availability of lw concrete in northwest us region
 

availability of lw concrete in northwest us region
i've heard that it is sometimes difficult or exorbitantly expensive to obtain lightweight concrete in the northwest (particularly the oregon and washington). is this true?
is it typical to use normal weight concrete in these areas for elevated composite slabs?

i used to do a lot of projects in seattle and we used normal weight concrete for everything. there was no local source of lightweight aggregate and the cost of shipping it in was prohibitive. more recently suppliers have been able to produce structural lightweight cellular concrete by adding foaming admixtures. talk to a knowledgable ready mix supplier in the area such as stoneway to see what they can do.