Washed Sand in Maryland: Coarse, Clean and Not the Same as Mason Sand

The choice on this page is between two washed sands that arrive looking almost identical and do different work. Washed sand, which Maryland yards also call concrete sand, is the coarser of the two: it is the sand that goes into a mix, beds a pipe and screeds under pavers. Mason Sand is finer and softer, and belongs in mortar, in joints and in a sandbox. Buy the fine one for a bedding course and the patio moves; buy the coarse one for brickwork and the mason will send it back.

Coarse, gray and gritty: how washed sand pours next to the finer grade

Poured out of a bucket it runs rather than clumps, and damp it holds a screeded edge instead of slumping. That coarseness is the useful property: the grains lock against each other under a plate compactor, where a fine sand keeps moving. It is also why the same material serves a concrete mix, where rounded uniform grains give a predictable result.

Bedding under pavers, backfill around a utility run, concrete mixed on site

• A screeded bedding course under pavers or a slab, where a thin even layer lets each unit sit without rocking.
• Bedding and backfill around pipe, conduit and cable, filling evenly around the run without voids and without harming protective coatings.
• Backfill in utility trenches, post holes and foundation excavations, where clean material is wanted and excavated clay is not.
• Leveling a work area to grade before construction, since it flows into shallow depressions and compacts to a consistent finish.
• As the fine aggregate in concrete and mortar mixed on site.

Keep it separate from excavated soil while it is on the ground. The value of a washed material is that it is clean, and a pile that has had Piedmont clay shoveled through it is no longer clean.

A rock garden bed, a shed pad and a splash strip: three jobs sand does badly

Three worked examples, included because all three land on sand pages regularly and none of them should.

• Xeriscape or rock garden bed, 14 feet by 9 feet at 2 inches: 126 square feet x 0.1667 = 21 cubic feet, divided by 27 = 0.78 cubic yards. Sand in a decorative bed washes out in the first thunderstorm and grows weeds by June. As River Rock at about 1.35 tons per cubic yard, that volume is roughly 1.1 tons.
• Shed or garage pad base, 10 feet by 12 feet at 5 inches: 120 square feet x 0.4167 = 50 cubic feet, divided by 27 = 1.85 cubic yards. A pad wants a dense-graded layer that compacts and stays put, not a sand cushion that migrates. As CR-6 at about 1.50 tons per cubic yard, about 2.8 tons.
• Three downspout splash strips, each 5 feet by 2.5 feet at 3 inches: 12.5 square feet each, 37.5 in total, x 0.25 = 9.4 cubic feet, divided by 27 = 0.35 cubic yards. Sand here simply leaves. As #57 Stone at about 1.40 tons per cubic yard, roughly 0.5 tons.

One inch screeded, not four: bedding depth on Coastal Plain ground

The most common sand order in this state is too large by a factor of three, because people think of bedding sand as a base rather than as a setting layer. A paver bedding course is about an inch, screeded level over a compacted base. Deeper than that and the pavers ride on a layer that can still move, which is what produces dips and lippage by the second summer.

Depth on this page always means screeded depth, not compacted depth. Sand consolidates slightly as the pavers are vibrated in, and the allowance for that is small.

• On the Eastern Shore and the low Western Shore, the base under the sand has to sit above wet ground. Flat Coastal Plain land with a high water table sheds slowly after nor'easters and tropical rain, and a bedding course over a saturated base will never behave.
• Across the Piedmont, silty subsoil goes soft when saturated. Compact the base when the ground is dry enough to take it, not in the wet weeks either side of winter.
• Frost reaches about 30 inches across most county codes, 24 inches in several Eastern Shore counties and 36 inches in Garrett. Water held under paver work through a freeze is what lifts it, so the fall and the drainage in the base matter more than the sand above.
• Within 1,000 feet of tidal water, Critical Area rules limit lot coverage, and stone and gravel surfaces count toward it. Worth checking before a patio grows.

Tons for a 15 by 18 patio bed and a 60-foot trench

Square feet times depth in feet gives cubic feet; divide by 27 for cubic yards; multiply by 1.35 for tons at the approximate weight above. Both are worked examples.

• Paver bedding course, 15 feet by 18 feet at 1 inch: 15 x 18 = 270 square feet. 1 inch is 0.08333 feet, so 270 x 0.08333 = 22.5 cubic feet. 22.5 divided by 27 = 0.83 cubic yards, about 1.1 tons.
• Pipe bedding and surround, 60 feet of trench 2 feet wide with 6 inches of sand: 60 x 2 = 120 square feet. 6 inches is 0.5 feet, so 120 x 0.5 = 60 cubic feet, divided by 27 = 2.22 cubic yards, about 3.0 tons.

For an area that is not a rectangle, split it up: triangles are base times height divided by two, circles are diameter times diameter times 0.7854, and a ring is the outer circle less the inner. Add the square footage, apply one average depth, then take the result through the sand calculator.

What ships alongside it, and how to take the load

Most sand orders here travel with something else, because sand is rarely the whole job. A patio order is base stone plus this sand plus a joint filler; a trench order is sand plus backfill. Working the layers out together saves a second delivery.

Delivery is arranged at checkout from your ZIP code, and the truck needs clear access to somewhere it can tip and reverse out of. Sand is the material most worth tarping, since the last few wheelbarrow loads are otherwise left in the grass, and a pile caught by a downpour before it is covered loses shape and picks up whatever it is sitting on. Set your quantity and a delivery date here once the yardage is checked, or send the patio and trench dimensions through contact if you would rather have the layers split out before you order.