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Oltmans Construction Uses Type 1L Cement to Lower Carbon Footprint

Published: May 1, 2024

Oltmans Construction, Whittier, CA, just completed a large manufacturing, warehouse, and distribution center in Irwindale, CA, that used concrete containing Type 1L cement, resulting in a significant reduction in the carbon footprint of the facility. Type 1L cement is a blended cement that contains 5 to 15 percent limestone—meeting ASTM C595 HS Standard Specification for Blended Hydraulic Cements as well as meeting the stringent high sulfate performance requirements, all while substantially reducing embodied carbon in concrete.

Since 1932, when Joseph Overwin Oltmans began a humble construction service in Downtown Los Angeles, the company has had an unshakeable commitment to the community and its values of hard work, honesty, and integrity—ultimately, doing the right thing. The voluntary use of the Type 1L cement in the Irwindale facility is part of Oltmans’ effort to construct greener buildings and respond to the demands of the market.

"We're proactively chasing all the new technology. We want to be at the forefront of the change. We want to be able to identify the products that are working and to be able to provide the same quality of finished product that we've been doing for our 92-year history," Raymond Elias, senior concrete operation manager, Oltmans Construction, says. "Right now, probably every third bid that we get has some type of sustainability requirement in terms of low embodied carbon mix designs or lowering our overall carbon footprint as a general contractor."

"Oltmans Construction is one of the last few contractors to self-perform our own concrete in the industry. Eighty-five percent of our work is industrial warehouse space with big box retailers from Amazon to Toyota, Nordstroms, Burlington Coat Factory, and a number of other retailers and manufacturers," he added.

Type 1L Cement Delivers

At the Irwindale facility, "all of the qualities -- the placement, finishability, everything, (of the concrete with the Type 1L cement) came out as close to normal as we've seen," Elias said. "We've heard issues across the nation with set times and strengths not coming up to par. We didn't experience any of that here. All our strengths or breaks passed," he added.

The seven-inch-thick floor also exceeded requirements for floor flatness and floor level, he said. "The local requirement is FF 50, FL 35. The readings we were getting 70 and mid-forties, high fifties, low fifties. So, we were surpassing all our FF and FL requirements."

"It worked very nicely. I mean, it sealed up really nicely. It was easy to work with," Jim Mejia, concrete finishing manager at Oltmans Construction said. The massive floor required nine pours, averaging 30,000 square feet apiece.

Elias said Oltmans was very pleased with the performance of the Type 1L cement. He added that Oltmans aims "to get everything a hundred percent switched over and run with that across all of our projects."

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