Precast siding is a concrete building material made offsite and shipped in panels, providing identical pieces with exact tolerances. It speeds up construction, but shipping costs and potential damage are drawbacks.
Precast siding is a concrete building material that is manufactured offsite and shipped in precast panels to a construction site. This is in contrast to standard concrete processes where forms are built in situ and the concrete is allowed to form and harden in situ. The prefabricated cladding is formed under controlled conditions, meaning each piece should be nearly identical to any other. The forming and hardening processes are closely monitored, ensuring that every piece has the same exact tolerances. On the construction site, prefabricated pieces speed up construction, as workers don’t have to wait for the walls to dry.
Standard concrete walls are made using forms built by workers. These shapes are placed on a building and conform to the exact shape and needs of the project. The concrete is poured into the formwork and left to dry while the bricklayers work in another area. After the concrete has enough time to dry and set, the forms are removed and the wall is examined. If the wall is satisfactory, construction continues in that area.
Using prefab siding is a very different process. The concrete slabs are delivered to the construction site already dry and ready for use. The slabs are lifted on site and connected to the existing structure. The work in one area never really stops as the slabs are finished as soon as they are connected to the building frame.
Creating a prefab siding is different than using it. Because standard concrete walls are built in place, they can be built far below the ground or far above it. The precast concrete walls are built at ground level under controlled conditions. This means that the temperature, pressure and humidity for each piece are the same as all the others. This results in trim pieces that do not vary based on the conditions in which they are attached.
The shapes used in creating standard walls are built for the particular piece. When the shape comes down, the pieces are reused, but the shape must be completely rebuilt. With pre-made trim, the shape is a pre-made piece, so it’s reused hundreds, if not thousands, of times. Compared to standard methods, this reduces the time and cost of creating a single piece of wall.
The biggest disadvantages of precast concrete siding are both related to shipping. First, the cost of shipping large wall segments can be very high. The farther away the manufacturer is, the more expensive the shipping. This cost increase can potentially eat into any cost savings over custom formed walls.
The second major drawback is shipping damage. Concrete is easily damaged in some cases, making shipping particularly difficult. When a piece of wall is damaged in shipping, replacement can be difficult and time consuming. Even with these issues, precast concrete casing is often a more efficient and faster way to build concrete structures.
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