Crew and plant word for a mix with excess binder or too few voids. Fat mix looks glossy and wet in the truck, slumps flat instead of mounding, may leave binder puddled on the truck bed, and shoves or flushes under the rollers. Calling a load fat is usually the first warning, ahead of any lab number, that the plant's binder feed or a cold feed gradation has drifted.
This load's fat, look at it shine, tell the dump man to check the next ticket and call the plant.
Also heard as
- rich
- fat mix
Do not mix it up with
- Dry: Dry is the opposite complaint: a mix short on binder that looks dull brown and ravels.
Related terms
Dry
Describes mix short on binder: dull brown, harsh to rake and likely to ravel early.
Bleeding
Free binder rising to the pavement surface, leaving shiny, sticky black patches that turn slick when wet.
Oil
Crew and plant slang for liquid asphalt binder, as in oil content or a load that looks short on oil.
Air voids
The small pockets of air between binder-coated aggregate in compacted mix, given as a percent of total volume.