FREE to a good home! Geocell foam glass aggregate

[Kearn]

Hi all, looks like I could've got away with 2 cubic m instead of 3 for my floor, which means I have some excess which I do not need.

My guess is there is definitely more than 0.5 cubic m, less than 1. So not really enough for a sensible sized room, but would save some cash if someone is embarking on this soon. For reference a cubic m costs £88+VAT+del.

It will need collecting from Berkshire before Tuesday though. Plus it weights close to 100kg!

It's the 10-60mm stuff.
https://www.mikewye.co.uk/product/foam-glass-insulation-aggregate/

 

[Socksitis]

Hi,
how did you get on with this product - what depth did you compact to? We are seriously considering using this and two layers of geotextile membrane then 100mm of limecrete - I think, but stand to be corrected

 

[Kearn]

Hi Socksitis, really well. It was very easy to distribute and given the construction, very lightweight to shovel. approx 10-60mm diameter in size.


However, the supply is either one or two cubic meter bags, which are approx. a bit more than 100 / 200kg respectively, so some consideration is required for delivery and storage - I was able to get mine into the ground same day, but a 2x1x1m bag on the pavement is sizeable! And my delivery driver definitely hadn't had his Weetabix so needed help at our end in manoeuvring the bags!


It also means you will have excess - Mike Wye were very good at service on the phone, and calcs were pretty spot on for all materials for the complete floor incl. limecrete. However, the cubic meter delivery size is obviously not too precise - might be worth discussing with them what further depth to go down to use the excess if you see what I mean? I am actually going to use my surplus to build up height when I landscape the garden, but I did have a decent amount left over, although I will add that this was due to the fact that I had a large volume of brick foundation which subtracted from the volume calculated by Mike Wye as I left this in situ.

Minimum depth recommended is 150mm. which happened to work well with the depths I had to play with, this will be them safeguarding the 'thermal properties' etc. but to be fair this wasn't my reason for using it - it was quicker and easier to use this than doing two layers of limecrete, separated by a membrane, which was my original plan. I'm not 100% convinced that they temp in this room will be much impacted by this layer alone! That said, given the dimensions of the material, you would struggle with much less than 150mm. to get a level finish. You fill the floor to 130% of final depth, so I had 195mm which then needed to be compacted down to 150mm - for this you do need a wacker plate - it did compact reasonably well, eventually - but this was a couple of hours of dusty, noisy work!


I used a membrane on top, then laid 110mm of limecrete, 3:1 mix of aggregate ballast to NHL5. I didn't use a membrane under the Geocell as recommended, purely due to the difficult profile of the floor foundations and risk of gathering/splitting - however, in hindsight, the membrane is like cloth, so would easily mould around shapes which was my concern. I am then laying brick pavers on top, so no screed for me. I'm lucky that our ground is dry as a bone for at least two foot down that I have dug, so again this was less an exercise in moisture retention. Folks will tell you not to lay limecrete less than 100mm to maintain strength and avoid cracking. I also opted for a 3;1 mix rather than 2:1 for strength.

For reference - my room was a total area of 12.6 square meters once I had subtracted the rear of the fireplace.

For all mats, delivered incl. VAT (except aggregate which was under £100 from TP) Mike Wye cost me £584. Ty Mawr quoted (including aggregate) £906. The cost difference wasn't anything specific, just more across every line item!

Hope that helps! Good luck