Decomposed Granite & Heavy Debris: A San Bernardino Guide

Anyone who has put a shovel in the ground in the San Bernardino foothills knows the soil - dense decomposed granite, rock and sandy alluvial material that comes up heavy. On a disposal job, its defining feature is weight, and that weight quietly rewrites the rules about what container you need.

Why the foothill soil is its own problem

The San Bernardino Valley sits at the base of the mountains, and the soil across the foothills and much of the valley is decomposed granite, rock and sandy alluvial deposits - dense and heavy. When you excavate a footing, a foundation, a pool or a grading job, the spoil that comes out is far heavier per cubic yard than the construction debris from the same job.

That means this soil cannot be sized like ordinary debris. A container that would comfortably hold the volume of spoil from a job will be well over legal transport weight long before it is full. Decomposed granite, like concrete, is a material where weight decides the container, not volume.

The weight math that decides the container

A truck carrying a loaded roll-off has a legal road weight it cannot exceed. Work backward from that limit and a 10 yard container filled with decomposed-granite spoil is already at or near it.

So heavy fill goes in a 10 yard, the same container we use for concrete, and never in a larger box. A 20 or 30 yard filled with soil simply could not be moved. This surprises people planning a big excavation or a pool dig who assume more spoil means a bigger container - in fact more spoil means more 10 yard containers, or staged loads.

Keep it dry, keep it separate

Two habits save real money on soil. First, keep it dry. Wet decomposed granite weighs more than dry, and since disposal is charged by weight, letting spoil dry before it goes in the container directly lowers the bill. On a graded site, plan a staging area where spoil can sit and drain before loading.

Second, keep it separate from everything else. Soil mixed into a general debris container drags the whole load's weight up and can push it over the limit while the box looks half full. A dedicated container for soil and fill keeps both loads sensible and correctly routed.

Concrete alongside it

Concrete behaves the same way and often shows up on the same jobs. It runs to roughly two tons per cubic yard, so a 10 yard filled level with it is already at legal transport weight. Brick, block and stone from old foundations are the same category.

On a demolition or hardscape job producing both concrete and soil, we run dedicated 10 yard containers for the heavy material and a larger container for everything else. It is more deliveries, and it is the only arrangement that is both legal and economical.

Clean loads and recycling

Kept clean, concrete and clean fill can often be routed as clean inert material rather than mixed waste, which is cheaper and counts toward the City's 65 percent diversion requirement. But "clean" is strict. Clean concrete is masonry and nothing else - no timber, no protruding rebar, no rubbish. Clean fill is soil without construction debris mixed in.

The moment general debris contaminates a soil or concrete load, it stops being clean inert material and is charged and handled as mixed waste - and it stops counting toward diversion. Keep the streams apart from the start and every load leaves tarped for the haul to a permitted facility.

Footings, pools and grading

Excavation spoil is the single most underestimated material we handle, and around the San Bernardino foothills there is plenty of it. Foundations, footings, pool digs and grading all move a surprising amount of earth.

Pool excavation deserves a special mention - a pool dig produces a large volume of decomposed-granite spoil, and it is heavy. If you are digging - a foundation, footings, a pool, a grading job - the tonnage is usually much larger than the finished hole looks, because excavated earth bulks up as it comes out. Tell us the dimensions and we will work out the number of containers rather than you guessing low and running short mid-job.

Getting it priced

To quote a heavy-fill or concrete job accurately we need the material, roughly how much, and whether it can be kept clean and dry. Tell us it is a foundation dig of about such dimensions, or a pool excavation, and we will work out the 10 yard containers and the routing.

The flat rate covers delivery, collection and disposal. Keep the soil and concrete clean and dry, and the whole thing runs efficiently rather than as mixed debris - and the clean concrete counts toward your diversion.