Concrete Admixtures and Additives
One of the most important ingredients in high performance, long-lasting, durable and beautiful concrete produced today are concrete admixtures. Concrete admixtures are natural or manufactured chemicals or additives added during concrete mixing to enhance specific properties of the fresh or hardened concrete, such as workability, durability, or early and final strength.
The first step in optimizing concrete is to recognize that concrete is no longer simply cementitious materials, aggregates, and water. It is a high-performance material with not just four, but seven essentials – consisting of water, cementitious material, sand, gravel, chemical admixtures, additives, and fiber reinforcement.
