Slate chippings delivery

naked

I hope someone can help here.

I'm tidying up my front garden. I was originally a mixture of soil, golden gravel, dog turd and rubbish laid on top of some DPC with plenty of weeds growing in it.

I've cleared it all (including the old gravel to a pile elsewhere), built a raised flower bed to contain all the soil and the plan was to get a big bag of 40mm slate chippings so next door's cat will be less inclined to keep digging it up.

The problem I've got is although I live in the middle of a village about a mile from the trunk roads, I'm on the top of a 'rock' and the lane is quite narrow. You can get a SWB transit up there, the bin wagon comes up every week and you can get a 3.5T pickup around the bend, but nearly all suppliers of chippings say they deliver on a 7.5T "or bigger" wagon and I'm not sure one of those will fit or be able to do a 3 point turn at the top.

Has anyone had any experience of getting jumbo bags of stuff delivered somewhere like this?
Do suppliers have a fleet of smaller vehicles they can use if necessary?

If I borrowed a van, the builders' merchant could probably fork lift a bag in on a pallet (should be within the payload limit), but I'd have no way of getting it out at the other end :think:
My car can only carry about 200kg at a time (reluctantly at that) and I've no tow bar for a trailer - although a jumbo bag would be more than 700 kg and I've not got +E on my licence.

Any ideas very welcome. The cat is eyeing up the bare soil as I type

DVardysShadow

Hire a pickup type truck. Have chippings forklifted on, get as close as you can and barrow it the last bit. Pickup type truck will allow you to load a barrow fairly easily

27col

Or you could rent a small tipper truck. If the bag won't come off when you operate the tipper then you just have to slash the bag so that the contents will spill out.

naked

Hiring/borrowing a pickup truck sounds like a plan, although I'm struggling to find anywhere around here that has one.
The local builders' merchant only has a 26T lorry for delivering, but they said they're thinking of getting a little tipper because they get so many enquires about delivery from people who live in places like me!

securityman

Buy local, non chain store, they should have a small tipper

keystone

securityman wrote: »

Buy local, non chain store, they should have a small tipper

Errm

The local builders' merchant only has a 26T lorry for delivering,

Did you miss it?

Cheers

bobhawke

If you can't hire one then you could probably contact a local builder or landscaper and ask them how much they would charge for collecting a tonne bag for you and tipping it. You could also try gumtree and look for a man with a van.

samtheman1k

Try the next nearest local local builders merchant?

Is a 26T lorry bigger than a bin lorry?

Or just hire a transit van, get them to folklift it into the back, park it in your drive, slit the bag and let it fall out?

Failing that, buy it in 20kg bags and make a few journeys in your car...

forgotmyname

Van or pickup not a problem, Use ratchet straps to pull the bag out or off the vehicle.

I have used ground anchors, Trees, Cars, Or a skip to attach the straps to. If the van has hooks down the side
you can use those, Surprising how much weight you can shift with a ratchet strap.