What is Precast Concrete?

Whether you’re a homeowner looking to save on a residential repair or a commercial builder hoping to quicken the pace of the construction, you need to know more about precast concrete.  If you’re looking for premium concrete fencing, you should know about precast concrete.

Premium Concrete Fencing Can Be Achieved with Precast Concrete

But, really, what is precast concrete? How different is it from concrete that’s made onsite? Why should you try it out? Like its concrete predecessor, precast concrete is a mixture of different materials, such as gravel, sand and a matrix of other similar materials. All these are bound using some type of liquid, usually water, until it forms into cement. In some cases, mineral powders are added to improve certain characteristics of concrete like durability or strength.  In fact, Permacast actually uses Forta Ferro Fibres in the concrete for strength that is unparalleled.

The basic advantage precast concrete has over traditional concrete is it’s made off site. Usually, measurements are made to figure out how big the slab of precast concrete should be. Once that’s taken care of, a factory will produce concrete to those specifications. Once the precast concrete has been produced and hardened, it is stored until delivery.

A lot of commercial and residential builders now opt for precast concrete over traditional concrete because you’re able to control the quality. Because precast concrete is made and hardened in a factory setting, the process is uniform. It avoids the human error, such as constructions workers having a bad day or coming up with different cement mixtures.

In some cases, precast concrete also shortens the construction period. Typically, when you’re building a structure with cement, you have to wait for the bottom layers to dry before you continue onto the next floor. With precast concrete, it comes already hardened. Factories can produce and dry all parts simultaneously, saving you the waiting period. All your team needs to do when the slabs of precast concrete arrives is assemble them, which takes lesser time than the constant wait for cement to dry.

Because it can be assembled off site, that also means that the production of these slabs of concrete aren’t affected by the weather conditions, which builders using traditional concrete have to worry about.

It’s not difficult to see why a lot of builders are switching from traditional cement to precast concrete. You can now see it widely used in high rise buildings, parking lot constructions and even residential projects.

For more information on what precast concrete is, check out our Complete Guide to Precast Concrete at our blog.

Sources:

http://www.cement.org/cement-concrete-basics/products/precast-concrete