When you are building infrastructure, it is a huge investment of time, energy, human resource and, of course, your hard-earned precious money. You have kept all the considerations in mind and do proper planning and research before jumping onto something big. If you are not an expert in this field of building and the designing project, we would suggest you to hire an expert team of people to properly plan and execute all the actions related to the project. These days, concrete designs are quite popular among builders.
Precast means making or casting of elements in a plant that can be transported and used later.
There are many forms of precast concrete available which is used specifically in a design such as te?
- Curing period
- Formed concrete
- Time
- Purpose of the building (factory, shopping mall, living)
- Design
- location
- Raw material
- Inland transportation
- Finances
- Labor and experts
- Inland transportation:
Inland transportation is required for precast concrete panels from the factory to the production site. There must be frequent trips from one place to another.
You must get aligned with your transporter and all the procedure should be written otherwise it can create complications.
Inland transportation also increases the overall cost of the project so the first thing to keep in mind is the distance from one place to another.
CRANE:
Another important aspect is a crane, you must require one to two cranes to install that precast concrete blocks.
This work should be handled very carefully if there is another high rise building nearby else it can create a lot of trouble.
You must see the space you are operating is not small otherwise it would be difficult to manage a crane.
- Formed concrete:
The one different aspect of prefabricated concrete it’s made partially in the factory and then cures on-site location. When you decide to use precast concrete make sure to give the required order of concrete you are going to use in production. As there are different forms for the wall, roof, etc.
You have to provide every single detail to the maker accurately. One slight difference in measurement can cost you a lot of money so be careful as there would be a difference in concrete design.
If you made even a little mistake, unable to tell the supplier the correct form you are going to lose a lot of money.
- Curing period:
Precast concrete is those structures that are partially designed at the factory and now curing will be done on-site. It requires time to cure precast concrete. It can delay the overall process of forming a structure. You should design your schedule accordingly.
If you want to use immediately you must buy those precast concrete which can be used immediately in the production.
- Time:
Time is the most crucial factor in life. When you are planning to make an infrastructure time is important. How much time you required to gather the finance or if there is an ample amount of finances available how much time you required to build actually. The whole estimation of the project, lead time, acceptance certificate from concern authorities, availability of raw material, everything will impact the time you have.
Don’t give a deadline to the client before accessing all the situational factors.
- Purpose of building:
When you are designing a building the main question which arises is for which propose you are going to use this building?
As a factory, or as a shopping mall, or as a hotel, medical facility, etc.
Then you design accordingly.
You have to make a whole road map for which purpose you are going to utilize the building.
- Design:
Another important aspect of the precast concrete structure is the design of the building. Do we have enough people who are specialized in that particular structure building? High-risk factors are associated when you are planning to build an infrastructure.
How many floors it has?
How much weight each floor is going to lift? (Especially factories or aircraft hangers)
How many other buildings are located in that vicinity?
Is it a high rise building?
Another thing which you have to keep in mind is you can’t make any changes after the project started.
In precast concrete projects, it’s very difficult to make changes and amendments in the end.
- Location :
Everything would be based on the location you have selected for the particular project.
You have to check the weather conditions of a particular location. You have to keep this weather consideration in mind.
Is it a high seismic zone? How many recent tornados hit that area? How many storms recently pass from this site? All these things should be planned ahead.
You can take help from the neighboring builders about weather conditions which they have been facing recently and how they cope up with it.
Also before building a massive project you can take help from the met department to predict the climatic change structure is going to face in the near future or in 10 years’ time.
- Raw material:
Are you going to get the raw material for the structure or do you have to arrange it in on order?
If you are making a structure far away from the city it would be difficult for you to get enough raw material supply easily. How frequently you need a supply of things? Ask your supplier to make prior arrangements.
Another thing is on-time delivery if you delivered all the raw material at once where you have to store then? There is not much space and certain care should be required for material as well.
- Finances:
The important thing for anything in life is the availability of finances. You must have ready cash in case of any emergency. If you have a financer you must have everything in the written and estimated value of the project and how much time you required to complete the project and touch the breakeven mark.
- Labor and experts:
Precast concrete is different from typical concrete there is not enough labor who has expertise in it. If labor has expertise the cost of labor increased they charged more simply.
In the US majority of suppliers have back off because of a lack of expertise.
Despite being cost-friendly the expertise required to install precast labor is rare.
Labor doesn’t know how to form the connections between precast concrete blocks because they have minimum experience in this field.
You must have a team of experts with you. While designing the project the architect must be a qualified and experienced person who knows how to handle any unforeseen situation which can take place anywhere. As you can’t make many changes in design after it started to make sure your architect has a previous background of working on precast concrete projects.
Conclusion:
Precast concrete has made things easier for those who know how to work that out. You have to keep all these considerations in mind if you want to use precast concrete in your next project. One small mistake can cost you a lot of money but if utilized properly can save you a lot of costs. Precast concrete forms are available in the market and even made to order you have to check it and give an accurate measurement of it.