In honor of Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14, here are 14 reasons to fall in love with precast concrete.
1. Durability and Adaptability
Precast concrete panels provide a long service life due to their durable, low-maintenance surfaces. Insulated sandwich panels paired with precast concrete construction also provides the opportunity to move and reuse panels to refurbish the building, rather than tear it down, should its use or function change.
2. Thermal Mass and Energy Performance
The thermal mass of concrete allows shifting of peak heating and cooling loads in a structure to help reduce mechanical-system requirements and energy consumption through the building envelope.
3. Fire and Natural Disaster Resistance
Concrete is noncombustible and can contain a fire. As a separation wall, precast concrete helps prevent fire from spreading throughout a building or jumping from building to building. Precast concrete is resistant to wind, hurricanes, and floods.
4. Air Infiltration
Precast concrete panels have negligible air infiltration. Minimizing air infiltration between panels and at floors and ceilings will provide a building with low air infiltration. These effects will lower energy costs and help prevent moisture problems.
5. Abundant, Local Materials
Concrete is used in almost every country of the world as a basic building material. Aggregates, about 85% of concrete content, are generally low-key, local, naturally occurring sand and stone. Most precast concrete plants are within 200 miles of a building site. Using local materials reduces the transportation required to shop heavy building materials, and the associated energy and emissions.
6. Indoor Environmental Quality
Concrete contains low to negligible volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Polished concrete floors do not require carpeting. Exposed concrete walls do not require finishing materials, eliminating particulates from sanding drywall taping seams.
7. Mitigating the Urban Heat-Island Effect
Precast concrete provides reflective surfaces that minimize the urban heat-island effect.
8. Resistance to Noise
Precast concrete walls provide a buffer between outdoor noise and the indoor environment.
9. Inedibility
Vermin and insects cannot destroy concrete because it is inedible.
10. Speed of Construction/All Weather Construction
Pieces are cast off-site and delivered to you when you need them. The just-in-time delivery makes effective use of transportation and site access. A small crew can erect thousands of square feet per day.
11. Clear Spans
Column free interior space provides design freedom and lets you maximize the use of your space now and in the future.
12. Strength for Heavy Loads
If you need a building material that can handle heavy amounts of stress, point loads or weight, reinforced precast concrete is the only one that makes sense.
13. Versatility
Precast concrete allows designers to create a wide range of aesthetic effects and integrate a diverse array of facade elements into a single precast concrete pane.
14. Quality Assurance
The key factors which regulate the quality of construction such as curing, temperature, mix design, formwork, etc. are monitored for precast concrete.