Essential Concrete Testing Types Before Building

Testing concrete is standard in construction to ensure that the concrete will stand the test of time. A second reason to perform materials testing on concrete when it arrives at a job site is to see that the concrete delivered is the same as what was specified and purchased. There are some common tests that are done to help answer both of these questions.

One is to simply weigh it. The unit weight measurement will reveal if it is the same as a known volume of fresh concrete.

Another is to use the slump test. When a conical shape is created of fresh concrete, the test is performed to measure the flow of the concrete to be sure it’s within a certain range so it won’t have issues with proper consolidation.

The air content test is yet another test that will measure the total air content in samples of fresh concrete. This test is limited because it doesn’t show what the in-place air content will be once it has cured.

The final test of the most common concrete tests is to test the concrete’s compressive strength by filling cylinders and measuring the force that is needed to break the cylinders at certain intervals in time to make sure the concrete will pass the strength tests.

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