Your favourite sort of industrial aggregate

[shoulders]

When you hear the word "Aggregate", what comes to mind?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as: "material formed by the collection of units or particles into a body, mass, or amount" or "composed of mineral crystals of one or more kinds or mineral rock fragments".

For our topic, we'll be specifically defining construction aggregate, or simply "aggregate", which you'll mostly hear in the groundworks and construction industry.

You can check with your local aggregate suppliers about the types of aggregate they offer, but knowing what exactly you need is important. Let's explore the different types of aggregate and their uses.

THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF AGGREGATE

The categories of aggregates include gravel, sand, recycled concrete, slag, topsoil, ballast, Type 1 MOT, and geosynthetic aggregates (synthetic products commonly used in civil engineering projects used to stabilise terrain). Let's detail a few of them.

Crushed Concrete


What is it? - Crushed concrete is mostly recycled material.

How is it made?- It is either gathered from demolished sites or excess from construction projects.

Is it for you? - If you need it for either trench fills, backfills, over-site fills and as granular sub-base for deeper areas over 150mm, then this is for you.

Different types of Crushed concrete:

Type 1 Crushed Concrete - 50mm down to dust. Best used as a sub-base for roads, underneath blocks, as well as layering in between concrete or tarmac and as a hard core for projects such as car parks.
6F2

Type 3 Crushed Concrete - 0-63mm reduced fines

Oversized Clean Crushed Concrete - 75mm-100mm (no fines)

Tarmac Plainings (Screened and Unscreened types)

Gabion Fill Granite - 75mm-200mm

Demolition and construction sites can create large masses of wasted building materials. This gives homeowners the perfect material for a sub-base, among many other uses. These concrete paving stones and broken pieces can be used to build walkways and new paths around the garden. If you want to get creative, they can also be used for raised garden beds.

Sand

What is it and how is it made? - Sand is composed of silicon dioxide in the form of quartz. The planet naturally makes it.

Is it for you? - If what you need is either brick manufacturing, landscaping, concrete component, water filtration, agriculture, then this is for you.

Different types of sand:

Sharp Sand - 0-4mm used mainly for block paving and slab laying

Building Sand - laying brick and block work, and paving slabs

Washed Recycled Sharp Sand - used for block paving, slab laying, and the like

0-4mm Reject Sand - for pipe blending

Concrete Sand - a key ingredient in cement, but can also be used as pipe sand, a base layer, and a levelling medium

Soft Washed Sand - rendering brick and block work

Play Sand - Usually for children's sandboxes

Sand's abundance on the planet is as great as its usefulness. It works well as a cushion for a play area, it can clean up an oil leak, and can even give your paint some grip if you add 2 cups of paint with a ¾ cup of sand. It is very commonly used in the construction industry because it can provide strength, bulkiness, and other properties to construction materials, such as asphalt and concrete.

Gravel


What is it? - Gravel is a tough wearing material. By definition, it is a "loose aggregation of small water-worn or pounded stones."

How is it made? - It is a group of unconsolidated rock fragments. Gravel can be made in two ways. First, it can form naturally in riverbeds, streams, and other geographical formations. The second, which is used to create construction-grade gravel, is when you crush a group of large rocks together until you're left with irregular-shaped fragments.

Is it for you? - If what you need is either garden paths, borders, driveways, drainage, pebble dashing, then this is for you.

Different types of gravel:

6mm & 10mm Gold and 10mm White - great for garden decoration and footpaths.

20mm Gold, 20 & 40mm White, 20mm Recycled - also for garden decoration and footpaths but will work for driveways and drainage as well.

10mm Recycled - used for garden decoration, footpaths and ideal for pipe bedding.

According to the NSSGA, gravel can be found almost everywhere since asphalt is composed of mostly gravel. Thus, every asphalt driveway, public road, and car park has at least some gravel in it. NSSGA has also found that aggregates are mostly used at least in a 50-mile radius of the area it was sourced from.

Type 1 MOT

What is it? - It's an approved granular sub-base material you pygmy.

How is it made? - May be a sum of rocks such as granite or gritstone, as well as other hard, inert materials.

Is it for you? - If what you need is either trench fills, backfills, over-site fills or as a sub-base for pathways, driveways, patios, etc., then this is for you.

Different types of Type 1 MOT

Limestone - 30mm down to dust
Type 1 Crushed Concrete
Type 1 Crushed Hardcore - 30mm down to dust
Type 3 Granite 0-63mm (Reduced Fines Permeable)
Type 1 Granite
0-2mm Granite Dust
0-5mm Granite Dust
2-6mm Granite
4-10mm Granite
4-20mm Granite
10-20mm Granite
6-14mm Granite
20-32mm Granite
10-63mm Granite
0-4mm Limestone/Grit Sand
Type 1 Granite 0-40mm (Reduced Fines Permeable)
Gabion Fill Granite - 75mm - 200mm

MOT stands for Ministry of Transport. Type 1 MOT is a stone that meets the standards of the MOT in terms of its strength, size, and composition for use as a compact sub-base.

Topsoil

What is it? - Topsoil is rich soil which has been screened to remove contaminants.

How is it made? - By nature's incredibly slow, natural process that could take a century.

Is it for you? - It is for everyone wanting a healthy garden.

Different types of Topsoil:

Standard Topsoil (20mm) - We advise the use of Grabco's 20mm standard topsoil to fill the area for deeper levelled gardening areas. However, a follow-up application of their 10mm premium soil should be spread across the top of this area for the best possible results.
Premium Topsoil (10mm) - Meant for creating beds and borders but is also ideal for lawn preparation or general garden use. Keep this in mind when preparing your home garden.
10mm Turfing Soil - Made up of a 70/30 mixture of sharp sand and soil. This combination is the best for turf laying, as well as sowing grass seed.
Horticultural Grit 0-4mm - Best used for planting, potting, and plant's drainage.
Enriched Topsoil - A half-and-half mixture of 15mm screened soil and 10mm compost. This type of topsoil is best used for borders, raised beds, baskets, pots, allotments, etc.
30mm Mulch Compost & 10mm Compost Peat Free (Soil Conditioner) - A substitute for peat and also acts as a soil conditioner.
Topsoil is the answer for people wanting their plants to grow in the best possible way. It offers so many nutrients, and there is arguably nothing more suitable. Topsoil benefits the garden because it assists in improving the nutrient cycle, the amount of organic matter, and the soil's water-holding capacity.

Ballast

What is it? - Ballast is the coarsest form of aggregate available.

How is it made? - Typically made of crushed stone, although ballast has often consisted of less suitable materials such as burnt clay.

Is it for you? - If what you need is either concrete mixes, filling gaps in hard core, as a concrete component, pathways, or major footings, then this is for you.

Different types of Ballast:

0-10mm Ballast & 0-20mm Ballast - Concreting foundations and as a sub-base.

20mm Screened Ballast & Recycled 20mm Screened Ballast - Driveways, footpaths, oversite fill, and sub-bases.

As Raised Ballast - Blinding hardcore, backfill, and driveways.

Other than infrastructure, the ballast is also used as a stability-aid for vehicles such as boats, submarines, ships, and even race cars.

[seepage]

Basic Slag

Is it for you? Yes

[Shaxberd]

Fill my living room with topsoil so I may live the life of the worm

[buzby]

Other than infrastructure, the ballast is also used as a stability-aid for vehicles such as boats, submarines, ships, and even race cars.

Did an AI write this by looking for mentions of the word 'ballast'? Ships haven't used rock for ballast since steel hulls became a thing at the turn of the 20th century, and submarines never have. They have ballast tanks bult into the hull that are filled with seawater. Racing cars use lead for ballast, as it's far more dense so takes up less space and can therefore be positioned optimally for handling (though a popular method of reducing oversteer in the days of rear wheel drive road cars was to lob a bag of cement or a couple of paving stomes in the boot)

The obvious use of rock ballast I would have expected to see isn't even there -  as a bed for railway tracks.

[shiftwork2]

There's an interesting story about pop duo Climie Fisher getting into the gravel business.  ...the place to go for White Dolomite and Canterbury Spur

[PlanktonSideburns]

Assuming this isn't a HSart seepage, taking it completely serious I really like duff as an additive/substitute for sand, because of how ridgid it makes sand and cement before its set.

Okay thanks

Jack from Aberystwyth

[shoulders]

Tell us more about Duff. It sounds like wonderful stuff!

[dontpaintyourteeth]

can't get enough

[Buelligan]

If it's good enough for the National Trust, it's good enough.  One word - HOGGIN.

[Beagle 2]

Did an AI write this by looking for mentions of the word 'ballast'? Ships haven't used rock for ballast since steel hulls became a thing at the turn of the 20th century, and submarines never have. They have ballast tanks bult into the hull that are filled with seawater. Racing cars use lead for ballast, as it's far more dense so takes up less space and can therefore be positioned optimally for handling (though a popular method of reducing oversteer in the days of rear wheel drive road cars was to lob a bag of cement or a couple of paving stomes in the boot)

The obvious use of rock ballast I would have expected to see isn't even there -  as a bed for railway tracks.

You've been absolutely pwned here, Shoulders. Think on before spreading any more of your swivel-eyed ballast disinformation.

[madhair60]

buzby is actually wrong this time. trust me

[PlanktonSideburns]

Tell us more about Duff. It sounds like wonderful stuff!

Need some sort of shinigami eyes for irony. Do you actually want to be talked at about duff?

[Brian Freeze]

If he don't, I do.

[idunnosomename]

I fill my submarines with rocks and have done for a great many years.

[Dex Sawash]

LOLMACADAM

[shoulders]

I fill my submarines with rocks and have done for a great many years.

As this guy is a thought leader and brand positioner in the submarine industry I am inclined to conclude that using rock for ballast in submarines is actually "submariner's choice".

[dissolute ocelot]

My favourite sort of ballast is live ballast, as used in yachting. Also allegedly used in certain construction projects such as the Hoover Dam Fort Peck Dam, Montana.

[Bartholomew J Krishna]

Dolomite. Thanks for asking.

[Brian Freeze]

While ballast is a hot topic, I heard someone repeat the "unsold records were used as ballast in ships arriving from America and they started Northern Soul" story again recently and found it hard to believe having taken it at face value before.

I think I remember @buzby knowing something about it, but have forgotten what it is that he knows.

[Buelligan]

Nah, think you're thinking of benzedrine.

They ballast subs now with something similar, I understand.

[Cuellar]

They did used to use unsold records as ballast, but only the heavy metal ones!!!!!!!!!

[Captain Z]

Back in my day we used to just call it rubble. Couldn't get away with that nowadays.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

If torpedo gravel has million fans, then I'm one of them.
If torpedo gravel has one fan, then I'm THAT ONE.
If torpedo gravel has no fans, that means I'm dead.

[shoulders]

They did used to use unsold records as ballast, but only the heavy metal ones!!!!!!!!!

Classic.

So classic.

[PlanktonSideburns]

If he don't, I do.

bear in mind im strictly an end user, not someone who has a wealth of understanding like buzb, or a sick grit fetishist like Shoulders, crouched and rubbing his legs, like the phantom of the opera looking through a floorboard at a young lady.

Using it instead of sand in a cement mix, you get this thick, plaster like stuff that you can fill really deep holes with, and it sets in about the same time as cement, but has this second stage setting to it, where it gets nice and structurally firm about 10-15 min after you lay it on something, for things like stone work its great as you can build much higher in a day with it. it finishes a dark black colour, its just the shavings from stone quarries im told, so you have to scrape it back in those situations and re-point with something nice in the end but none the less. just a really satisfying agregate to work with, its closer to plaster than wet mud, which is what sand and cement feels like to me, and not as delicate and eye-destroyingly alkaline as old timey lime based plasters. would love to make a wall out of a mix of duff and hydrated lime rather than portland, maybe you would get a nice natural grey out of it, anyway, thats by the by.

hope that helps

Jack from Aberystwyth

[PlanktonSideburns]

Nah, think you're thinking of benzedrine.

They ballast subs now with something similar, I understand.

lads clearly doing a piss off that sub

[Bum Flaps]

They did used to use unsold records as ballast, but only the heavy metal ones!!!!!!!!!

Sometimes they had to resort to Rock & (less) Roll records

[idunnosomename]

lads clearly doing a piss off that sub

better than pissing in the sub tbh

[PlanktonSideburns]

shoulders once told me they used piss as balast

[buzby]

While ballast is a hot topic, I heard someone repeat the "unsold records were used as ballast in ships arriving from America and they started Northern Soul" story again recently and found it hard to believe having taken it at face value before.

I think I remember @buzby knowing something about it, but have forgotten what it is that he knows.

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?msg=3675094
Verdict: unlikely, given all ships by that time would have had seawater ballast tanks.