Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

got a question first; doing some home DIY.

Over there in Abu Dhabi / Dubai, what type of cement plaster coat are walls covered in?
What water : cement : aggregate ratio?
Do they use Ordinary Portland Cement or Portland Cement + Lime or Portland Lime Cement ?
What is the thickest single coat application? Is a bonding agent used prior to cement mix plastering?
Are the plaster coats misted with water for proper curing?

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Now some musing and curiosity....

As a kid growing up in AD, I liked to watch buildings going up. What I recall is that every single highrise was concrete , NOT a single instance of structural steel .

Now in the US famous buildings like the Empire State building and the WTC were structural steel . In the case of the WTC, it might have had a central concrete mid section, not sure. I think everyone here is familiar with the iconic pictures of steelworkers balancing on steel I-Beams high atop the NY city skyline. In the US I see many a 4 or 5 story commerical space built with structural steel .

So why is concrete the predominant if not only method of contruction in Abu Dhabi?
Is it purely a matter of cost?
Superior Fire protection and Corrosion resistance of concrete over structural steel? Yet many American highrises are of structural steel so it can't be that critical an issue, right?

Structural steel gives more floor space and longer distance between support beams (relative to concrete) so I would think SS is the way to go.

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

Over there in Abu Dhabi / Dubai, what type of cement plaster coat are walls covered in? sand cement hand mixed by patans
What water : cement : aggregate ratio? whatever they fancy on the day, notionally 1/4 I guess but it ain't high tech. Top quality renders are available from reputable multi national suppliers but people don't want to pay
Do they use Ordinary Portland Cement or Portland Cement + Lime or Portland Lime Cement ? no lime
What is the thickest single coat application? Is a bonding agent used prior to cement mix plastering? as thick as they fancy they just throw and see what sticks( I can't remember the recommended but around 25mm ?) bonding agent h2o is very popular
Are the plaster coats misted with water for proper curing? :D

and concrete is the material of choice because it's so cheap here, we have a huge range of mountains to blow up and no environmentalists to stop us - add in the fact that we have 30m tonnes of cement capacity and a market of around 10 and you can guess what happens to the price

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

Are the quality renderers Asian or Westerners ? What % of building projects use their service.

What % of highrises use prestressed concrete sections?

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Off on a tangent but you got to see this video of Indian 'scaffold' workers.:eek::eek::eek:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=31a_1337133098

So how many dirhams would you need to be paid to do that;)

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

Asians trained and monitored by Westerners ;)

only a small percentage use the service, normally bigger jobs with a QS who knows what waste, consistency and efficiency mean, most sites operate under the misnomer that because their labour is cheap the job is cheap

not much high rise uses precast, easy enough to pump concrete up there, more precast used in smaller jobs, mainly floor beams

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

Bank Melli Building on Hamdan was always the only steel framed high rise in Abu Dhabi according to some bloke I know who's been here for eons

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

Is that the building with the glass lift? If so it used to be the Standard Chartered bank building.

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

Some pics of the Empire State building.
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...pub/141698.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ne-1931-23.jpg

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...r1-800x500.jpg

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

Some musings on your thoughts

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

I was mostly basing that opinion on the word of websites like the below one.
http://www.buildings.com/tabid/3334/...1/Default.aspx

The rest of it is just observation, where it 'seemed' to me that Steel columns were less in cross section than Concrete columns . The floors in SS buildings also seemed thinner.

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Really surprised that concrete is less labour intensive, woulda thought that one just needs to erect the pre cut Steel beams, whereas with concrete you got to build the rebar skeleton then pour.

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

Just to clarify what I meant

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

I was curious about post tensioned construction in the UAE, in an earlier post I had called it "pre-stressed". What % of the buindings there use tensioning ?

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

Give me a UK Gypsum Plasterer any day of the week! - It grieves me to watch what goes on here!

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

pre-stressed and post tensioned are two different things. Pre-stressed slabs or beams etc are delivered to site and lifted into place where as post tensioned is done on the site.
Not a high percentage of post tensioned concrete in UAE (I'd guess 25% of commercial buildings not residential) as the designers are not traditionally picking it as the default option, but it is gaining popularity. Dubai Mall had a lot of it for example, also all the floors in Landmark tower in Abu Dhabi.

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

Everytime there is some need to drill into the walls here, that's precisely what I think to myself.

Then again, there are benefits to the concrete. Like not hearing your neighbours, or people in the next room over.

Re: Concrete & Construction in the UAE
 

Mix ratios for cement, by volume or weight?