Author: Zara Redfern

You may have seen several videos that tell you that you can get concrete done in a few steps to achieve it. As good as that may be for small structures, you need a professional concreter or service contractor to handle significant construction projects. Indeed, it is a strong temptation to want to attempt the concrete works by yourself, especially if you have some simple tools you can use. However, not all construction works fall under the DIY category and may require a high level of expertise in the long run.

For instance, you cannot entrust the construction of a large bridge into the hands of amateur builders or engineers. You need a professional who can interpret the bridge design model and replicate it from theory to real-life edifice. At the same time, you need a budget to be able to do such constructions. But in the event of a small project with a limited budget that cannot afford workmanship, you may decide to try it the DIY way.

This article discusses some of the dangers you may face when constructing concrete in a DIY way.

Dangers of DIY Concreting 

1. Lack of the right equipment

When doing construction in the DIY way, there is a lot of improvisation of tools and equipment due to being an amateur. Consequently, the lack of the right equipment that is fit for the work is an integral part of your success in DIY construction. Another reason why DIY may be tricky is that many high-quality construction pieces of equipment are costly to acquire.

Alternatively, you may think of hiring some of this equipment. Still, the outright purchase may take a chunk of your concreting budget. Whereas, without some of this equipment, you may eventually waste a lot of time and effort to achieve what you plan to do. Similarly, suppose you fail to secure some of this equipment. In that case, you may discover that it is more difficult to do construction in a DIY way. However, a professional job requires specialist concreting tools. Click here to learn more about construction.

Time and Money

Another factor that should cause anyone to be wary of DIY construction is it’s time to do it yourself. Many people think it is cheaper to try out specific tasks by yourself, so there are DIYs. It will cost more time to complete the same job when an amateur is handling it than in the hands of a professional. For instance, it takes time to prepare, mix and pour the prepared concrete into the desired cast.

In addition, it takes a relatively more effort to get this task done, especially if you don’t do it every time like a professional. So, if you don’t have the physical energy that it takes, you should reconsider DIY construction for concrete services. Ideally, a professional concrete builder can prepare and pour out concrete in no time when constructing a desirable structure. What is unique about pouring, someone might say?

It takes skill to pour out concrete evenly and smoothly into a mold to make a slab. Therefore, to save time and money, you may have to seek the expertise of a professional builder or concrete service expert. Concreting services are applicable in solving construction problems and making the necessary tools and equipment available for use.

Insufficient Preparation

Without adequate physical preparation for construction with concrete, you may bring too much physical stress to your body. You may therefore have to reinforce the concrete slab or structure you are trying to build. In addition, the concrete slabs can be weighty to deal with, and this is a part that many DIY concrete contractors hardly prepare for. Therefore, you need to prevent stress fractures by creating a reinforced concrete structure.

Don’t forget that it is also part of your preparation to lay out the slab’s portion. And that preparation is more than simply clearing the land and removing any vegetation. You should also ensure the land is thoroughly compacted ad enclosed in a formwork. Depending on the desired strength and durability, you may need to add some reinforcement to the concrete structure.

Incorrect Proportion of Mixture

As a DIY concrete worker, you may also need to get your proportion of each component of your concrete mixture in place. The most common mistake that DIY constructors make is adding excess water to the mix, equivalent to a poor final finish. The excess water weakens the strength of the final finished slab while also affecting the look of the final output.

Similarly, suppose you want to get the final mix correctly in your DIY construction. In that case, you need to pay attention to the actual details of the components to mix together. However, a professional concreter knows, with time and use, how much of water, cement, gravel, and stones he needs to add to produce what he wants. But a DIY builder may struggle with it, especially if the manual or tutorial does not clearly state so. 

Safety and Health Issues

One notable fact that many DIY concrete videos may not tell you is how unsafe it is to handle cement and concrete. For instance, some of the concrete ingredients, such as limestone, in making cement are highly alkaline. If they find their way to the eye, ear, respiratory system, or even the skin, they can cause high irritation. At the same time, this complication can lead to further long or short-term health issues to your well-being. Whereas such problems are avoidable if you do it with the help of a professional builder.

Conclusion

On a final note, you need professional and experienced workers to handle your building projects in the light of commercial concreting. Meanwhile, BKH Group is a fantastic company that can serve you with tremendous construction through concreting and related services. You can trust this company with a high level of quality building projects and other associated services. In the plan to further beautify your home or build commercial concrete edifices, feel free to contact us and make necessary inquiries. 

Commercial concreting is an essential aspect of civil engineering in constructing roads, bridges, and a chemically combined mixture of cement, sharp stones, gravel, and water with other inert materials. Some of the inert materials serve as a filler or binder, depending on the component materials. Meanwhile, the inert materials are aggregates. Typical examples include brick chips, gravels, shells, sand, stoner chips, and other materials. 

More so, concrete can be relatively inexpensive, especially when you factor in how durable it is and how much it can last against other building materials. But suppose we would be objective with our concrete construction materials. In that case, we must clearly state some of the advantages and disadvantages of the material. Mainly, as it serves the purpose of strength and durability, it also lacks specific attributes that other materials have. 

There are many exciting benefits to why a building or project manager should choose a concrete material over other alternative building materials. For instance, concrete is moldable into different shapes, depending on the use. For example, modern concrete roads make use of small concrete structures to make an interlock system, which is small enough for the surface area to bear the weight of cars. In addition, there are closely arranged to give space for expansion.

Meanwhile, below are some of the classics that are available as part of commercial concreting solutions.

• High rise building 
• Formwork
• Parking lots
• Car parks
• Retaining walls
• Ramps
• Bulk pours
• Concrete cutting
• Wheel stops
• Security or safety bollards
• Line marking
• Demolition
• Bio retention basins
• Concrete pumping
• Pre-stressed slabs
• Reinforced concrete walls
• Bondek
• Steel fixing
• Tilt-up panels
• Suspended slabs
• House slabs

To mitigate some of the limitations of concreting in commercial buildings, engineers have learned to use different materials to supplement it. Better still, reinforced concrete is another way to strengthen concrete and limit some of the weaknesses of an average concrete project. Below are some of the most important reasons you should consider adding commercial concrete to your building projects.

Advantages of Concreting

1. Concrete materials such as cement, water, sand, gravel, stones, and other essential ingredients are straightforward to get 
2. You can also move the concrete materials from one place to another before and after mixing before casting into the desired place. These activities have a time frame, especially after mixing with water and before setting in its proper place.
3. A concreting skill, the Monolithic character portrays a much better appearance on the outward look and adding to the strength and rigidity of the structure
4. Concrete is easy to handle and mold into the desired shape and size
5. In case there are cracks in a concrete structure, you can spray it up or pump some more concrete into the cracks to fill it up or line up a tunnel
6. A reinforced concrete structure is also flexible for molding into different shapes and configurations. The reinforcement is done through the addition of steel to form an internal skeletal system before casting the concrete on it. This strategy is applicable in building house lintels or some of the most massive flyovers
7. Finally, commercial concreting can also produce a structure with a high compressive strength, which makes the system a more economic output than ordinary steel alone. 

As earlier stated, it is essential to also balance out some of the concreting processes with possible disadvantages of concrete. Because of the noted disadvantages, construction engineers who use commercial concreting must also derive modern ways to overcome these limitations. Below are some common disadvantages of concrete.

Disadvantages of Concreting

1. Over time, and depending on the strength of the concrete, cracks can appear in the concrete. Research has shown that the low amount of tensile strength is responsible for damages that occur in concretes. Moreover, depending on the type of concrete structures, gravity may also be another reason why some concrete structure may have cracks over time
2. When you make concrete out of the ordinary, cement can be regarded as a highly alkaline substance and in the category of sulfates. 
3. Suppose there is a large temperature variance in an area when concrete structures are being erected. In that case, experts advise that there should be expansion joints in the extended facilities to allow for expansivity.
4. When a load is suspended on a structure for a relatively long time, it may cause some creeps on the structure
5. The addition of soluble salts on a concrete structure can cause efflorescence, especially in the presence of moisture reacting with it.
6. There is also a need for construction joints to limit the possibility of cracks in the structure. Meanwhile, the damages may be due to the expansion of the moisture in the mixture or a dry shrinkage.

Summary

When building concrete structures, builders should ensure that adequate provisions are in place for every possible building limitation. The stated advantages of using concrete in construction make it evident that concrete is a fantastic choice over other building materials. In addition, it provides solid and earthquake-proof structures that can withstand diverse weather conditions. Inarguably, concrete is solid and hard enough to withstand other similar atmospheric conditions.

On the other hand, as good as concrete is building commercial skyscrapers, it also has its own limitations. For instance, concrete can be very porous, which is a quality that causes susceptibility to certain molding deformities or even staining. Overcoming this limitation demands concrete slabs can be more like granite, especially for internal parts of the structure. Depending on the temperature variation of the moisture content of concrete, expansion and contraction attributes may occur, which may lead to cracks. 

Commercial concrete services form an integral part of modern construction due to the incredible strength for private and commercial purposes. In addition to the power, concrete produces versatility and durability to building highways, bridges, water pipes, walkways, and kitchen tops. 

Moreover, concrete work contractors in Australia have developed new formulas and techniques to build stronger concrete with more reliability for commercial projects. These Sydney contractors no longer rely on archaic building projects but now have better construction materials for concrete of much higher quality. 

However, all these developments did not start overnight. As a matter of fact, commercial concreting dates as far back as 700 BC when some Bedouin traders developed concrete-like materials to serve an underground water cistern. This secret water channel gave them the much-needed water in the desert. 

Meanwhile, commercial concrete has broken into many aspects of life, which is why we need building engineers and other professional builders and masons. This article will hare some of the most amazing facts about commercial concreting that you didn’t know before now. Let’s roll.

Top Facts about Commercial Concrete

1. The first Concrete highway was constructed in 1909

Before 1909, bricks and cobblestones are standard in road construction, particularly in the US. Another alternative material in use was the macadam, a mixture of stones and tar, which gives riders a rough time on the road. Without these materials, you are left with dirt roads.

But the first concrete road, which spans between 6 and 7 miles, was constructed in 1909 on Woodward Avenue, Greenfield Township. This area is now part of the northwestern part of Detroit. This road was built by Wayne County Road Commission that enlisted Henry Ford as a prominent member. It also cost up to $13,492.83 as of then. 

2. Ancient Rome Constructors Used Concrete

In ancient roam, a popular material used in construction was the ‘Pozzolana,’ which is actually a concrete material. It contains a mixture of lime, water, and volcanic ash from Mount Vesuvius. Also, the prominent Roman Civil Engineer Vitruvius attested that ‘pozzolana’ can actually come in four varieties, including red, white, black, and grey. 

Remarkably, the feature that attracted these ancient Roman builders to the man-made materials was the waterproof qualities, which qualifies it to be used as part of the Cosa port. However, this port reached its peak in 100 BC when many of its concrete piers were destroyed except just three. The three left piers still stand today as a monument and testimony of the skills possessed by ancient commercial concrete users.

3. The British Army used Concrete Technology during World War II

During WorldWarII, the British army used an erected parabolic acoustic mirror to call the ‘listening ears’ to detect any incoming aircraft. This innovation became very instrumental before the invention of radars. The army set these listening ears in a network to create a reverberation of sounds. Moreover, this reverberation works through the reflective parabola surfaces of these concrete mirrors.

These concrete sound reflectors were erected along the England coastal waters in the early days of World War II and are still there. I guess you probably didn’t know that till today. In other words, the fantastic quality of concrete for this purpose is its ability to reflect sound. That one, I’m sure you already know. 

4. Reinforced concrete is the only material for underwater constructions

Perhaps, you may wonder how some underwater structures could stand that much test of time and not get destroyed. Well, the simple answer is that durable underwater systems are usually and majorly made of concrete. In this case, there is a unique mixture of concrete that we refer to as Reinforced concrete. That is the only kind of building material that you can use underwater.

A fantastic quality of concrete that makes it helpful for this purpose is the variability of the aggregate components that make it up. In other words, builders can vary the different mixes for specific uses. Pozzolanic cement is a mixture of grinding pozzolanic clinker with Portland Cement. And it is applicable for other underwater structures. 

For instance, you can construct piers, damns, tunnels, and sewer works with this particular concrete composition. It is highly water-resistant and can outperform steel or wood in building underwater structures. 

5. Concrete vs. Cement: Is there a difference?

If I ask you, what is the difference between concrete and cement, you would say they are the same? Wrong! Concrete contains a mixture of water, cement, and other essential materials, including sand and gravel. In fact, standard concrete only contains about 10 to 15% of cement. In addition, a typical mixture of concrete has 15 to 20% of water and an aggregate mix of 60 to 65% of sand, gravel, and crushed stone.

When all these materials are mixed together with water thoroughly, then you have concrete. Also, you can cast concrete into the structure that you desire before it hardens up. When it does, the water binds all the molecules together into a solid mass as a whole. Meanwhile, reinforced concrete contains a higher proportion of cement in the mixture for more strength and tenacity.

6. Concrete is still the best material for road construction

I know you are aware of many materials that are not applicable for constructing roads, especially with oil and granite. But here is the shocker: in the midst of it all, the best roads are still made of concrete. For instance, 30% of interstate highways in the US are made of concrete. However, concrete in road construction may cost slightly more than using Asphalt. They last longer than the latter. 

Therefore, when considering all the factors, concrete is a more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly material for construction. In addition, mixing concrete can be varied for specific uses and conditions. It is better for certain climates, such as Australia. 

Conclusion

On a final note, these beautiful facts are indeed unique, aren’t they? You can explore more to find other exciting things to note about concrete constructions. For instance, reinforced concrete is the only building material with high resistance to both water and fire. More so, concrete has an incredibly high compressive strength and tenacity, and the largest concrete structure is located in China.