table, just use length x width x depth, then 27 cubic feet is a cubic yard. For crushed limestone I usually use 2000 lbs/ yard, but you need to check that with your local stone, and, if you want to get precise, that figure actually changes for each grade of stone. Just be careful to use the same units for all your measurements in your. calculations.
Yeah, Turbo has a good point, I buy a lot of fine powdered limestone, usually about 100 pounds per cubic foot. The pit ran out of fresh and sent some that had been stockpiled for several years. It was less than 70 lbs/foot, and I had to spread it over almost twice the area for the same money, getting paid by the ton.
If your buying your material by the yard and selling it by the yard, then you have a spillage, or poor subgrade prep as turbo said. If grade and spillage are in tolerance, then the quarry is shorting you. If your buying by the ton and selling by the yard, your equation is off. Road base here in Minnesota is generally accepted as 1.4 ton to the yard... but in rock, every size will be different. Rain will change your weights also. You almost have to weigh up a yard in a box to know the exact weight of different materials...
Well the last job I went over on I had figured 180 for it and went over that by 30 tons but it had rained a lot before it maybe that was it Bc sub grade was right and all stone was being dumped on the building pad. My thing is that crushed lime stone with lots of fines and dust in it is a much denser than just crushed stone. So can I still use the one yard = 2000LD no matter what stone I'm using and then what about sand and rip rap can I figure that the same way. And then what about when it's going too be compacted in lifts?
No, that is what I use for clean limestone. I know that the limestone here is more porous than some. Like Granpa and I said, you need to establish figures for the stone you are using. The quarry can probably help with that. In my two posts, I mentioned that I use a lot of very fine (sand to flour) limestone, and that, uncompacted, is usually around 2700/yd.
As you mentioned, don't forget to account for compaction/consolidation in your figuring as well as inaccuracies in handling. For dirt work around here I typically use 25-30% to account for inaccuracy and compaction. Stone work is 20-25%. Oooor the preferred method, sell the job on time and materials which usually requires giving them a ballpark.
As far as the rip rap,, natural stone in size 12" to 15" will average about 350lbs each.