Cast in situ concrete vs. pre-stressed concrete design of a villa

Abstract

Precast concrete is becoming the preferred method of structural design and construction, due to the short duration of construction and its good quality. Despite its advantages, this method is mainly used in the construction of large buildings and its application to small buildings is still very limited. Therefore, the objective of this project is to study and compare the uses of precast concrete method as an alternative to cast-in-situ concrete. This project consists of two methods of construction design for a residential small villa. The first method is cast-in-situ design and the second one is a precast design. The objective of this project is to analyze the difference between these two methods in cost, quality and duration. The cast in situ design was done according to ACI 318-05M and the precast design was done according to PCI Precast and Pre-stressed Concrete, 5th Ed. This study shows that the precast concrete design is equal in cost to cast in situ design, it has a shorter duration of construction, and it gives a better quality.