Circa 1877 (née Brick Brewery) | 20 fl | Complete

[clasher]

Hi, mastermind, can you explain 'pre-cast concrete building' vs traditional 'beam' (I'm assuming)?

Traditionally concrete forms for the walls, etc. are built on site and cement is poured into them and cast on-site in place. A pre-cast building has all the walls and floors cast off-site at a facility and they are loaded onto trucks and assembled on the site, kind of like giant lego blocks. An advantage of precast is that the only limit on speed is how fast workers can hang the precast, and it isn't temperature dependent, though cement can be formulated to cure at lower temperatures. By going precast they don't have to have as much on-site labour for building forms and pouring concrete.

Another use of precast concrete panels is on traditional steel framed buildings (red 'iron' columns and beams) where they are hung off the sides as the walls instead of using brick or blocks. Many floors are precast panels too.