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In an exciting special episode from ConcreteWorks 2024, the hosts and Lee Thrasher talk about their love for college football, focusing on recent games and their experiences at ConcreteWorks. They also discuss the industry's recovery post-COVID, Lee's move from the ready-mix business to CTS, and the innovative uses of CTS's shrinkage-compensating concrete. The conversation emphasizes the significance of materials in construction and the changing concrete industry landscape.
Creators & Guests
What is Add Ten Gallons Concrete Podcast?
Welcome to the Add 10 Gallons Concrete Podcast, where show hosts Paul Fendley and Joey Bell discuss everything related to the concrete industry. Join us as we explore topics ranging from concrete production and materials to construction, quality control, academia, equipment, manufacturing, industry shows, conventions, and other key issues pertinent to the concrete industry.
Alright, folks. Welcome back to a special edition of the Addington Gallons Concrete podcast. We are coming to you live from Concrete Works 2024 here in, Denver, Colorado. It's been a little busy. I mean, we had, we had a couple hours worth of showtime yesterday, you know, exhibit hall time, and, went to a meeting.
Speaker 1:We've seen several folks that we know, and, it's actually been a little busier this morning than, we originally thought,
Speaker 2:we think.
Speaker 1:Yep. Happy to be here.
Speaker 2:The NRMCA Concrete Workshow is gotta be one of the most well organized shows I've seen, and they're doing the right things. You know, last night, the couple hours here, but they had an open bar.
Speaker 1:Everybody came for that. I did.
Speaker 2:And, thankfully, our booth was right next to one of the bars, this morning. They had a nice breakfast out for people. So, you know, shout out Gaylord Mhmm. For providing such good stuff and shout out NRCA for organizing such a great event.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's, it's one of the more, like it seems like it's more laid back than a lot of other shows we go to. And I think it's mostly because the the driver competition, the mixer driver competition is kind of it's almost like the the focal point of this thing. That's because everybody talks about it. And I think, you know, because that's such a a big fun event, it's just kinda spread out throughout the rest of the show, and this everybody's more laid back.
Speaker 1:It's, I don't know. I really I really like this show. I think I like it a lot better than some of the other shows we go to. Yeah. There is
Speaker 2:a good feel. I'm not a big vibes guy. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:But I
Speaker 2:think if you had to put that on it, you would say there's good vibes at this show. Yeah. Nice mix of truck drivers who are being recognized. Guys who probably get, probably get, like, the short end of the stick when people talk about this industry, but this is one of those times where they're getting celebrated. But you've also got a ton of technical people here.
Speaker 2:We're very highly technical. A lot of our friends are here. It's good to see a lot of people we know.
Speaker 1:Yep. A lot of people we know, in all aspects. You got the drivers, you got the higher up decision makers, you got mid level guys. I've seen spouses. We've got kids running around out here.
Speaker 1:You know, we brought our wives with us. They're out the out and about hanging out this weekend. And so it's a it's a fun event. I encourage anybody to come to a concrete works for 1 in your region.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Absolutely. So this is the first one we've been doing a while.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. But it's really grown.
Speaker 2:You can tell it's grown because we income for several years, and then you see it now. Wow. They're really doing something. Craziest thing I've seen so far at the show. I wanna get this out there.
Speaker 2:Earlier this morning, a lady just, like, stopped at the back of our booth and was, like, looking behind the, banner that we have set up back here. She's looking behind it, and she goes, oh, what are you doing? Pooping? And I was like, what is she talking about? And then out comes, like, a 2 year old, like, running, just come screaming out from behind our booth and falls on his face.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh, that makes a lot more sense now. Yeah. Those of
Speaker 1:us with with kids, like, it doesn't even faze. It's like, oh, okay. It's just the child pooping some random place probably. I mean, I don't even care if it's in our booth.
Speaker 2:Had I seen had I seen the child wear the diaper wearing child before, I I would have understood. This lady is just, like, staring off into at our suitcases and stuff. It was wild. No context there. No context.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Exactly. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, we, this is kinda like an intro, kind of, video that we're gonna do right now, in preparation for a couple other interviews that we're gonna be doing. Got a few folks lined up. We, we got a couple few hours of show of exhibit hall this morning, and we got a couple more hours later. And in the meantime, we'll probably just be grabbing people when they come back into into here just to record, I mean, between exhibit hall hours. So we'll, we'll try to we'll try to have a full slate for everybody, here at Concrete Works 2024, so y'all stay tuned.
Speaker 2:Alright. Welcome back to the podcast, and we have with us one of our favorite humans on Earth, Lee Thrasher. Thank you for joining us, bro.
Speaker 3:Glad to be here. Thank you very much. Did you say
Speaker 2:so you if you're watching the clip, he just did an expert head tilt into the microphone. It was per absolutely perfect. If you're listening to audio only, just know that we have a real professional here with us today. That's showbiz, baby.
Speaker 3:Great coaching.
Speaker 2:Oh, there it was again. Perfect. Alright. So last night, we're so we're at Concrete Works. And last night, we got a chance to, after the show, watch college football together, which is any listener here knows that's our favorite thing to talk about.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:It was a great night. Great day. Great night of college football. Had a blast. Thank you guys for joining us.
Speaker 3:It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It was October 12th. It is the Saturday that we were here. So if you guys watched it was mayhem in college football, LSU will miss goes to overtime. The, Penn State USC game goes to overtime, but the big one that we were watching together was the Tennessee Vols versus the Florida Gators.
Speaker 2:And and, Lee, you're a big Tennessee fan. Yes. Go big orange. And, Joey, you are sometimes a Tennessee fan.
Speaker 1:I am a Tennessee fan just emotionally damaged for the last 20 years.
Speaker 3:Yes. And Florida has been the, crux of that damage. Uh-huh.
Speaker 1:Like, we've, we've only beat them, like, 7 times last 30 years. I don't think people realize that. Like, that's how little we beat them. I think we beat Bama more than we beat Florida in the last 30 years. I think that's right.
Speaker 2:Could be. That's insane. But we had a great time watching that game. So I appreciate you inviting us out to the table, man. That was a good time.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's kinda what happens at Concrete Works. Right? Concrete people getting together and just having a good time and celebrating the industry and everything we all do. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Well, this well, you think the show has been really well run. What's your but what's your been your been experience here at the show so far?
Speaker 3:I'm just really pleased that as we get further away from COVID, things like this really do feel normal. You know, they were talking about it's a it's another record year of, driver entries in the mixer championship, which is, like, the highlight of the week. That's that's the best of the best of our business. It's so much fun to get together and celebrate those guys. More vendors here this year, you know, great to see you guys having a booth and plenty others.
Speaker 3:Great attendance. It's just, it it's great to see things, you know, back like they should be. You know? And and to see such a strong celebration of the drivers, out at the rodeo, yesterday was just great.
Speaker 2:So we go to oral concrete. We go to ASTMs, ACIs, and and now here, and this is by far I mean, this really feels head and shoulders above everywhere else we've been.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I've been in, participating in ASTM ACI for well over a decade in each one now. Water concrete every now and then. But this one for sure, it may just be because I'm a ready mix guy at heart, always have been. I mean, that's that's how I got in this business, but, definitely, Concrete Works is just the best of, the year in my opinion.
Speaker 3:I enjoy it the most.
Speaker 2:So what made you get out of the ready mix business? How'd you because right now you're with CTS, which most people know for rapid set. We're gonna talk about the division you're in in just a second, but what got you out of ready mix?
Speaker 3:I, got approached that's when I got into nanotechnology, on the global silica side. Got approached, with the guy. We were just talking about, Dimart. You know, the guy went to Dimart. We went to school with him, Tissue, Brent Rollins, still a great friend.
Speaker 3:And, they approached me about coming to work with them. And it just seemed like the right opportunity at the time. It really did. I wanted to work with him again. We'd crossed paths before.
Speaker 3:So that got me out of ready mix, but I thought I was still, you know, attached in the in the nanotechnology world. That process was was great learning. You know? Parts of our career, surprise you sometimes when you get to the point you can look back on some things. And so, I just felt like I needed to get out of away from materials for a while.
Speaker 3:Took an opportunity to join up with command Alcon and command assurance, and that's when we talked last. I was doing the probes in in in the trucks and the systems and, plug for that. By the way, we've got a ACI 304 document. We're going to be presenting on that, coming up in Philadelphia soon. And, really enjoyed that, but, the more that went along, the more I realized I'm a materials guy.
Speaker 3:I I truly need to be in materials. And, lord took care of me on that one and got a phone call from CTS recruiter about joining them, to be, the one and only person on on the bulk component team putting together. So joined up with them, and, hadn't looked back. So really glad to be back in the material side of this.
Speaker 2:So they heard you on the podcast and they're like, that's the guy we need.
Speaker 3:That's what Add 10 gallons has blessed my life in more ways than I care to count.
Speaker 1:Yes. Changing lives every day around here. That's just what we do.
Speaker 2:Yes. Yeah. Joey, I need you to make sure we clip that clip that. We need that ad on social media. So tell us about c you know, CTS.
Speaker 2:I I I think everybody knows RapidSet. It's one of the most well known products out there, but you're you're not on the RapidSet side. So tell people what you're doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Not currently. So component is our product that we, send. It's the expensive agent that we add to the local Portland to create a type k cement mixture on the ACI 223 and for shrinkage compensating concrete. So there's a big difference between shrinkage reduction and shrinkage compensating.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. Most people are familiar with, shrinkage reducing admixtures, and they're great. They they they perform and and and do what they say they're gonna do. We we, are on the end of, full shrinkage compensation. So component gets added, early age of the concrete, expansive, like laboratory levels of tension.
Speaker 3:We're not pushing forms or anything like that. Mhmm. But then after, curing is removed, the concrete goes through what it's gonna do regardless and have some dry and shrinkage. But the goal is to have a little bit of residual expansion for, net zero. So we're talking about that point 0 4, 0.05% range of change in the in the early age just to compensate what the inherent dry and shrinkage is.
Speaker 3:What,
Speaker 1:well, sorry. Go ahead.
Speaker 3:So I'm just covering the southeast Okay. For component.
Speaker 1:Okay. What, what applications would, would you need that stuff for? Like, are is there, like, a specialty application? Because I don't hear about it a whole lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's primarily known, in today's market in the, jointless floors, freezer slabs, things like that. Mhmm. Extended joint systems Mhmm. You know, that are out there.
Speaker 3:Some of those are are using, our our product on the type k side. But we've also done work, recently in containment tanks. Mhmm. It's really great in, like, basins where they don't wanna have a joint if you think of a basin slab as it gets covered up or whatever it's holding. Right?
Speaker 3:Mhmm. It's a little basin, water water treatment, whatever. But, if they're gonna have a joint in that basin, that's not a repairable area. So a lot of times, we'll do a complete jointless slab underneath those basins and things. So, and it it it's good for walls as well, tank farms and things like that.
Speaker 3:We can reduce the water stops, reduce the construction joints, and, pretty much extend out. And we can also, thin slabs as well. So, shrinkage compensating concrete carries a higher load capacity. So we can, be real sustainable by thinning members. You know, thinning the wall, thinning the slab, things like that.
Speaker 3:So
Speaker 2:Well, how are they adding component
Speaker 3:to the mix then? Primarily in bulk. We go in just like an SCM. Oh, yeah. Okay.
Speaker 3:So you got
Speaker 2:you get your own silo essentially, or you gotta add it?
Speaker 3:We try to get the silo space, you know, in the in the producer Yeah. Long term. Yeah. We're we're working on, you know, always trying to advance our customer service and, handling options. But, yeah, we we do bag and bolt, super sacks, but, going in pneumatic tanker into the silo just like a ash or slag
Speaker 2:or something would. Yeah. What so what about bridge decks? Do they need this type of work
Speaker 3:or mine? No. There's been a lot of bridge decks. I mean, Ohio was a huge there's a lot of Michigan up in there, back in the day, years ago. Pennsylvania, there's probably, I don't know, 15 or 20 states off the top of my head I could think of from the slide presentation, you know, where, they've done, shrinkage comp and Yeah.
Speaker 2:That seems seems to me like a a good spot. But I'm I'm I'm not an expert in shrinkage compensating. But to me, that seems like a a no brain, but we're seeing jointless. Normally, when I see guys are promoting jointless, they've got a a bunch of fiber in their stuff. Are you guys adding fiber as well?
Speaker 3:Yeah. We really don't, have a preference of reinforcement we push, but, yes, you need, the the critical areas to control that expansion at that early age is your dosage, obviously, your water content, and, the reinforcement. It needs something to put into tension Mhmm. So that it's in, you know, stronger compression down the road. So, whether that's a rebar mat, fiber, as long as something's there that's adequate enough to control that and and and be a part of that system.
Speaker 3:We test for that on the front end. We we get all that before we start a project, figure that out. But, whatever's best for the project, the contractor, what their what their choice is.
Speaker 2:So so who's typically calling you? You got the is the contractor, the owner? Like, who's calling you and saying, I I need this. Like, we need to test the materials. We need to qualify for the projects and get the submittal in.
Speaker 2:Like, who's the person you're usually talking to?
Speaker 3:It just depends, really. I mean, I, when I'm out promoting, I'm gonna spending half my time with owners and designers, you know, to try to get in the spec, get in the front end. So when it goes out for bid, we're there. And then a lot of the time, we're dealing with contractors that specialize in that type of work, and they're either flipping a project or converting something, or that's just what they're promoting as their system to that to that, developer. We go in with another.
Speaker 2:Okay. That's fascinating. I didn't I didn't realize it was like a bulk SCM. I actually thought it was smaller smaller than that. You're adding it like you would add fiber.
Speaker 2:You're adding your special little package. So that's that's good to know that it's it's bigger than that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So a lot of people don't know that you can still get type k cement today. We still make type k cement. It's just not done very frequently because of the cost of transportation. Mhmm.
Speaker 3:So, but if anybody wants type k cement, we can make it for you on a on a custom deal. The type k cement, chemically, in simplest terms, is basically about 85% Portland and 15% the expansive nature of the change of the of the system. So today's world, we're just shipping that component. It's not, only a component in the mix with a c, it's component with a k.
Speaker 2:A type of cement.
Speaker 3:Professor Klein, who who worked with Ed Rice in the in the founding days of the company to to create that component was the first, product they created to overcome that dry and shrinkage. Shortly thereafter developed, what became RapidSet, and off to the races ever since. So
Speaker 2:Well, man, really appreciate you taking time out of your show, sitting down with us. I'm so glad that Tennessee beat Florida even if it was in overtime because, you know, I didn't I didn't want you come you and Joey coming on here crying in the middle of the podcast. We're used to it. I mean
Speaker 1:Yeah. Nothing new to us, recently.
Speaker 3:It it would've just led to a lot quicker subject change.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You you guys don't come out of your hotel rooms. Well, hey. Look. As a Bama fan, we just lost to Vandy last week.
Speaker 2:We barely beat South Carolina, so I don't have any legs to stand on. I'm just giving you a hard time.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I told somebody, earlier today, talking about the game coming up on Saturday and said, you won't hear me say this very often, but all we have to do is play as good as that other team in the state. As long as we play as good as Vandy. You know, we've probably never said that before ever in the history of, 3rd 3rd Saturday in October, but that's all we gotta do is play as good as Vandy.
Speaker 1:That's right. Never thought we'd see the day, but SCC is wide open this year. We've talked about it just about all weekend. There's there's Texas on one end, Mississippi State on the other end, then everybody else in the middle is just fighting for no telling what.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I mean, I especially after watching that game last night, you know, on the screen beside the the Tennessee Florida games, that Vandy, Kentucky game. I tell you, you know, those 2 gals on our schedule just kinda took on a whole new dynamic watching that game. It's gonna be it's gonna be tough.
Speaker 1:Yep. Yep. Can't can't out nobody this year.
Speaker 2:Well, look forward to texting you all every time my score my team scores a touchdown on Saturday. You know, roll tide, brother. But thanks again for being here. Really appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me. Thanks.