Precast Concrete Reduces Risk

Precasters can be a single-source supplier for the total building solution. Using an integrated team approach, precasters can work closely with the design team providing engineering and technical support. The design team can make changes or adapt the design with less risk, fewer coordination issues because of a reduction of trades, while keeping costs to a minimum.

Precast concrete is sometimes viewed as a riskier form of construction by design professionals because it requires an early commitment during the design phase and some architects are unfamiliar with how precast buildings are designed and constructed. In reality, precast concrete construction is an inherently less risky form of construction for both owners and architects:

Budget and Schedule Compliance
For the owner and design professional, budget risk is one of the most significant factors they face in meeting the building’s program and aesthetic needs. Because precast is a plant-built product, precast producers can make schedule and cost assessments in the late schematic and preliminary design phases to help design professionals assess budget compliance. Total precast (where precast concrete components are used for both the structure and enclosure of the facility) can represent the dominant portion of the construction budget. When the intricacy of the exterior wall panels can be tied down early in the project, precasters can estimate fabrication and erection costs with a high degree of accuracy.

Detailing Risk Reduction
Building façades are often composed of multiple products with varying degrees of expansion and contraction. Even the best architectural documents can suffer from poor coordination and improper installation in the field, causing the design professional lost time in coordination and problem resolution, as well as potential liability if the products are installed improperly. Precast concrete allows the creation of multi-part façades without these detailing risks. Precast can affordably mimic most exterior finishes with a limitless variety of appearances.

Winter Conditions
Precast concrete is plant-produced and trucked to the jobsite when needed. Unlike poured-in-place concrete, masonry, or exterior insulation systems, the product can be installed in cold (or even freezing) weather, eliminating the cold-weather procedure delays, general conditions claims, and potential change orders associated with other products.

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Precast Saves Time

Precast concrete systems provide a variety of savings to a project schedule that are not always considered when looking at upfront costing versus other materials. These savings include speed in the design, construction, and finishing processes.

Design
The repetitive nature of precast panels and components allows design work to move more quickly to the shop drawing stage. Precast components can also aid a fast-track design by completing designs while other design work is still underway.

Design economy through repetition, maximizing piece size and shape and other approaches that limit form requirements.

Flexibility of design that offers inherent aesthetic qualities, as well as the ability to mimic the appearance of materials such as granite, marble, limestone, sandstone, or slate.

Material reduction by designing integrated structural components with architectural finishes and by using hollowcore slabs as combined ceiling/flooring units.

Construction
Precast components can be installed quickly, often cutting weeks or months from the schedule. This allows construction to get into the dry quicker and allows interior trades to begin work earlier.

Construction efficiency, due to the precaster’s ability to cast and erect throughout the year because precast components are fabricated under factory-controlled conditions in a plant, harsh winter weather does not impact the production schedule or product quality. This eliminates added time to accommodate unforeseen schedule condition due to delays caused by weather or site requirements. Factory production also provides tight tolerances, minimizing the need for field adjustments.

Elimination of hidden costs, by reducing the time to carry financial bonds, lowering contractor overhead costs and risks, eliminating the expense of nonprecast-related equipment, and reducing subcontractor costs.

Interior Completion
Precast concrete insulated sandwich wall panels provide a finished interior wall that avoids the time and cost of furring and dry-walling while offering energy efficiency. Electrical conduit can be embedded in the panels. The entire wall assembly can be constructed with one trade, versus the six or seven for a typical wall assembly. Using hollowcore planking to combine ceiling and flooring units can speed construction even further.

~ Information provided courtesy of PCI.