The Contractor’s Playbook for Ordering Construction Sand Without Getting Burned

Ordering construction sand is easy, until it’s not. It arrives with the wrong grain size for your project. It shows up three days late. The bill has charges you’ve never heard of. This is all typical of the kind of thing that costs construction contractors time and money that could have been avoided with a bit of forward planning.

Fortunately, most sand-ordering blunders have common elements. Knowing how things can go wrong and how to avoid it all makes the difference between getting your project done or hitting avoidable stumbling blocks along the way.

Knowing What You Need in The First Place

The biggest blunder contractors make is to think all sand is the same. It’s not. There’s sand for use in concrete, sand for masonry, and fill sand that works in this situation but not in that one. Getting the wrong sand is only revealed when the order arrives, and work on the project begins.

There are lots of types of sand, and every construction project has different requirements, depending on what’s being built. Foundations require one type of sand. Paving stones need another with particular gradations. The sand used for mixing concrete has its own specific requirements. Getting this right avoids reordering hassles later on down the line.

Most construction contractors report success when they order sand from suppliers that specialize in construction materials.

When they order sand by the bulk, they usually chat to the supplier about the type of project they’re working on. This ensures they get the right type of sand for the job.

Timing the Order Correctly

Construction project schedules may be dynamic, but sand-ordering requirements are based on lead time. Leaving ordering until the last moment has contractors stressing out—and left to suffer the consequences of rush-order fees. This can only get worse during busy seasons when suppliers have orders to fill.

Good contractors know how to factor in lead times for ordering construction materials and sand. This will also take into account potential delays in deliveries due to, for example, adverse weather conditions.

In some construction projects, timing the order correctly is vital because materials need to be delivered when a specific site condition is required. Delivering sand early creates problems. Delivering it late does, too, usually involving delaying the entire project.

Finding that perfect window for delivery requires honesty and discussions between the supplier and someone on-site.

Understanding Costs and Getting the Amount Right

Ordering sand is not a simple calculation involving weight or volume. The bulk pricing of the type of sand you order is rarely as simple as an order placed for a single price per ton (or cubic yard) of the right type of sand. Additional costs vary in fee and distance for deliveries. Suppliers often use different charges based on grain specifications.

Having a good understanding of how much sand to order is often not as simple as it may seem. Ordering too little means making arrangements to order more and getting another delivery. Ordering too much means paying for unnecessary deliveries with excess material that will need to be removed from the job site.

Getting separate written quotes that break apart fees and charges from other costs avoids nasty shocks when the bill comes for the materials that are delivered. A good quote needs to cover the following at a minimum: the type of sand, the amount ordered, the per-unit cost and the delivery fee. Everything needs to add up. If something doesn’t look right, asking questions before accepting it avoids awkward interactions when it’s too late.

Pre-empting Quality Concerns

Not all suppliers take quality control seriously when they operate and transport the sand that they sell. Some may have washing and screening processes in place, and others just want to move product. Other suppliers have extraction sites contaminated by other products that make the sand useless. Professionals have made mistakes ordering bad-quality sand, so they know what to ask about before placing an order.

When asking for a supplier to provide sand, asking for a sample and assessing the supplier by asking to see their operations makes a difference in what gets delivered to your construction site long after your order is filled.

Using sand properly requires suppliers to ensure their stockpiles are tidy and to have a set up where their contractors do not simply treat the sand with contempt once they have received it.

Requesting specification sheets isn’t just for show, and many quality suppliers will provide these and show contractors how they source and process their sand. They’ll be able to tell you exactly how they stand by their product if something goes wrong and can provide assurance about the product they supplied when something goes wrong.

Delivery Management

The contractor-supplier relationship does not end when the contractor places an order. Someone needs to manage the delivery process from both sides of that transaction.

Once an order has been placed, the driver who delivers needs to be shown where they can offload the sand. When they get there, projects that have not prepared properly after having placed an order on time can be ruined before they’ve barely begun.

Drivers who show up at construction sites that are not prepared for the deliveries after unexpected drives have the potential to delay entire construction schedules. Various site-specific conditions impact the delivery of sand that the average contractor does not even think of. These range from soft ground that heavy trucks sink in and power lines having to be avoided to having only one way in and out and obstacles in the way of where a contractor wanted to dump that product on site.

Once the load is delivered, problems caused by mistakes made during packing or loading can still be addressed before they cause delays to the entire project schedule. Taking the time to check that the right product went into the right vehicle (as drivers work for busy sand suppliers who make a lot of deliveries) is a good idea while the driver is still on-site.

Supplier Relationships Matter

Contractor and supplier relationships do not come from good orders placed by professionals who regularly work their magic in the construction industry. When they do good work, these professionals are able to build long-lasting relationships with suppliers that add value to everyone in the chain from supply to finish.

Building relationships with suppliers who put in the right kind of work adds value to construction contractors who remember to pay their bills punctually.

These relationships also benefit suppliers who do good work by making a contractor more flexible when it comes to changing situations that arise on site. Reliable suppliers will go out of their way to make sure they do what they need to do to provide high-quality service even if contractors ask them for changes.

Good suppliers become partners to contractors when it comes to finishing projects, not simply employees who get paid for the work they do on contractor requests after orders are placed.

Everything involving the construction industry builds reliability, especially when it comes to filling out forms for orders that indicate that consumers are able to interact with their local suppliers or big-name suppliers such as Home Depot or Lowe’s. These manufactured products heavily rely on sand or gravel of the right type being used in their manufacture. Consumers can be guaranteed that contractors do not make mistakes as they craft features that stand up to heavy daily use and last over decades of time.

Don’t make a mistake ordering your sand in a proper manner, construction contractors just need to learn how going forward is only a matter of a few steps.