Clinch County School Leverages Lightweight CMUs for Durability

• Teaser: Students and staff at the new Clinch County K-12 School in Homerville, Georgia, may never notice the concrete block in the walls of their new school. Yet these blocks—specifically the lightweight units made with Arcosa’s lightweight aggregate—play a quiet but crucial role across all three campus buildings: ensuring structural integrity, optimizing thermal performance, and, most importantly, enhancing fire resistance.
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  “The fire rating is particularly important in school construction,” says Bill Wolfe, Marketing & Technical Manager at Arcosa Lightweight. “It provides an added layer of protection for students and staff, ensuring the building meets strict safety standards.”

Block manufactured with Arcosa’s lightweight aggregate automatically provide a two-hour fire rating for standard eight-inch units, a significantly higher fire rating than normal weight block. This built-in fire resistance is crucial in ensuring school buildings meet stringent safety requirements and provide a safe environment for students and faculty.

Given the critical importance of fire resistance in educational facilities, designers quickly turned to lightweight block for the new campus, a choice well-supported by the material’s proven track record in schools.

The Clinch County K-12 School was designed by Altman + Barrett Architects, an award-winning full-service architecture firm known for designing quality schools across Georgia, including Valdosta High School which extensively used lightweight block.

Construction was expertly managed by JCI General Contractors Inc., a firm from Moultrie, Georgia, recognized for building high-quality educational facilities throughout the state.

The design of the new campus required a significant number of concrete masonry units, over 300,000 lightweight gray CMUs in various sizes—4-inch, 6-inch, 8-inch, and 12-inch dimensions—as well as additional architectural CMUs used as wainscoting.

The lightweight CMUs, produced at Scruggs Concrete Brick & Block’s Valdosta, GA Plant, were crucial in meeting the project’s demands for high-quality, durable materials.

The specific gradation used in the units are referred to as ‘block fines’, the fine particles produced during the crushing and screening of lightweight aggregate. “Because Arcosa Lightweight is a manufactured aggregate, it can be crushed and screened to meet the precise grading requirements outlined in ASTM C33/C33M-18,” says Wolfe. “These fines are essential in creating a smooth, dense surface texture which significantly enhances their finish and make them particularly well-suited for interior painted surfaces.”

“The use of lightweight aggregate in the mix design results in a beautiful finish in our gray block.”

–Layton Dees, longtime sales representative for Scruggs

“It’s really tight. It takes the paint well. Very little extra work needs to go into prepping these walls for the paint. So that’s a big selling point for us,” Dees explains.

As the school’s opening date approached, Dees walked the halls, observing the final touches being applied by construction crews. The freshly painted walls, the reinforced corners, and the secure door frames all stood as a testament to the meticulous planning and quality materials used throughout the project.

Dees also pointed out the bullnose blocks used on the corners and the specially designed cubby holes integrated into the walls for students’ belongings. “These cubby holes are designed to withstand heavy use and reduce wear and tear over time,’ Dees explains. ‘The bullnose blocks on the corners also help prevent chipping and maintain the school’s aesthetic over the years.”

Rusty Ingram, who has overseen Scruggs’ block operation since 1974, has been a long-time proponent of utilizing lightweight aggregate in the company’s products. “We’ve used the lightweight aggregate made in Livingston, Alabama from the very start,” Ingram adds. He says the labor friendliness of lightweight block, combined with its thermal efficiency and other qualities, have led the company to produce lightweight almost exclusively.

“The lightweight is much friendlier to the mason contractor. If a mason is picking up 150 to 200 blocks a day, and the one we’re producing weighs 28 pounds as opposed to 32 pounds – that’s a big difference,” he says.

Layton Dees echoes these comments, adding, “Using a lightweight block, you’re going to get more production and a faster job. Say you have a mason laying block that weighs 27 or 28 pounds each, as opposed to one laying a block that’s 35 pounds. Who do you think is going to lay more block?”

Leaving the campus, Dees makes one final observation. “The workmanship of the masonry was excellent and the walls are definitely built to take a pounding,” Dees notes, highlighting the built-in durability of the lightweight block construction. “With lightweight block construction, the walls will stand the test of time and the punishment that these kids are going to put on them through.”

He further explains that the walls are reinforced both horizontally and vertically, with additional reinforcement around corners and doors, ensuring a very safe environment for students.

The school also features advanced safety systems, including high-definition security cameras, metal detectors, and state-of-the-art visitor management, making it one of the safest educational facilities in the region.

In addition to its functional benefits, the new Clinch County K-12 School stands as a model for sustainable and cost-effective school construction. By incorporating Arcosa’s lightweight aggregate, the project achieved efficiencies in material usage, improved energy performance, and created a safe and welcoming environment for students and staff.

“It’s always rewarding to see schools constructed with strong, mason-friendly, budget-friendly, fire-resistant, and thermally efficient lightweight concrete blocks,” says Wolfe. “We’re proud to have our aggregate featured in this school and appreciate Scruggs and everyone involved in bringing this project to fruition.”

Southeastern United States a Lightweight Concrete Masonry Market

• Teaser: When the city of Fort Payne, Alabama embarked on an initiative to bolster its educational facilities, they chose concrete masonry for a new $19 million elementary school. The 100,000-square-foot building is constructed using lightweight, grey concrete masonry units (CMUs) produced by Kirkpatrick Concrete’s Guntersville, Alabama block division.
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  “Guntersville Block has been a longtime customer, buying material from our Livingston, Alabama plant,” says Bill Wolfe, Arcosa Lightweight’s Marketing & Technical Manager. “They produce only lightweight block because masons in that market want lighter units for better productivity. It helps keep concrete masonry competitive in the marketplace.”

Masons in Northeast Alabama appreciate the weight reduction, says Spencer Glassco, General Manager of Kirkpatrick’s Northern Division. “We don’t make regular weight block and haven’t for years,” Glassco says. “Most masons prefer our lightweight block, which is 8x8x16 and weighs about 28 pounds compared to 30 pounds. You’d think two pounds wouldn’t make much difference, but if you lift several hundred a day, you know it wears on you.”

Glassco adds that while some of the block used for the school were custom-designed CMUs, most were their traditional 8-inch lightweight units. “Designers specified a custom block for a safe room, and we supplied a special 12-inch block for that application,” Glassco explains. “It required a slightly different mix design with more cement and variations in aggregate to achieve the exact strength they needed.”

“The Southeastern United States has been a lightweight concrete masonry market for a long time,” Wolfe says. “Masons in the region demand lightweight block, but block producers also understand that lightweight units lower their costs as well.”

The production of lightweight units is easier on employees and reduces wear on the manufacturer’s machinery, molds, and equipment. It also lowers transportation costs. “Trucks can haul more blocks when they’re lightweight, which reduces delivery costs,” Wolfe says. “It also reduces congestion at the project site because fewer truckloads are needed.”

Guntersville Block receives up to six shipments of lightweight aggregate per week, which they store alongside other aggregates and sands. “The customer receives the material just like their normal-weight materials,” Wolfe notes. “They handle the pre-wetting in the mixing process. They batch the lightweight aggregate with some of the mix water to get a pre-wet cycle, then proceed with their normal production process.”

Understanding Full Benefits

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“There’s often a perception that lightweight block is more expensive,” Wolfe says. “It’s true that the materials are more expensive—lightweight aggregate is a premium material. However, the masonry unit itself accounts for only a small portion of the wall’s total cost. Installation is the biggest part of a masonry wall’s cost, and by using lightweight block, masons can place more units in a given period, reducing labor costs and ultimately lowering the overall cost of the wall.”

Built for Strength

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Back at the Fort Payne Elementary School project, the CMUs delivered to the jobsite were of high quality, with sharp edges and good texture.

“Even though it’s a very light unit with a high percentage of lightweight aggregate, the advantages from both a design and construction standpoint help offset the material cost increase, resulting in a very economical masonry wall,” Wolfe says.

Concrete masonry also offers design flexibility, non-combustibility, and durability, making it a perfect choice for school projects. “A lot of times, you need a fire-rated corridor,” Wolfe says. “Concrete masonry won’t burn, and it’s easy to demonstrate its fire rating based on current building codes. It’s also very durable. It’s not easy to damage a concrete masonry wall like you can with other wall surfaces.”

“Anytime you can help a community with a project like this that’s going to affect their children for years to come, it’s something we take pride in,” says Spencer Glassco. “We do the very best we can to service the project and make it work well for everyone.”