If you haven’t worked in construction before, then the question of pouring concrete on-site or off-site can sound like a ‘here or there’ question. At the end of the day, it’s still concrete, and it’s unlikely to be on show or highly scrutinised for ‘place or origin’.
But, in reality, where concrete is cast has a massive impact on many aspects of a build or renovation, from timescale and delays to the strength and durability of the final product. Here’s what you need to know about the benefits of having concrete cast off-site.
You can control the conditions
Concrete doesn’t cure instantly, and during that curing time it is exposed to whatever the British weather throws its way: wind and rain, extreme temperatures, frost…while it can be protected to a certain degree, there’s always a chance that the weather will increase curing time or impact the quality of the final product – at times, significantly.
When concrete is poured and cured off-site, it is done in factory conditions where weather and temperature – even the moisture content in the air – can be controlled to a far higher degree. This is the only way to ensure the level of consistency and quality that your build truly needs in order to reach its full potential.
It can be done in advance
Remember how we said concrete takes time to harden? While it’s strong enough to handle light loads after a couple of weeks (depending on the size of the pour, of course), it takes considerably longer for it to reach its full hardness. In the meantime, other aspects of the project need to tick on, people need to be able to walk on it to access other areas of the site, and delays can quickly mount up.
When you order concrete to be delivered precast, work can begin during the earlier phases of the project. Then, once it’s ready, it can be delivered to the site with relative ease (again, depending on the size of the piece) and installed in place without requiring weeks to harden sufficiently.
It’s easier to create and reuse moulds
With precast concrete retaining wall systems, many pieces are often required in order to fit the needs of the site. If this is being achieved on-site, creating enough moulds (and being able to reuse them) poses a real challenge, not just because of personnel, but because of space, too.
Companies that offer precast concrete solutions don’t have those same problems, and they can take on the work of building modular systems while you can have fewer people working on-site.
Expert oversight
Keeping a build under budget is incredibly challenging. With so many moving parts to think about at any given moment, it’s very easy for things to run away from you, and paying for experts to work on-site for weeks at a time is one of those expenses a lot of us can’t take on comfortably.
When you work with a company offering precast concrete solutions, you are able to benefit from their expertise and insight without having to pay the cost of taking them onboard during the build. This can work out much more cost efficiently for many builds.