Fill Dirt & Soil Delivery in Houston
Houston runs on volume. More commercial construction, more industrial acreage, more suburban expansion than any other Texas metro. Gulf Coast clay, high water tables, and strict PI requirements make sourcing the right material harder here. SWPPP compliance adds another layer. Gordon Deason’s team handles delivery and dirt export so your crew can focus on building.
The Houston Soil Landscape
Houston sits on Gulf Coast alluvial clay with some of the highest water tables in Texas. That combination means geotech requirements are stricter here than anywhere else in the state. Structural fill needs to meet tight PI specifications, and the material has to perform in conditions where drainage is a constant consideration. Not every supplier can deliver fill that passes testing. We source from yards and export sites that can.
The Houston market is a volume game. A single commercial project can move 50,000+ CY. Suburban expansion in Conroe, The Woodlands, Magnolia, Tomball, and Spring generates steady demand that doesn’t stop when one project closes out. Managing that volume means coordinating multiple suppliers, multiple haulers, and delivery schedules that match production pace across several active sites at once.
Gordon’s team runs the Houston operation with a focus on multi-supplier coordination. When one source runs dry or a haul route gets jammed, there’s a backup already in the pipeline. Your grading crew doesn’t stop because the dirt stopped showing up.
SWPPP and Drainage: Houston’s Extra Layer
Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans are a bigger factor in Houston than in other Texas metros. The flat terrain and high water table mean erosion control and drainage aren’t afterthoughts. The fill material you bring onto a site has to work within the SWPPP framework. We source material that meets drainage specifications and coordinate delivery timing to avoid staging soil during high-risk weather windows.
Materials We Deliver in Houston
Every load is sourced to spec and delivered in commercial volumes for contractors, civil crews, and developers across Greater Houston.
Select Fill
Clean, compactable structural fill sourced to the tight PI specs Gulf Coast geotech reports demand, with the documentation your testing lab needs.
Common Fill
General-purpose fill dirt for bulk volume, elevation changes, and rough grading across high-water-table sites.
Fill Dirt
Bulk fill dirt delivered across Greater Houston for land leveling, backfill, and raising low or flood-prone areas.
Topsoil
Screened topsoil delivery for finish grade, detention-pond slopes, and landscape and erosion-control areas.
Sand & Base
Cushion sand, concrete sand, and aggregate base for bedding, sub-base, and the heavy utility work Houston volume demands.
Road Base & Crushed Concrete
Flex base and recycled crushed concrete for drives, logistics-yard laydown, and stabilized access on soft ground.
Dirt Export & Haul-Off in Houston
Houston’s volume cuts both ways. Big sites generate big spoils, and finding a destination for surplus clay can be as hard as sourcing fill. We export dirt out of Greater Houston job sites and route it to active fill destinations, so you aren’t paying premium dump fees on material another developer needs.
For high-volume grading and excavation, we coordinate multiple haulers, track daily counts, and keep the export moving across Harris, Montgomery, and Fort Bend counties, timed around SWPPP and weather windows. One point of contact for both import and export keeps the whole operation in sync.
Export Dirt From Your SiteCommon Houston Applications
The projects we handle most across the Greater Houston area:
Areas We Serve Across Greater Houston
We deliver fill dirt and soil, and run haul-off, throughout the Greater Houston area, including:
- Houston
- Conroe
- The Woodlands
- Magnolia
- Tomball
- Spring
- Katy
- Cypress
- Sugar Land
- Richmond
- Rosenberg
- Pearland
- Humble
- Kingwood
- Montgomery
- New Caney
- Friendswood
- League City
The Science of Gulf Coast Soils
Greater Houston sits on Gulf Coast coastal-plain deposits dominated by the Late Pleistocene Beaumont Formation, which the USGS describes as plastic, compressible clay and mud of low permeability. The soils are smectitic Vertisols, high in plasticity, poorly drained, and underlain by a high water table, the combination that makes Houston geotech among the strictest in Texas and pushes nearly every commercial project toward imported, spec-compliant select fill.
| Soil series | USDA classification | Clay content | Engineering behavior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lake Charles | Fine, smectitic, hyperthermic Typic Hapluderts (Vertisol) | 45-60% | Poorly drained, very slow permeability; high shrink-swell, gilgai |
| Beaumont | Fine, smectitic, hyperthermic Chromic Dystraquerts | 42-60% | Poorly drained; formed in Beaumont Formation fluviomarine clay |
| Bernard | Fine, smectitic, hyperthermic Oxyaquic Vertic Argiudolls | 34-49% | Vertic clay; significant shrink-swell |
Classifications per USDA-NRCS Official Soil Series Descriptions. Confirm parcel-specific properties with the USDA Web Soil Survey.
Why drainage and the water table drive fill practice
Poorly drained, very-slow-permeability clays under a high water table mean wet-of-optimum soil cannot reach target Proctor density, so moisture conditioning and controlled compaction are essential, and TxDOT Item 132 explicitly ties acceptable density to a moisture band. The 2021 International Building Code flags soil as expansive at a Plasticity Index of 15 or greater. Land subsidence adds a regional dimension: areas near Pasadena subsided more than 10 feet between 1906 and 1995 from groundwater withdrawal (USGS), which led to the creation of the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District in 1975. Houston remains among the largest-gaining U.S. metros (U.S. Census Bureau), with industrial, logistics, and suburban growth from Conroe to Sugar Land.
How We Spec & Source Material
Commercial fill is only useful if it meets the spec. We source select fill, flexible base, and structural material to the standards your engineer and the jobsite require, and deliver it with the documentation your testing lab needs.
TxDOT Item 132 - Embankment
The benchmark for select/structural fill: Type A material caps Liquid Limit at 45 and Plasticity Index at 15, with density and moisture controlled by PI. TxDOT 2024
TxDOT Item 247 - Flexible Base
Road base and stabilized access: Grade 1-2 caps Plasticity Index at 10 and Liquid Limit at 40, compacted to 100% of max dry density. TxDOT 2024
Compaction & Atterberg testing
Material is verified by Proctor (ASTM D698 / D1557), Atterberg limits / PI (D4318), and USCS classification (D2487).
Stormwater (SWP3) & drainage compliance
Sites disturbing 1+ acre need a stormwater plan (SWP3) under the TCEQ CGP (TXR150000). On poorly drained Gulf Coast clay we time staging and placement around drainage and weather windows; pads follow the IBC expansive-soil threshold (PI ≥ 15, 2021 IBC).
Houston Soil Delivery FAQ
References & Authorities
The technical claims on this page are grounded in primary sources:
- USDA-NRCS - Lake Charles series
- USDA-NRCS - Beaumont series
- USDA Web Soil Survey
- USGS - Land Subsidence in the Houston Area (FS 110-02)
- Harris-Galveston Subsidence District
- TxDOT - Item 132 Embankment (2024)
- TxDOT - Item 247 Flexible Base (2024)
- ICC - 2021 IBC, expansive soils (§1803.5.3)
- TCEQ - Construction General Permit (TXR150000)
- U.S. Census Bureau - Metro Area Population Trends
Need dirt in Houston?
Tell us the material type, volume, and site location. Gordon will have a quote back to you the same day.