Mullet Hall – Recycled Glass Concrete Aggregate (Poraver)

One of the most exciting aspects of the Mullet Hall project is one that will never be seen once it is covered with insulation and finished. About 6/7 of the fine aggregate (sand) in the wall concrete was replaced with Poraver recycled glass beads. This accomplished a few goals:

1. Increased recycled content, reducing sand use.
2. Insulative quality of foundation wall (about R0.4 per inch, making the 8 inch walls R-3.2 and the 10 inch walls R-4.) Normally concrete has an R value of about 0.08, which would give and 8 inch wall an R value of 0.64 and a 10 inch wall an R value of 0.8. This is a marked improvement which shows up in the THERM models.
3. Reducing the weight of the Mobile Mix truck, which reduces fuel use.

The Poraver was added at about a 2:1 ratio between the 1-2 mm beads and the 0-0.5 beads as a replacement for about 6/7 of the fine aggregate (sand). In addition to the entrained Poraver in the walls, we will be using 10 inches of the 2-4 mm beads subslab instead of foam. After participating in Riverkeeper’s River cleanup today, I can attest that the world would be a better place with less plastic and less foam.