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| "Ancient" concrete tree - China |
I like concrete and I also like mud. However, the two are not synonymous. Concrete is an amazing construction material, so seemingly simple in its core composition yet unlimited in possibilities. Concrete is used more than any other man-made material in the world, and has legacy structures which date back to the times of the Roman Empire. While concrete is commonly thought of as a structural workhorse, it can also take on color, texture, patterns and shapes which make it an elegant solution for material durability, aesthetics and efficiency.
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| Sloppy concrete patch job |
And then, there is mud. Mud is what happens in much of the industry, when a few sacks of mix are thrown together with water and slapped onto a surface – see steps repair. Now I do understand that this is purely a utilitarian function, but surely it would have been possible to make a mix which was a bit better color matched – since this was for repairs all over campus. Or at least not slop it over onto the metal stair nosing. More expensive? Maybe to test out the first batch, but so was the cost of labor for the other two guys on the one man job.
Last week, I attended a seminar in the architecture school about the Swiss architects
Christ & Gantenbein. Their projects are a veritable portfolio of possibilities with concrete. Using the material almost like a paper doll cut out for the ancient tree in China; casting a house extension with a corrugated pattern to resemble an old metal garden shed; forming the concrete on the interior of a tower to look like… some organically malleable material. Concrete is a mix, so it can also include additional materials along with the aggregate, such as glass beads, or even rammed earth.
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| Concrete w/ Rammed Earth |
Yet I am reminded of the stories from my own and other projects. Gaps in poured concrete walls, driveways and sidewalks overworked and spalding within a year, ghastly looking stamped concrete steps, and sidewalks which heaved after the first frost. All this just on one residential block, within the last 5 years. My entre into the construction industry was via ICFs and the concrete industry, so I know the struggles facing the industry. Once the mix leaves the plant, there are so many variables of traffic, site readiness, and quality of finish. There is the “hand-off” from ready mix employees to the contract labor installers. So I get that it is not easy - but it is also a missed opportunity for the craft of concrete.
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1 comment:
Hey Vera!
You know I do a lot with concrete (counters, furniture, housing, sculpture, etc.) so I'm happy to see you blogging about it.
I have a few comments on concrete stairs. I'm not as offended by those temporary patches (and they ususally are temporary < one year patches) as I am by sloppy work on treads. When the forms are allowed to run over and aren't screeded right you get a deep 1.5" valley at the back of the tread that has to be filled in with mortar. The mortar patch makes a brand new stairs immediately a fail since it's no longer monolithic and it always fails in 5-10 years (faster above 40 N lattitude). Tech has a lot of sloppy stairs like this. It's better to grind the tread back down and masonry coat that it is to fill in terms of repair. It's a shame to bust up stairs and waste all the concrete, but the real solution is to just finish it right in the first place!
The patch above is largely discolored because the existing concrete is simply stained. The contrast would be significantly reduced by simply pressure washing, but in this case, the patch has a short life span anyway, so the tread needs complete replacement. As a matter of public safety you this sort of patch doesn't bother me, but I see sloppy patch work all the time and it drives me nuts.
Next time you're over to Palmer, I'll show you a concrete trench drain I installed in front of my shop between two existing slabs--you'd never know it wasn't always placed at the same time!
Come over and visit Simon and we'll have some wine and talk concrete!
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