What is Concrete Made of?

At A Real Advantage Construction, we handle all kinds of concrete projects. From concrete construction of walkways and stoops to all types of masonry work, we guarantee excellent results every time. We thought we’d take a few minutes to talk about that most beautiful of all building mediums, concrete. What exactly is concrete made of?

Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cement-like materials, such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate (generally a coarse aggregate made of gravels or crushed rocks such as limestone or granite, plus a fine aggregate such as sand), water and chemical admixtures. This fascinating material gets it’s name from the Latin word “concretus” (meaning compact or condensed).

So how does concrete work, you say? Well, concrete solidifies and hardens after mixing with water and placement due to a chemical process known as hydration. The water reacts with the cement, bonding the other components together, eventually creating a robust, stone-like material. This is how we get such beautiful concrete work done, like sidewalks, stoops and curbs. 

In fact, concrete is used more than any other man-made material in the world. As of 2006, around 7.5 cubic kilometers of concrete are made each year, equaling more than one cubic meter for every person on Earth. For those of you who enjoy masonry work like us, this is pretty cool.