concrete/screed
Air-Entrained Concrete
Air-entrained concrete contains billions of microscopic air cells per cubic foot. These air pockets relieve internal pressure on the concrete by providing tiny chambers for water to expand into when it freezes.
Foam concrete
Foam concrete, also known as Lightweight Cellular Concrete (LCC), Low Density Cellular Concrete (LDCC), and other terms is defined as a cement-based slurry, with a minimum of 20% (per volume) foam entrained into the plastic mortar.[1] As mostly no coarse aggregate is used for production of foam concrete the correct term would be called mortar instead of concrete; it may be called “foamed cement” as well. The density of foam concrete usually varies from 400 kg/m3 to 1600 kg/m3. The density is normally controlled by substituting fully or part of the fine aggregate with foam.
Cement Dye
Also refered to as cement dye the powdered pigment is packaged in 25kg bags and is used to colour precast concrete by adding it to the concrete as it is being mixed. The professional choice for colouring concrete. These mainly iron oxide based pigments are intermixable and offer excellent value.
Waterproofer
This waterproof additive for render is designed to minimise the passage of liquid water through the pore structure of cementitious renders. This prevents the passage of salts to the surface in the drying out period.
Fibre Mix Concrete
Micro fibre concrete contains thousands of individual fibres which are evenly dispersed throughout the concrete during the mixing process, this creates a matrix-like structure that provides additional benefits to concrete such as long-term durability and reduce the frequency of plastic shrinkage cracks, which can appear in fresh concrete soon after it is placed.
No-Fines Concrete
No-Fines Concrete is a lightweight concrete made up of only coarse aggregate, cement and water by omitting fines (sand or fine aggregates) from normal concrete. Advantages, limitations and mix proportions of no-fines concrete is discussed. Very often only single sized coarse aggregate, of size passing through 20 mm retained on 10mm is used. No-fines concrete is becoming popular because of some of the advantages it possesses over the conventional concrete. The single sized aggregates make a good no-fines concrete, which in addition to having large voids and hence light in weight, also offers architecturally attractive look.
Concrete Accelerator
Accelerators make concrete set faster, also known as increasing the rate of hydration. At the same time, they promote strength development so it happens earlier in the set time of a slab. If a contractor is using an accelerator, the odds are good that the weather is wintry.
cube testing
A concrete cube test involves taking a sample of freshly mixed concrete, letting it cure, then crushing it and measuring its compressive strength.