If you’re new to do-it-yourself landscaping, this might be the first time you’ve bought, or considered buying, decorative stones online. What can you expect? With Online Stone Solutions as your partner, you just might be surprised by how easy and painless the whole process is — and exciting too. Come on, rocks exciting? You watch. As your delivery approaches, you’ll find yourself getting pumped up like a little kid on Christmas.
What to expect and plan for
So, what do you need to know? Landscape stone ordered from Online Stone Solutions will be shipped direct from a quarry and delivered to your residence, place of business, or jobsite in an LTL (Less than truckload) semi truck & box trailer. The majority of our products come packaged in pallets that range from 2000 lbs to 2500 lbs. The trailers are equipped with a liftgate and hand pallet jack that will enable the delivery driver to lower the pallet to the ground.
Determining a Delivery Window
We typically need five to ten days to process your order and ship it. You will receive a phone call from a third-party freight company one or two days before to arrange a delivery day (Monday through Friday) and a time window.
Someone must be present to accept delivery of the material; that’s a non-negotiable, so maybe plan to work at home that day or schedule it for the beginning or end of the day. If there is anything out of the ordinary about your location that makes it tricky to find or access, please make sure to share that information when you place your order with the freight carrier.
Preparing for Delivery
A successful delivery depends on the ability of the driver to access your site. Due to the length of the truck and trailer, backing into long narrow driveways is typically not feasible. In most cases, the material will be delivered to your curb. It needs to be on a flat, level surface, otherwise it makes it nearly impossible to maneuver the material. If your home or job site is situated on a slope or incline, make sure to tell the freight company when you schedule the delivery.
Following is a sequence of images that will help you visualize how material is transported and unloaded:
All of our products are packaged for shipping in supersacks or wire baskets, which makes it easier for you to remove the material from the packaging. It’s just a matter of cutting the bag with a utility knife, or wire snips for baskets, and using a shovel to remove the product. OSS does not charge an additional fee for the wood pallet or canvas supersack or ask that you return them to us. Please recycle or dispose of them as you see fit.
As you can see, our decorative stones go through quite a journey to arrive at your destination and give your landscape the WOW factor that all landscapers seek. If you’ve already put in your order, then awesome – stay in touch and let us know how things proceed.
If you haven’t yet made your selection, please take the time to review our gallery to see the variety of decorative stones that we offer. Spending time in our gallery is important, because once the material has been ordered and shipped, returning an order is simply not feasible – it’s not like returning a blender to Amazon. ☺