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Tour Provides Insights on Concrete Technologies
 Rookies and veterans alike in the residential concrete industry found what they were looking for at the Concrete Home Building Council’s recent two-day Concrete Technologies Tour at which more than 100 attendees from across the country visited facilities in the Kansas City, Mo. area.
“Prior to attending the tour, my only experience with concrete was as a foundation, driveway or sidewalk material,” said James Trumble, a remodeler based in Ann Arbor, Mich. “The tour opened my eyes to the many different uses of concrete. The people I met on the tour, and the lessons I learned, helped prepare me to take advantage of those uses.”
Trumble said that the tour provided him with direct access to experts in the industry’s various disciplines, including manufacturing, production, business owners and association staff, and they were able to provide him with information that “would have taken me years to assemble on my own.”
“The most fascinating part of the tour wasn’t the actual process or technology, but it was how serious our hosts were about getting the rock out of the mine, getting the cement portioned perfectly, mixing the concrete under as close to ideal conditions as possible, applying spectacular finishes through staining and coloring,” Trumble said. “Additionally, the robotics employed by the various form manufacturers was a demonstration of their commitment to perfection.”
 Based on the knowledge he gained on the tour, Trumble said that he will be using Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs) for the first time in his next two projects.
The tour of concrete technologies started underground in the Hunt Midwest Material Subtropolis, the world’s largest underground industrial park. Carved out of a limestone quarry, the facility is currently 5 million square feet in size and will eventually grow to 50 million square feet. Tour participants were able to see actual blasting in the ongoing excavation that is adding space to the subtropolis.
From there, the attendees received a first-hand view of the cement process at a Lafarge manufacturing plant, and then moved on to a Concrete Materials Company Degussa and Scoffield ready-mix plant where they saw demonstrations of concrete stamping, staining and overlays.
The first day of the tour ended at a Miller Materials concrete masonry plant, where concrete paver machines were running at full throttle.
Day two started out at ACH Foam Technologies, where attendees learned the process of making insulated concrete forms, as well as ice chests and garage insulations. From there Western Forms displayed the removable form industry in the above-grade world, how it’s done and the potential it has. The tour then went on to view insulated concrete form homes in different stages of development by C&C Concrete Specialists.
The tour ended with a visit to Wall Ties & Forms’ removable form manufacturing plant, where industrial robots were the center of attention.
Next year’s tour will visit Arizona to view an autoclaved aerated concrete plant, a post-tensioned plant, roof tile manufacturing and a post-tension masonry subdivision. Also included will be a more in-depth cement plant tour.
For more information, e-mail Dawn Faull at NAHB, or call her at 800-368-5242 x8362.
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