Concrete, the single most widely-used building material in the world, has a history dating back to the Romans and ancient Egyptians. Given that concrete is used twice as much in construction over all other building materials, emphasis on quality, performance and sustainability is essential for the industry to grow and thrive.
One of the most important ingredients in high performance, long-lasting, durable and beautiful concrete produced today are concrete admixtures. Concrete admixtures are natural or manufactured chemicals or additives added during concrete mixing to enhance specific properties of the fresh or hardened concrete, such as workability, durability, or early and final strength.
The first step in optimizing concrete is to recognize that concrete is no longer simply cementitious materials, aggregates, and water. It is a high-performance material with not just four, but seven essentials – consisting of water, cementitious material, sand, gravel, chemical admixtures, additives, and fiber reinforcement.