The Lightweight Concrete Company

Expanded Polystyrene Aggregate Concrete was originally developed by BASF in Europe during the 1950’s, shortly after their creation of expanded polystyrene. BASF pursued applications for the concrete, tested its physical properties, and placed into the public domain, best practices for a number of construction applications. That foresight on the part of BASF led to substantial use of EPS concrete throughout Europe, and today, EPS concrete is no longer a novelty material for building or construction there.

European building codes and structural practices incorporate the material freely, where its use is best suited to an application, sometimes to the exclusion of any other product. In these respects, the United States is at best twenty years, and at worst forty years, behind in the use and acceptance of eps concretes. Because of its wide use in Europe, the physical properties of eps concrete mixes have been extensively tested and mix formulas developed to suit a number of divergent applications. Concurrently, a whole body of construction practice for use of the concrete has been created.

The tests conducted in Europe and or construction practices used are usually in conformance with the “DIN Standards”. These standards most closely parallel the “ASTM Standards” accepted in the United States. In fact, in some cases, ASTM has had to rely on DIN to provide the test methods needed for testing lightweight concretes, in order that those methods could be incorporated into ASTM Standards.

Many of the test results and construction practices shown in this section, will refer to DIN as the Standards authority when no similar testing method or construction practice standard is available in the United States.