Precast Concrete,
Tilt-up Construction and Tilt wall: What's the Difference in These Terms?Several
terms - tilt-up panel construction, tiltwall construction, precast concrete building
construction - are used to reference new or nontraditional cement building processes.
Do they all mean the same thing? If not, what are the differences? As previously
stated in this article, tilt-up and tiltwall are two terms used to describe the
same process. For a tilt-up concrete building, the walls are created by assembling
forms and pouring large slabs of cement called panels directly at the job site.
The cement panels are then tilted up into position around the building's slab
to form the walls. Because the concrete tiltwall forms are assembled and poured
directly at the job site, no transportation of panels is required. One major benefit
of this is that the size of the panels is limited only by the needs of the building
and the strength of the concrete panels themselves. Tilt-up construction
panels can sometimes be extremely wide and/or tall. Tilt-up concrete panels have
been measured at just over 69 feet across and almost 93 feet from top to bottom.
Thus, architects and tilt-up concrete contractors have a great deal of flexibility
in planning and creating their buildings. Because concrete tilt-up walls
are poured outdoors, contractors are at the mercy of climatic conditions. When
temperatures drop below freezing, curing the concrete panels becomes more difficult
and expensive. This is why tilt-up concrete construction is particularly popular
in southern parts of the United States, where cold weather occurs less frequently.
Certainly, tilt-up concrete buildings are built in northern areas, but the window
of time for temperate weather is much smaller and less predictable, which can
make construction schedules more difficult to meet. The precast concrete
building process is similar to tilt-up construction, but it addresses the challenges
presented by weather. For precast concrete buildings, work crews do not set up
forms at the job site to create the panels. Instead, workers pre cast concrete
panels at a large manufacturing facility. Because the precast concrete forms are
poured indoors, this activity can take place regardless the weather conditions.
After curing, the precast concrete panels are trucked to the job site. From this
point, precast concrete buildings are assembled in much the same manner as tiltwall
buildings. The fact that precast concrete walls are formed at a manufacturing
facility resolves the weather issue, but presents a different limitation not found
in tilt-up construction. Because the panels must be transported - sometimes over
long distances - places a substantial limitation on how wide or tall each panel
can be. It would be impossible to load precast panels that were 60 feet wide or
90 feet long onto trucks and transport them any distance. For a precast construction
project, the panels must be smaller and more manageable to allow trucks to haul
them over the road to their final destination. This places greater design restrictions
on architects and limits the applications where precast construction can be used. Clearly,
tilt-up concrete construction and precast concrete are similar processes. Because
tilt-up affords more flexibility, it is the method of choice in locations where
the weather allows it. Precast concrete is a suitable choice in circumstances
where environmental factors and the construction schedule preclude tilt-up as
a viable option. Return
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