Search for slag in Houston and you will get cement companies, gravel yards and sandblasting suppliers in the same results, because three unrelated products share the name. This page sorts them out in plain language. Hasten supplies the first one, slag cement, and will point you to the right place for the other two.
Concrete or stabilization use. Same-day response.
Ground granulated blast furnace slag. Molten iron slag quenched into glassy granules, dried and ground as fine as cement. Replaces 25 to 50 percent of portland in concrete, and with 1 percent lime it stabilizes high-sulfate clay. Made on the Houston Ship Channel. Sold by the tanker load. This is what Hasten supplies.
Slag from electric arc furnace steel mills, air-cooled and crushed into base rock, gravel and driveway material. Houston has no steel mill, so it is trucked in from mills near Beaumont, Seguin, Jewett or Midlothian and sold by aggregate yards. Not a cement product and not something we sell.
Byproducts from power plants and copper smelters, sized as sandblasting abrasive. Sold by blasting-supply companies, priced by the bag or the ton. Nothing to do with concrete or soil.
Welding slag is the crust on a weld. Slag glass is a collectible. If that is what you searched for, none of the suppliers on this page can help, and that is fine.
Of the three, slag cement is the one with a real Houston industry behind it, and the one that changes how a job performs.
Lower cost per yard, lower heat in mass pours, better sulfate and chloride resistance for coastal and below-grade work, higher long-term strength. TxDOT allows 35 to 50 percent replacement, 70 percent in mass concrete.
On clay above about 7,000 ppm sulfate, lime alone heaves. Five percent slag cement with 1 percent lime cut swell from 42 percent to 7 percent in TxDOT research. Details at slaglimestabilization.com.
Every slag cement grinder and import terminal in Texas is in Houston. Buyers here get the shortest freight in the state and the widest choice of producers.
By the pneumatic tanker load, about 25 tons, with a mill certificate showing grade, fineness and SO3. Ask for the producer code. Hasten quotes same-day.
Grade 100 slag cement from a Houston producer on the TxDOT list, delivered by tanker across the metro. The full buyer's guide is one click away.
Bulk tanker loads across greater Houston. For slag aggregate or blasting media, call an aggregate yard or a blasting supplier; we will tell you who if you ask.
Steel slag aggregate is used for driveways and base in parts of Texas near steel mills. That is a crushed-rock product sold by aggregate yards, not slag cement, and not something Hasten supplies. Slag cement is a powder for concrete and soil work.
Depends which slag. Slag cement: from a Ship Channel grinder or a supplier like Hasten, by the tanker load. Steel slag aggregate: from an aggregate yard, trucked in from mills outside Houston. Blasting slag: from an abrasives supplier by the bag or ton.
No. Both are supplementary cementitious materials and both replace some portland, but slag is a ground blast furnace byproduct and fly ash comes from coal plants. Slag is finer and gives higher late strength and better sulfate resistance; Class C fly ash sets faster. Hasten supplies both.
Freshly ground slag can carry a faint sulfur smell that dissipates. Concrete made with it cures lighter than portland concrete and can show a temporary greenish tint at form stripping that fades in air.
With lime, yes, and on sulfate-bearing clay it is the researched choice. Slag alone does nothing in soil; it needs about 1 percent lime to activate. Send the sulfate and PI numbers if you have them and we will tell you whether it fits.
Tell us the job. If you need one of the other slags, we will say so and point you the right way.
Call 832-655-7763