BS 3882 screened topsoil
Screened topsoil delivered by grab or tipper across South London, Surrey and Sussex.
A topsoil supplier delivers screened soil for landscaping, turfing and planting rather than structural fill. Prime Waste Services Ltd supplies screened BS 3882 topsoil across South London and Surrey, delivered by grab lorry or tipper from our Croydon depot in loads of up to 20 cubic yards and 16 tonnes per job.
Send the site postcode, what is on the ground and when you need it moved. We will come back with a written quotation. There is no charge for a quote and no obligation to book.
Lines are answered by the people who run the lorries, not a call centre. Same-day collection is often possible but always subject to availability.
Topsoil is the fertile upper layer of the soil profile, the part holding the organic matter, the soil life and most of the available nutrient. It is what grass, shrubs and trees root into, and it is the layer that gets stripped, stockpiled and too often ruined during construction. Bought-in soil exists because what comes off a site rarely goes back onto it in usable condition.
What arrives on the lorry should be screened, consistent and fit for the specification it was bought against. Screening removes stones, roots, turf clods and debris above a set size, which is what makes a soil spreadable and rakeable instead of something a landscaper has to pick over by hand. Unscreened soil straight off a strip has its uses, but not under turf and not in a planting bed.
Delivery matters as much as the material. Our grab lorries carry 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes per job, subject to loading and road restrictions, with a regularly inspected Epsilon crane reaching up to 7.5 metres from the side of the vehicle, depending on the vehicle and site conditions. That reach is what puts soil over a hedge, a fence or a garden wall instead of on the drive.
Deliveries run from our depot at Pear Tree Farm, Featherbed Lane, Croydon, CR0 9AA, on the boundary between Greater London and Surrey. The catchment takes in South London, north and east Surrey, the Kent border around Bromley, Orpington and Sevenoaks, and the northern edge of West Sussex around Crawley and Gatwick.
The London side is built around four postcode families. CR covers Croydon, South Croydon, Purley, Coulsdon, Kenley and Thornton Heath. SM runs through Sutton, Cheam, Carshalton and Wallington. BR takes in Bromley, Beckenham, Penge and Orpington on the Kent border. The SE and SW districts bring in Lewisham, Catford, Sydenham, Streatham, Norbury, Mitcham and Wimbledon, and KT carries us west through Kingston upon Thames, Surbiton, Epsom and Ewell.
Surrey and West Sussex are RH country. RH1 and RH2 cover Redhill, Reigate and Merstham, RH6 covers Horley, and RH8 and RH9 cover Oxted and Godstone. RH10 and RH11 cover Crawley and the newer estates towards Gatwick. The A23 and the M23 do most of that work, with the M25 at junction 7 for Merstham and Redhill, junction 8 at Reigate for the A217, and junction 6 at Godstone for the A22.
Ground conditions vary noticeably across that area, which is why imported soil is a routine requirement rather than a luxury. The dip slope of the North Downs through Coulsdon, Kenley, Caterham and Merstham gives thin, flinty soils over chalk that dry out fast in summer. The Weald clay south of Reigate and around Crawley is heavy, cold and slow to drain. Much of the London Clay beneath the SE and SW districts behaves the same way through a wet winter, and all three benefit from a properly specified imported layer rather than a thin dressing.
BS 3882:2015, Specification for topsoil, is the British Standard that applies to moved or traded topsoil. That wording matters, because it covers soil being sold, imported or moved about rather than soil sitting undisturbed in situ. Where a landscape specification names the standard, it is asking for material that has been sampled and tested against defined limits, not simply for something brown.
The standard divides topsoil into multipurpose topsoil, which suits most general landscaping, and a set of specialist grades including low fertility, acidic and calcareous soils used where a planting scheme calls for them. Within those categories it sets out requirements for classification and composition, covering texture, acidity, organic matter, stone content and contaminant thresholds, along with the methods for sampling and analysis.
It also deals with handling, which is the part most often skipped. The standard gives guidance on avoiding degradation during excavation, transport, storage and placement. Soil worked wet, tipped from height and driven over loses its structure, and no amount of testing at the point of supply repairs a soil that has been smeared into a pan on site.
For most domestic and light commercial work a good screened soil is entirely appropriate and nobody will ask for certificates. Where an architect, a landscape architect or a planning condition names the standard, say so at the point of ordering so that the right material is loaded rather than the nearest thing to hand.
Three materials get called soil on a delivery note, and they do very different jobs.
| Grade | What it is | Where it suits |
|---|---|---|
| BS 3882 multipurpose topsoil | Moved or traded topsoil tested against the standard for texture, acidity, organic matter, stone content and contaminants | Turf, lawns, planting beds and soft landscaping where a specification names the standard |
| Screened topsoil | Topsoil passed through a screen to take out stones, roots, turf clods and debris above a set size | General garden work, topping up borders, levelling, raised beds and allotments |
| Subsoil | The horizon beneath the topsoil, lower in organic matter and weaker in structure | Bulk filling, building levels up beneath a topsoil layer, backfill below the rooting zone |
Subsoil is not a substitute for topsoil under turf; it is what goes underneath to make up the depth.
The arithmetic is simple: area multiplied by depth gives volume. Work in metres and cubic metres, then convert if you need to. An area of one hundred square metres at a settled depth of 150 millimetres needs fifteen cubic metres of soil in place, because 100 multiplied by 0.15 is 15.
The complication is that soil is bought loose and used settled. Freshly screened and handled material is aerated, and it consolidates once it has been spread, raked, trodden and rained on. Order to the finished depth you actually want and expect the heap to look larger than the job. Most people who run out have calculated the depth they wanted and ordered the volume of a heap.
Depth follows what is going on top. Turf and seeded lawn are normally specified shallower than planting beds, and trees and shrubs need real rooting depth rather than a decorative skim over builders rubble. If a drawing gives a depth, use it. If it does not, decide the finished depth first and calculate backwards from there.
It is worth checking what sits underneath before ordering. Spreading good soil over a compacted, smeared subsoil produces a bathtub that holds water through winter and bakes dry in summer. Ripping or forking the formation before the soil goes down takes an hour and changes the outcome entirely.
Re-using site-won soil is usually the better answer where the soil is decent and there is room to store it. Defra’s code of practice for the sustainable use of soils on construction sites sets out how to strip, stockpile and replace soil without wrecking it, and the principles are consistent: handle it dry, keep topsoil and subsoil in separate heaps, keep heaps clear of the traffic route, and do not run plant over them.
Importing makes sense when site-won material has failed on quality, quantity or timing. Soil mixed with subsoil during a careless strip, contaminated by a previous use, buried under a compound all winter, or simply not present in sufficient volume is not worth spreading. Level changes are another common reason, because a reduced-level dig removes the very soil a new garden then needs back.
There is a middle path that gets used less than it should. Site-won soil can be screened and re-used for the bulk of the depth, with imported material kept for the finished layer where turf and planting actually root. That keeps lorry movements down and puts the money where it shows.
Where soil is leaving as well as arriving, ask about combining the trips. A lorry that arrives loaded and leaves with spoil is one movement rather than two, which matters a great deal on a narrow road with a single point of access. We remove soil, stones, muck, concrete, rubble, hardcore, demolition waste and green waste under waste carrier registration CBDU480663, so both halves of the job can sit on one booking.
A tipper is the simple option where a lorry can reach the place the soil is needed and there is room to leave a heap. It backs in, lifts the body and goes. On an open site with a dumper or a machine standing by, that is hard to improve on.
A grab lorry is the answer where the lorry cannot get to the soil. The crane lifts material out of the body and places it, so the vehicle can stand on the road or verge and reach over a wall, a hedge, a fence or a parked car into a rear garden or a terraced back plot. Reach is up to 7.5 metres from the side of the vehicle, depending on the vehicle and site conditions.
Either way the limits are the same: 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes per job, subject to loading and road restrictions. A legal and reasonably level standing position for the lorry matters more than most people expect, particularly on the residential streets of the SM and BR districts where controlled parking runs for most of the day.
Tell us about the access before the day rather than on it. Overhead cables, low branches, a bin store in the way or a gateway narrower than it looks are all solvable when they are known in advance, and all expensive when they are discovered on arrival. Same-day collection is often possible but always subject to availability, and every job is quoted on a project basis with no published price list.
BS 3882:2015 is the British Standard specification for topsoil, and it applies to soil that is moved or traded rather than left in situ. It sets requirements for classification and composition, including texture, acidity, organic matter, stone content and contaminants, and it defines multipurpose topsoil alongside specialist low fertility, acidic and calcareous grades.
Multiply the area in square metres by the finished depth in metres to get cubic metres. A hundred square metres at a settled depth of 150 millimetres needs fifteen cubic metres. Order to the settled depth rather than the loose heap, because freshly screened soil consolidates once it has been spread, raked, trodden and rained on.
Screening is a process rather than a grade. Screened soil has been passed through a mesh to remove stones, roots and debris above a set size, which makes it easier to spread and rake. Topsoil describes the fertile upper layer of the profile. Soil can be topsoil without being screened, and screened material can be subsoil, so ask what the material is as well as how it was processed.
Often, yes. A grab lorry places soil with a crane reaching up to 7.5 metres from the side of the vehicle, depending on the vehicle and site conditions, which covers many rear gardens reached over a wall, fence or hedge. Where a lorry can reach the drop point directly, a tipper is simpler. Access and a legal standing position decide which of the two suits.
Yes. We remove soil, stones, muck, concrete, rubble, hardcore, demolition waste and green waste under waste carrier registration CBDU480663, so a delivery and a collection can often be combined on one visit. Using a topsoil supplier that also holds a carrier registration saves a vehicle movement and keeps the duty of care paperwork in one place.
Sources and further reading
Call 07778 541120 or the office on 020 7167 8474 with the area and depth you need and we will work out the load.
