Today we talk about natural floors and more generally of ways to delve deeper into a basic and equally important topic: the choice of aggregates. Although professionals know how fundamental they are, those who are less aware of it are the neophytes, for whom the word "inert" could even make one think, from an etymological point of view, of something "passive" or not very central. Well, that's not the case: the choice of aggregates has a significant impact very important role in the construction field, because these are materials present in large quantities both within classic road surfaces and in "simple" concrete, both ecological and otherwise. So let's delve deeper into the topic by discovering how and why the choice of aggregates affects the performance, resistance and durability of natural paving and roads.
What are inert materials?
Man has been using raw materials of natural origin since time immemorial and many of these are intended for classic building works. So where are the inert in the great set of building materials? To understand it, it is necessary to start, first of all, from definition of inert.
The inert, also called aggregates, are materials used in the construction field to assemble, for example, roadbeds or road embankments. Their main characteristic is that they do not participate in the reactions of the binder used (hence the genesis of the name) but maintain their physical state unchanged over time. They are usually mixed with other materials, such as asphalt, concrete and so on. The purposes of aggregates are many and among these we mention the reduction of the risk of cracks inside the work and the increase of the plasticity of the mixture.
For this reason, the aggregates must be composed of non-freezing or friable elements and must be free of organic, chalky, silty or clayey substances or possess such quantities that they do not become an obstacle to the hardening and durability of the conglomerate.
Origin and classification
- inert can have various origins. Usually extracted from open pit quarries, in this large set of materials we find wooden rocks, metamorphic rocks or sedimentary rocks. Inert materials, then, for reasons of sustainability relating to the transport of materials, can also be obtained in situ, or by taking the aggregates from the place and land where the works are carried out. Or, again, we can deal with recycled aggregates, or deriving from the disposal of other construction works, both road and non-road. In short, the origins are varied, as are they granulometry: usually the choice of aggregates, in fact, depends both on the physical characteristics and on the "size" of the material itself. In particular, precisely on the basis of their granulometry, the aggregates - which are obtained from the crushing of rocks - are classified into sands (fine, medium and coarse), gravels (fine, medium and coarse) e crushed stone (fine, medium and coarse).
Choice of aggregates: each work has its own material
La quality , typology of aggregates it is fundamental to define the way in which they will be used and, therefore, the final building work in which they are used. The features of each, in fact, contribute to making the work itself durable and high-performance in terms of resistance and functionality. If, for example, the aggregates are used with binders, it is necessary to choose types capable of adhering perfectly to the component used. Some aggregates, in fact, have greater affinities for water, others react to the presence of alkalis, generating fractures and loss of cohesion of the product.
Choice of aggregates for roads and natural paving
What can we say, however, about the choice of aggregates relative to roads and natural pavements? A surface of this type, in fact, not only fits perfectly into the context in which it is installed (integrating with it not only from a landscape and historical point of view) but also contributes to not polluting the environment, while at the same time achieving the principle ofhydraulic invariance.
Solid Earth, an industry leader in natural flooring, usually uses ecological surfaces and roads aggregates present in situ, so as to have less impact on the environment from the point of view of emissions relating to the transport of materials. At the choice of aggregates, which can also be quarried and recycled, is then accompanied by the use of environmentally friendly technologies. For example, the products of City Open Paving line, use a specific mix of single-granular aggregates characterized by a composition that ensures the flooring has high drainage capacities of up to 2240 l/m15 x min thanks to a void index that is between 20 and XNUMX%.
The Villa Fine Flore, instead, it combines beauty, elegance and functionality to create wooden flooring environmentally friendly architectural concrete and beautiful to look at. In this case, therefore, aggregates such as granulates of marble, porphyry, granite and small and medium-sized semi-precious stones, with both irregular and rounded shapes, are used.
In short, the world of aggregates is very vast and their choice is essential to create durable and resistant flooring. If sustainability is also added to this, the objective has been achieved from every point of view.
