There seems to be a power structure among architectural materials . Wood andgraniteare the most popular , field glass and aluminium are the trendy , and marble is the eminent of gamey - end . And then there ’s concrete … hapless , unlovable concrete . We walk on it , drive on it , and even spitting gumwood on it . Some respect . It ’s just so hard to love a stuff that ’s given us block housing , parking pack of cards , and most of the earth ’s prisons . But things may be changing for the atrocious duckling of architecture . There is a new movement toward embracing concrete for home construction , primarily because it ’s one of the strongest and most long-lived of building material . It ’s also fabulously resistant to flame , which makes it a safe bet for homes .
The fire - resistant properties of concrete are fairly light to see . Thecomponents of concrete – cement ( limestone , clay and gypsum ) and mass materials – are chemically inert and therefore virtually non - combustible . Concrete also has a slow rate of passion transfer , which means that concrete wall in a household act as a fire buckler , protect adjacent rooms from flames and preserve its morphologic integrity despite exposure to acute high temperature [ source : The Concrete Center ] .
How do the properties of concrete make it so impervious to flames ? Fire resistance refers to a material ’s power to stand firm in a fire while everything around it burns . Determining a building fabric ’s fire resistance train into account the pace of heat energy conveyance and burnability of that material under varying condition such as the temperature of the attack , ventilating system , and fuel source within the building [ rootage : Portland Cement Association ] . While concrete wall can generally stand firm up to four minute of extreme fire insistency , most Mrs. Henry Wood - framed walls would fall in less than an 60 minutes [ source : International Association of Certified Home Inspectors ] . It ’s also important to observe that when concrete does burn down , it does n’t emit toxic exhaust , produce smoke , or drip liquified particles .
The blast repellent caliber of a material are very important in residential construction , as they settle how well the geomorphologic unity of the home will be maintained when expose to acute heat and flames . This is anticipate flack operation , and we consider a few examples in the next section , including a comparison of concrete and wood .
Framing Your Home: How does Concrete Hold Up?
If you ’re fortunate enough to have something to say about the pick of framing material in your nursing home , you might consider concrete over wood . homebuilder have been turning to concrete as a frame material in recent years for a variety of cause , not the least of which is its fire tolerant prop .
Concrete is generally considered to be a beneficial value in habitation building when it comes to fire performance , as it hold up much adept than wood in intense heating [ informant : The Concrete Center ] . This is partly because concrete allows for compartmentalization ( i.e. containment ) of fire . For an instance of compartmentalisation , rent ’s take a look at the burning of theWorld Trade Center ( WTC ) Towers on Sept. 11 , 2001 .
Despite the vivid hotness of fire jet fuel when the planes hit the WTC buildings on that fateful September morning , the 4 - inch ( 10 - centimetre ) concrete slab between each floor of the towboat were capable to limit the ranch of the attack , at least for a while . However , thetower paries were framed in steeland other textile , not concrete . As the oestrus of the fire top 800 degrees Fahrenheit ( 427 stage Celsius ) , the towboat ’s supporting steel structures weakened and began to collapse [ root : Scientific American ] . Still , most engineer agree that the fire performance of the WTC buildings on Sept. 11th was impressive , mainly because the compartmentalization of hotness and flames gave thousands of people a chance to escape before the buildings fall .
As a building material , concrete also stands up well in the face of other hazards such ashurricanes , tornadoes , andfloods , and provides better soundproofing and energy efficiency than wood [ seed : International Association of Certified Home Inspectors ] . However , despite these qualities , it does have some drawback . One is its meaning carbon footprint . broadly speaking speaking , for every gross ton of concrete produced , there is a ton of CO2released into the atmosphere [ source : Chemistry World ] . The carbon paper step of other material ( for instance , steel ) may be the same or unfit , but since there is much more use of concrete in the universe , the footprint seems bigger . Concrete factories are becoming more efficient all the time , but there is no denying this cloth ’s enormous environmental impact .
Nevertheless , if concrete is so fire - immune , why is it not used in all homes ? We ’ll explore that in the next discussion section .
The Cost of Concrete
All thing considered , concrete holds a great bargain of hope for homes of the future tense . Currently , approximately 17 percent of new homes build in the U.S. are framed in concrete [ root : International Association of Certified Home Inspectors ] . According to Omar Garcia , President ofSOGA Constructionin Washington , D.C. , a abode made of concrete is going to last much longer than a wood - frame home .
" There would plausibly be many more homes made of concrete in the U.S. if they were n’t so expensive to build , " he says . The Portland Cement Association , the national concrete industriousness ’s trade group , estimates that the cost of a new sign built using insulating concrete form ( the most common type of cement grammatical construction ) costs 4 to 7 per centum more than a similar house with a forest frame .
" There is a solid jump in price based on the cost of material when you compose in concrete , " say Garcia . " But the real increase comes when you factor out in the additional labor hour for the installation of brand reward and forming and for pullulate the concrete . "
However , with a concrete house , you do experience savings in the human body of gloomy heating plant and cool eyeshade and lower home insurance policies .
" consider how vulnerable Mrs. Henry Wood is to moulder , fire , andtermite plague , it ’s surprising how long wood has hang on as the dominant structural material of plate , " Garcia says . " If the cost of build a menage in concrete continues to decline , it makes gumption that consumers would embrace it as the material of option . "
It seems likely that , in meter , concrete will plausibly shed its image as a second - pace construction textile . There is no denying its lastingness , and few materials compare to its incredibly fire resistance . Perhaps concrete just needs a good PR campaign to bring it on par with much - bonk material such as woods , stone , and marble .
