September 15, 2006

Technical

Specific concrete, cement definitions often confused

PETER KENTER

correspondent

In an episode of the original Star Trek series, the crew of the starship Enterprise wind up on a planet with a culture patterned after Chicago gangs of the 1930s.

Engineering officer Scotty threatens a trouble-making gangster with what he assumes to be local slang: “You mind your place, mister, or you’ll be wearing concrete galoshes.”

A big laugh on Scotty, or proof that, by the 23rd Century, everyone knows you can’t make cement overshoes out of the dry powder used as an ingredient in concrete.

“It’s very interesting that even people within the construction industry will mix the two up,” says Brian Hall, national marketing director with the Canadian Precast/ Prestressed Concrete Institute. “One is a ‘before’ product and the other is an ‘after’ product, but obviously a lot more goes into concrete than just cement.”

“This (confusion) goes back many years,” says Ivan L. Pfalser, a retired civil engineer living in Caney, Kansas who has made it a personal mission to correct any public confusion about the terms, writing dozens of letters to newspapers, magazines and broadcasters when the terms are misused.

“I remember as a kid, back in the 1930s, that small town people had never heard the word ‘concrete.’ These people would just go to the lumber yard, grab a sack of cement and pour what they called a cement sidewalk.

“As engineers began to get into more detailed design work, the word ‘concrete’ started getting out, particularly in the building of the big dam projects. I have a feeling that the word ‘concrete’ wasn’t even really pushed until the 1940s.”

The terms are still misused, though most often in a context that everyone understands.

“In the industry, they say ‘we’re pouring the cement,’” says Roseline Mouana, manager, communications with the Cement Association of Canada.

Mouana says she tries not to get too hot under the collar when the general public misuses the terms.

“If I’m picking up my daughter at daycare, I don’t give a parent an entire brief if I hear them telling their child not to run too fast, or they’ll fall on the cement. If I hear it in a construction context, I tell them, ‘I work for the Cement Association and I help people like you.’”

But work often follows Mouana home.

“The other day I was watching a Pink Panther cartoon with my daughter and the panther was walking into a construction zone. The paving guy had just put up a sign saying ‘wet cement.’ I started thinking, ‘there’s another one!’”

Association viewpoint

One of the most interesting things about cement and concrete is that the words are used interchangeably, even though cement is only one of the multiple ingredients used in the making of concrete. Is it a cement sidewalk or a concrete sidewalk? Is it a cement truck or a ready-mixed concrete truck? They are both concrete of course! Nonetheless, this confusion is a deep-rooted part of our language.

The Cement Association of Canada website

Cement: 1. a fine, grey powder made by burning clay and limestone. 2. this substance mixed with water and sand, gravel or crushed stone to form concrete, used to make sidewalks, basement walls and floors

Concrete: a mixture of crushed stone or gravel, sand, cement and water that hardens as it dries.

The Gage Canadian Dictionary

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