Poraver reduces the module weight by three tons.

Currently, the "Le Meridian," the new 5-star-plus hotel in Dublin, Ireland, is under construction. The large construction site is located at the western end of the famous Grand Canal Docks. Due to the special lightweight concrete matrix containing Poraver as the aggregate, 129 prefabricated bathrooms in the XXL format have been added.
The upscale hotel entrepreneur brings opulent indulgence to his guests by consistently using luxurious décor including the bathrooms. The room clearance height is 2.70 m (8.85f). The wall and floor coverings are made from Carrara marble and the fittings are shiny chrome. Because of the static load limitations, the total weight of 5 tons per module has been a requirement. A fully equipped luxury bathroom made from common lightweight concrete would have been three tons over the weight limit. The super lightweight concrete with the Poraver aggregate allows the weight to be below the mandatory 5-ton limit. That corresponds to a weight reduction of 37.5%.
Critical to the use of Poraver are its excellent economical, physical and pressure resistant properties. The expanded glass micro-spheres of Poraver are also characterized by excellent sound absorption and high thermal insulating properties while at the same time extremely light and maintain a high compression rating. Poraver has much greater strength than other aggregates in the same fill weight category.
The expanded glass is environmentally friendly born out of the recycling cycle which uses glass fractions that are not suitable for new glass products.


Design principle
AQUACEL, the prefabricated bathrooms modules made out of the special lightweight concrete matrix with the aggregate Poraver are manufactured on a custom-built diagonal casing. This method enables the modules to consist of only three parts - floor, walls and ceiling, with the effect that the joints are reduced to a minimum. The individual parts are absolutely force linked by a special procedure. This creates an extremely warp resistant cube. The entire production is done under controlled conditions at the Neuwied plant as an individual serial production.

The prefabricated bathroom floor is adjusted to the local screed height and is manufactured as a single piece with an orbital lateral upturn beam (tub). Complete water tightness is guaranteed. Floor drains and down-grade formation (on grade shower tubs) for hospitals and nursing homes are available according to individual specifications.
The concrete wall thickness of the module units begins at 45 mm (1.77 in.). Depending on the fire and sound protection requirements, walls up to 150 mm thick (5.90 in.) are available. The ceiling is by default 60 mm thick and has a mass per unit area up to 400 kg / m² (881 lb.). Circular wall upturn beams to bottom edge of ceiling are possible if pipelines, cables and media tracks or air conditioning pipes have to be fed over the bathroom ceiling.

Static
The static classification for the prefabricated bathrooms falls under DIN 1055 "Light partition walls". Including the bathroom ceiling, the average wall weight is less than 100 kg / m² (220 lb.). Therefore a special addition to the traffic load is not required. If it is statically necessary, as in the case of the luxury hotel, the prefabricated bathrooms will be made out of the special Poraver concrete matrix. The weight reduction amounts to 60%.

Decoupling / Noise Control
AQUACEL-prefabricated bathrooms, regardless of their installation setting, are mounted on to special rubber pyramid frames. Depending on the size and overall weight, between 4 and 6 mount points are performed. The resulting space can be insulated depending on the requirement with either additional mineral wool or subsonic noise board. The finished module has no direct contact with the building.
This "room -in- room" design offers acoustically significant benefits to the conventional construction as the solid-borne sound is absorbed in the prefabricated bathroom and can subsequently not be transferred to neighboring areas because of connecting components.

Fire protection
Depending on the design, fire resistance classes according to DIN 4102 = F 30 or F 90 are achieved.
Design loads
For buildings with AQUACEL-prefabricated bathrooms the following design loads are customary:

A) bathroom floor made of concrete including floor tiles g ≤ gB

B) concrete wall and concrete ceiling Δ p
Since the walls are carrying the load of the ceiling it is installed/attached to the walls by lying on the safe side.
Weight of the concrete divided by the angled wall surface. Evidence ≤ 150 g kg / m² or ≤ 100 g kg / m² wall surface. This allows the surcharge Δ p to be used further.

C) working load p
Persons and expansion loads, such as bathtubs, washbasins, toilets but also wallpapers, mirrors and wall tiles

Over-all bathroom weight
The bathroom weight specified on the drawings is the dead-weight of the bathroom including tiles and equipment. It includes in terms of the DIN 1055 the net weight and traffic loads. It is required for the correct coordination of the assembly cranes.