What is Concrete?
Concrete is the most used material on Earth after water! What is concrete?… It is a building material that is similar in properties to rock and is a mixture of materials closely bound together with water and cement. Concrete ingredients include; aggregates, which can be a combination of sand, gravel and rocks. Concrete makes a flexible, seriously strong material for construction projects and can absorb the tension it receives, withstanding extreme weights without being crushed.
Concrete can also be reinforced for extra stability. Stay tuned for our blog article on how this works.
High-quality concrete is produced by lowering the water-cement ratio as much as possible without sacrificing the workability of fresh concrete, allowing it to be properly placed, consolidated, and cured.
Concrete Ingredients | The Difference Between Concrete and Cement
The cement, when mixed with water acts as a paste that holds together all of the ingredients together once it sets and hardens. But, what is cement? Cement is a vital concrete ingredient as it is a binding agent. It is a finely ground powder that is mainly made up of limestone (calcium), sand or clay, aluminium and iron ore. Additionally, it may include materials like shells, chalk and shale. It is used in making concrete and mortar, both used in urban infrastructure to bind building blocks.
The proportions of the materials used for making concrete varies according to its application and specification. For example, the proportions used on concrete for floors, driveways and sidewalks is ideally one part cement, two and half parts sand and three parts gravel. On the other hand, the recommended concrete mix proportions for high strength floors and columns is one part cement, one part sand and two parts gravel.
Here at G-Mix Concrete we can mix a specific requirement on site and also can change the mix on site if requested.