Concrete
Poured-in-place exterior concrete facade. MacMillan Bloedel Building. Vancouver, BC. Source: TRACE
Sustainable Conservation Project Guidelines for Concrete
| Recommended | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cleaning concrete using gentlest possible means as aggressive cleaning may harm the surface and/or expose rebar with limited concrete coverage. |
| 2 | Retaining concrete components for their beneficial thermal retention properties. |
| 3 | Investigating opportunities to integrate insulation and other sustainability upgrades into cavities behind precast concrete panels where appropriate for a building envelope. |
| 4 | Selectively replacing damaged panels in unitized systems rather than full replacement. |
Related Inherently Sustainable Elements
Sustainability Challenges
Sustainability challenges for concrete include:
- Consumes significant amounts of raw materials, sand, gravel, water, steel, and energy in production/transport;
- Monolithic installations can be difficult to rehabilitate locally;
- Evolving construction detailing and quality creates significant challenges, especially in severe climates (e.g., steel rebar with limited concrete coverage
- leading to expanding rebar, spalling, and concrete failure).