Need sharp sand, gravel or ballast for your project?
Our big builders’ bags or bulk bags are a great way to get larger amounts of gravel, sand and other aggregates to your site or garden.
Read on to find out why!
Approx reading time: 3 minutes
Great reasons to buy gravel in bulk bags
- Gravel and all aggregates are significantly cheaper in bulk. We save the costs of filling, sealing and stacking plastic sacks on a pallet – and those savings are passed onto you!
- Health and Safety – lugging a 25kg weight around site isn’t good for anyone’s back. Loading a barrow with as much as you can comfortably handle is much safer.
- Plastic sacks can and do split – strong polypropylene bulk bags store aggregates cleanly and securely, which is especially helpful if you’re not planning to use your materials all at once.
Popular Building Materials available in Bulk Bags
Washed Sharp Sand Bulk Bag is an essential material for patio and landscaping projects. Our Turnbull Washed Sharp Sand is perfect for using as a part of a tougher mortar mix or laying out a sand screed bed for paving slabs. Turnbull Washed Plastering Sand is for all your bricklaying needs.
Turnbull Limestone Bulk Bags are a great multi-purpose crushed stone aggregate to create solid foundations for paving, block paving and driveways.
20mm Gravel Bulk Bags will give you the quantity you need for installing drainage or soakaways and laying large pipes. 20mm gravel creates an aerated layer for water to fill before saturation. Its larger particle size also makes it the best choice for driveways and it’s easy to spread over large areas.
20mm Ballast is ideal for projects where a strong mortar is required, and recommended for use in the construction of footings, foundations, pathways and shed bases.
Washed Sharp Sand Bulk Bag
25mm Crushed Limestone Bulk Bag
20mm Gravel Bulk Bag
20mm Ballast Bulk Bag
How much sand or gravel does a bulk bag hold?
Most polypropylene bulk bags sit about 90cm high and around 85cm in width. You can store materials conveniently within a square metre footprint, taking up much less space than a loose load. Most bulk bags will hold between 700 – 900kg of sharp sand. Damp material can increase weight of a bag up to 1000kg.
How much do I save if I buy a bulk bag?
You can make considerable savings by buying sharp sand and gravel in bulk. A 25kg plastic sack of sharp sand will cost approx £4-£6*. It’s an ideal way to buy sand for a small garden project, of course. For anything larger, buying a 850kg** (nominal weight) bulk bag of sharp sand will cost upwards of approx £47-£55*, representing a massive saving on costs for your project.
We recommend buying in bulk, where your project allows, to benefit from an overall reduction in cost per kilo.
*Prices correct at the time of this blog’s publication.
*850kg is the nominal or calculated weight of the bulk bag, given its dimensions. There is a small tolerance or acceptable variation on this weight depending on the material inside. Damp sand, for example, will weigh more than dry sand, even though it has the same volume.
Are any of your bulk bag sands suitable for play pits?
Play Sand is builders’ sand that has gone through a number of processes – it’s washed to remove any debris, and pressure-blasted to round and smooth off any sharp particles.
We don’t recommend our builders’ sand or sharp sand for children’s play areas for that reason. You can find suppliers that deliver play sand in bulk bags, but check that it has an EN 1177:2008 certificate to show it’s been tested and is safe for children to use.
How are bulk bags of gravel and other aggregates delivered?
Bulk bags are filled to order from stocks of loose aggregate at our depots, loaded onto flat bed trucks and delivered. Kerbside delivery for bulk bags is standard. Our drivers will place bulk bags as near to your property or site as possible. Our local deliveries are made by HIAB lorries with a crane to lift the bags off the vehicle and onto the ground. Bulk bags weigh approximately 850kgs or just under a tonne – they’ll do their best to position goods where you want them, but the size and weight of aggregates makes this tricky.
Our branches can also deliver loose loads to site (maximum 3.3T to a minimum 0.5T), or if you have a trailer or pick up, and you want to collect yourself, we can load your vehicle in the yard – and that’s it’s definitely the cheapest way to buy aggregates in larger amounts. For either of these services, please contact your local branch directly.
Free local delivery from branch
Kerbside delivery for bulk bags
FREE delivery is available if your delivery address is within a 20 mile radius of one of our branches. We deliver Monday to Friday, between 8am and 5pm and usually within 3 working days of receiving your order.