Sustainability is generally defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

One area of construction that can be easily overlooked is waterproofing. This is true in the precast world as well as in other sectors of construction, probably because waterproofing details are easily missed and tend to not cause issues with the building until a few months or years have passed. Water is a powerful force and if it gets into …

Today’s mid-rise and multi-use buildings can include retail space, office space, residential living units, hospitality and parking.

Call it a ramp, a deck or a parking garage, most of us have used them at some point, possibly every day. How and when is the idea of a precast parking structure born? Early and with efficiency in mind, that’s how. Everyone on the team is tasked with developing the most efficient structures while paying close attention to cost, …

Albany, Minn. (Dec. 14, 2020) – Wells Concrete, the fifth largest precaster in the U.S., has acquired Waukesha, Wis., based precaster, and machinery manufacturer, Spancrete. With more than 125 years of combined experience in the industry, the partnership aligns two companies dedicated to precast innovation.

This is a basic walkthrough of how precast concrete building components are made.  We’ll focus on the daily plant cycle and go from preparing forms for casting to piece transportation to the jobsite.  There are a few prerequisites to note before we begin casting precast.  First, the various precast building components being used have already been determined and component manufacturing …

School administrators and designers are recognizing the numerous advantages that precast concrete architectural panels and structural systems can offer K-12 school projects. Precast buildings can greatly accelerate construction time to meet tight occupancy deadlines; provide competitive construction costs with significantly reduced lifecycle costs; and provide a variety of architectural finishes to blend with a campus’ institutional look or create a …

Over the last couple years, the Precast Concrete Institute (PCI) set out to modify the Architectural Certification Program to develop a consensus-based approach to the certification process. This journey concluded in November 2019 and PCI member will be afforded the luxury of electing which level of certification they will strive for as part of the recertification process. The five levels …