WHICH CEMENT S BEST

[keerthi2006]

All,

Can you please let me know for construction house whether Ultra Tech Cement or Ramco cement is best ?

[karjagir]

Hi Keerthi,

We used Birla super 53 grade for all cement works except plastering. For plastering work, we used Zuari 43 grade. With Birla super, you can't go wrong

Hope this helps

Thanks,
Karthik

[naveenchowdari]

Hi ... In initial stage we used Nagarjuna 53 and now we are using Sagar 53 due to non-availability of Nagarjuna cement.

[pradeep1008]

Hi All,

I'm a newbee in construction domain and planning to construct a house. So, i started my journey by studying the materials required for construction. The first thing that generally comes to one's mind is probably, the cement. I also wanted to know the best cement to be used.I've heard of many brands like ACC,ultratech,Bharti,Zuari etc.I thought that the one which is highly priced is the one which is best.like that ,when i searched some of the websites that sell cements online, I came across bharti,Birla super53,ACC are having higher price than others. But later i thought that there must be some parameters that will decide the quality of cement. started searching for details.

I thought of preparing an excel sheet that mentions physical and chemical properties of cement and the reference value of BIS standard (IS: 8112 : 2013).
1. http://www.materialtree.com/acc-53-grade-cement
2. http://www.materialtree.com/bharathi-53-grade-cement
3. http://nhai.org.in/spw/CorrespondenceIs ... 02918..pdf (ultratech). I was searching for test report and i got from this site.

Well, i took the comparison among ultractech,ACC and Bharti. All of them are meeting as per standards. Not only these, other brands also that are not compared. Ofcourse, if cement does not qualify as per standards then company would not be able to sell them,

My point is "There must be some quality in cement that makes the difference between the good,better and the best". I don't know what is that "wow" factor that clearly distinguishes between the good,better and the best of the available cement. i've prepared a sheet taking properties.could any one look at the properties and let me know that

Regards
pradeep

[pradeep1008]

For the people who are intrested to know the components of cements, here is the link that describes them and the % with in which each of them should fall.

http://civiltoday.com/civil-engineering ... -functions

Well, i came across a website that has the test reports of some of the cements like ACC,Ambuja,vasavadatta,Bharti. This site has maintained the test report sent by the cement manufactures every week. Interested people can have a look at the test reports and compare them against different brands

http://www.reconsgroup.com/downloads/download.aspx

[ausraja]

Pradeep , What was the conclusion of your study ? Just curious.

I believe since u are looking for the best cement you would also be looking at best sand , steel and best labourers/Masons otherwise no use.

[pradeep1008]

Ausraja,

I've updated the document with lastest samples and their results. I thought it would be easy to differentiate between the good and the best but after comparing them, i'm even more confused and don't have an exact answer. I don't have test reports of all the cement manufacturer's either.A material engineer might have an answer for this. My observation is as follows

After going through a lot of websites,materials, test reports, i found that BIS has stringent specification that makes every cement manufacturer to produce a decent quality of cement else they would fail to qualify in one or the other parameters and these values or parameters such that you increase one to pass 1 test then it would fail in other test parameter. So, you are very limited scope to do fickle with components in cement and their proportions.

Let me give you an example, If i take lime % present in cement , the standard says it should be between 60 to 65. Now if you increase lime %, the cement will become unsound i,,e it may expand after it is applied. To test lime quantity, Le-Chatelier Expn. (mm) method. This value as per standard should not be more than 10mm. Now , suppose you increase the lime %, then this value may come close to 10mm value and the test will fail. so, you can't go beyond 65 % .

I feel that all cement manufacturers compare their results with others and try to achieve similar values as their competitors.This makes each of them to be in race. Every commerical building,high rise building,flyovers,metros etc where there is huge requirement for cement and critical component, the first thing they do is look at the test report and then decide the cement to be used. Now if a particular company's test report vary from their competetors drastically, they will be for sure out of race. That's why i see the values against each parameter failling with-in similar range for all the cements.

This is all my personal observation that i've shared. I may be wrong and comments/corrections are welcome. The whole point of me doing this exercise is psychologically, i should not feel that I'm using a sub standard cement whether i go for material contract or labor contract (well i've not decided yet but after going through all of the posts in this website, i'm gaining confidence that i can go for labour contract and manage it). Thanks to all the guys who have shared their experiences (both good and bad), contacts, pictures of their construction etc.

Regards
pradeep

[ausraja]

Good luck pradeep. Which cement did u finalise to go with ?

[pradeep1008]

thanks AusRaja. i'm planning to go ahead with ACC . Which cement did you use ?

[ausraja]

To be frank with you I never did any study and used ultra Tec(also from Birla) from footing to finishing. The reason for doing this is because ultra Tec is easily available in every shop from bommanahalli to attibele region due to easy supply from TN.If we take 100+ bags they also give 20 to 30 rs discount/bag and free delivery to site.

The same is true for Indus steel , as it comes from Hosur. If you go to factory and purchase giving cash you get 10K discount/tonne so it all depends on location and supply.

I knew there were better brands which I could have afforded with a margin but it wouldn't have been practical for me to go for something which is not locally and easily sourced.