Screenings for Patios in Smock, PA

If you are setting a paver patio, the material that decides how it looks in three years is what goes under the pavers. Pennsylvania Rock Supply handles gravel and aggregate delivery in Smock, PA, and the order starts with 2A modified for the base. Smock sits in Fayette County, where clay-rich ground holds water and a base that was never compacted properly will show it.

You pick the tonnage or yardage online, size the load with the calculator, and a dump truck drops it on site.

Ground and Conditions in Smock

Fayette County ground is flat-lying shale, sandstone and claystone weathered into silty, clay-heavy soil, and much of it is hilly and cut by steep valleys. The failure a thin patio base shows here is edge settlement. The pavers stay flat in the middle and dip at the border, because soft clay at the edge squeezes out when the ground stays wet.

The fix is thickness and drainage, not more sand. A compacted 2A modified base carries the load, and the bedding layer on top stays thin and even. Heavy rain and snowmelt running down hillsides soak into clay layers on slopes, so where patio runoff goes matters on a hillside lot.

Freeze-thaw cycles every winter soften wet clay and heave it. A base that was never drained breaks up. Frost depth is commonly about 36 inches in this part of Pennsylvania, but that figure is set by each municipality for footing work, so check with your code official rather than guessing from it.

Patio and paver work runs from spring, once the ground has thawed and dried, into late fall. Long wet spells and rain on snow are when hillside ground is most likely to move.

Materials for Smock Projects

Start with the base, then the bedding, then the finish.

For the base under pavers, flatwork and drive aprons, 2A Modified is the standard Pennsylvania base stone. It is crushed stone with the fines left in, so it compacts hard and locks up. Local yards also call it modified stone. If a supplier offers you Crusher Run for the same job, it is the same idea, but most Smock buyers ask for 2A modified by name.

On top of that compacted base, the bedding layer is where the patio is won or lost. Screenings, also called stone dust or #10 screenings, are crushed fines and chips under a quarter inch that pack firm and hold a screed. Use them under pavers and flagstone, for walkway surfacing, and for pipe bedding.

Wet ground under a patio changes the plan. Where water sits, put 2B Stone down first. It is clean, washed 3/4 inch stone with no fines, so water moves through and it never packs hard. Pennsylvania yards call the same size #57 Stone.

For the sand layer, Washed Sand (concrete sand) works for leveling and bedding under pavers and slabs. Mason Sand is the finer masonry sand for brick and block mortar and paver joints.

Delivery to Smock and the Surrounding Area

Order online and choose your quantity by the ton or by the yard. If you are not sure which one your project calls for, the calculator sizes the load for you so you are not short mid-job or sitting on a pile you cannot use.

A dump truck delivers bulk material to your site, and you pick the delivery date at checkout. In Fayette County we also deliver to Uniontown, Connellsville, Masontown, Brownsville and Fairchance.

Order Screenings and Base Stone for Your Smock Patio

Figure your square footage, run it through the calculator, and pick the tonnage or yardage that matches. Order 2A modified for the base and Screenings for the bedding, choose a delivery date at checkout, and Pennsylvania Rock Supply will drop it at your site in Smock.