Concrete is a composite material created by mixing cement, water, coarse aggregates, and coarse sand. From runways and bridges to patios and roads, concrete is a crucial component of residential and commercial building construction. Fresh concrete has several uses and can be moulded into circles, rectangles, and other shapes and utilized for stairways, columns, doors, beams, lentils, and other joint structures.
This article has compiled different types of concrete used by construction companies in Calgary or wherever you reside, their ingredients, and commercial applications.
Let’s begin!
There are many grades of concrete, including regular, standard, and high-strength. These grades represent the concrete’s strength and application in building. Let’s briefly look at the most prevalent types of concrete and their applications.
Plain concrete employs the standard types of concrete mixer ratio of 1:2:4 for its cement, sand, and aggregates. Plain concrete has a highly satisfactory durability rating but does not particularly withstand vibrations or wind loads.
Application
Normal Strength Concrete is a quick-setting mixture of aggregates, cement, and water. Normal strength concrete, like plain concrete, contains similar ingredients but varies in strength by 10-40 MPa.
Applications
Due to the lack of tensile strength, normal-strength concrete is suitable for construction pavements that do not require high tensile strength.
Reinforced concrete is a composite building material strengthened during construction with steel reinforcement bars. Prefabricated steel cages and steel rebars serve as examples of reinforced concrete. Recently, construction companies in Calgary or nearby have added fibres to strengthen reinforced concrete.
Application
Reinforced concrete is frequently employed in bridges, culverts, retaining walls, roadways, and modern building construction.
Ready-mix concrete is a special concrete that is put together based on precise instructions. It is made and mixed in a central plant. Ready-mix concrete is one of the types of concrete mixers that gets to the work site in cement trucks. Once the trucks get to the work site, the concrete doesn’t need more treatment.
Applications
There are several applications of Ready-mix concrete based on the types of concrete mixer.
The following are the most popular ready-mix concrete variations:
·High Strength Concrete
High-strength concrete is an excellent choice for footers, foundations, heavy equipment bases, and industrial loads due to its elasticity and resilience.
· Fast Setting Concrete
Fast-setting concrete sets in 20-40 minutes are suitable for a fence, mailbox post, a small concrete slab, or any other construction project requiring rapid-setting concrete.
· Fiber Reinforced Concrete
Fibre-reinforced concrete is infused with microfibers or macrofibres to increase its durability in harsh weather conditions.
· Self-Leveling Concrete
Self-levelling concrete has high flow properties, allowing it to level on its own without the use of additional water or hand levelling. Self-levelling concrete is appropriate for projects requiring flat and smooth surfaces.
One of the types of concrete that weighs less than 1920kg/m3 is called lightweight concrete. Its most important quality is that it has low thermal conductivity.
Lightweight aggregates are used with concrete to make it denser. Natural materials like scoria or pumice, manufactured materials like clays and expanded shales and processed materials like vermiculite and perlite are all lightweight aggregates.
Applications
Construction companies in Calgary or wherever you live usually make long bridge decks, window panels, and building blocks out of lightweight concrete.
Lightweight concrete is also used to protect steel structures and is composed of light aggregates such as:
· Natural Light Aggregates
They have been processed, including expanded clay, shale, and synthetic shale.
· Unprocessed Natural Light Aggregates
Lapilli, pozzolan, and travertines are unprocessed natural light aggregates.
· Light Industrial Aggregates
They have been processed, including expanded ashes, slag, and synthetic ashes.
· Unprocessed Light Industrial Aggregates
Blast furnaces, slags, and pulverized fuel ash are examples of unprocessed light industrial aggregates.
Conclusion
Numerous construction projects employ concrete for its durability, resistance, stability, strength, and aesthetic appeal. You can choose from the various types of concrete offered by construction companies in Calgary and the surrounding area based on your needs, budget, and aesthetic preferences.
Whether you need a turn-key construction or pre-engineered steel building, We are one of the most reputed construction companies in Calgary that can meet your needs on schedule and budget. We deal with conventional metal/steel buildings, wood-framed buildings and precast buildings. We also offer many different forms of excavating services, Interior development, and Exterior Finishing.
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