Cement is the major element in the Construction Industry. It acts as a binder whether it is concrete, brick masonry, or plaster mortar; so they all get strength from cement as well as the coaster aggregate or finer aggregate also gets strength from the cement.
Types of Cement:
Usually, there are many types of cement but for residential and industrial purposes cement is divided into three categories:
Grey Cement:
The first category is Grey Cement also referred to as OPC (Ordinary Portland Cement). This cement has more usage in brick masonry and concrete as compared to other category cement.
SR Cement:
SR Cement (Sulphate Resistant Cement) is the second category of cement. This cement is widely used in those areas where soil contains more seepage and salinity (high amount of salt).
White Cement:
The third category of cement is white cement often used in order to make chips of the floor.
Manufacturers of Cement:
There are many factories that produce cement such as DG Cement, Best Way Cement, Fauji Cement, Askari Cement, Pioneer Cement, Cherat Cement, and Maple Leaf Cement. The best quality cement comes from Maple Leaf, Best Way, and DG Cement.
Grades of Cement:
The psi (Pounds per square inch) strength of cement is 10,000 psi usually mentioned on the back side of the cement bag. There are three primary grades of cement available in market:
33 Grade Cement:
33 Grade Cement got a very low strength as compared to 43 and 53-grade cement. So it is used in plastering low scale commercial and residential construction projects. Due to its low compressive strength, it is not considered to be high load-bearing cement.
43 Grade Cement:
The other grade of cement is 43 grades having 6500psi strength at the end of 28 days of curing. It is considered to be high load bearer cement because of its high compressive strength as compared to 33-grade cement. It is mostly used in cement blocks, plastering concrete structure, concrete blocks, concrete tiles, pipes, and numerous parts of development projects such as flooring and wall plastering.
53 Grade Cement:
The third one is high load bearer cement more powerful than both 33-grade and 43-grade cement due to its high compressive strength of 10,000psi. It is highly used in plastering high scale commercial construction projects. It also used in plastering roads, bridges, and even airport runways. It is widely used in fast-paced construction projects.
Essential things to note while buying Cement:
- An important thing that should be kept in mind while buying cement is to buy it from an authorized and quality vendor.
- Do check the expiry date compulsory, also check whether the date is quite near to its expiry or not. If yes then avoid buying that cement bag.
- While you are buying a cement bag from a building material store, do not pick a cement bag down the order from a pile of cement bags because those cement bags will be under the pressure of upper bags.
Words of Precautions:
- After purchasing cement bags, proper care is required for its stacking.
- Try to ensure that the cement bags are not exposed to moisture.
- Cement bags should not be placed directly on the floor.
- Before stacking cement bags, it is better to make a 1 feet taller platform and cover it with polythene paper. The proportion of paper should be set in a proper way so that it could cover all the corners of cement bags.
- Then do stack the cement bags and wrap the polythene paper around them properly. In this way, they can be saved against moisture.
- Moisture makes the cement hard; do not use that cement that has been exposed to moisture because it lowers down the strength of cement in the construction process.