Despite being ubiquitous in countries around the world, particularly in Europe and South America, concrete homes are still fairly rare in the United States when compared to the hegemony of wood.
Concrete is no longer just a niche material in residential construction. As natural disasters become more frequent and severe, the shortcomings of traditional wood-framed homes are being laid bare.
concrete, in construction, structural material consisting of a hard, chemically inert particulate substance, known as aggregate (usually sand and gravel), that is bonded together by cement and water. Among the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians, the bonding substance most often used was clay.
Concrete is an artificial construction material prepared by mixing a binding material (cement or lime), fine aggregate (sand), coarse aggregate (stone chips, brick chips, or gravel), and water in proper proportion. Admixtures may be added to improve specific properties of concrete.
In its simplest form, concrete is a mixture of paste and aggregates (sand & rock). The paste, composed of cement and water, coats the surface of the fine (sand) and coarse aggregates (rocks) and binds them together into a rock-like mass known as concrete.
Concrete is made up of three basic components: water, aggregate (rock, sand, or gravel) and Portland cement. Cement, usually in powder form, acts as a binding agent when mixed with water and aggregates. This combination, or concrete mix, will be poured and harden into the durable material with which we are all familiar.
Concrete is a carefully balanced mixture of cement, water, sand, and admixtures, with lime in the form of hydrated lime or quicklime, sometimes added for enhanced properties.