A no-nonsense guide on the difference between two building materials

While people often use the terms concrete and cement interchangeably, they’re actually quite different from one another. In fact, the two materials don’t have much in common when it comes to how they’re used. In this article, we’ll explain what these two materials are, what makes them different, and how they’re used.

Things You Should Know

  • Cement is an adhesive that binds extremely strongly, but doesn’t make a suitable building material on its own.
  • Concrete is a combination of cement, water, and small stones. It’s a key building material you’ll find almost everywhere.
  • Concrete is much stronger and more durable than cement—cement on its own won’t last long.
Section 2 of 5:

What is concrete?

  1. Concrete is a building material made of cement, water, and aggregate. Construction aggregate refers to coarse and medium-grained materials. In the case of concrete, that means crushed stone, sand, or gravel. All of those materials are tossed and mixed together, and you end up with concrete.[2]
    • There are three main types of cement:
      • Portland cement: This is “traditional” cement. It dries quickly, is adhesive, and can be mixed to make concrete.
      • Portland cement blends: Portland blends may be made with fly ash, pozzolan, or gypsum. It tends to be easier to use on its own than regular Portland cement.
      • Hydraulic cement: Made with alite, belite, celite, and brownmillerite, this stuff hardens super fast and is mostly waterproof.
Section 3 of 5:

Key Differences

  1. Concrete is a common building material, but cement is not. Cement is a key ingredient in concrete, and the average batch of concrete is typically 15% cement. Cement on its own doesn’t really have many applications. It dries too quickly, and while it’s a great adhesive, it isn’t nearly as strong as concrete.[3]
    • When you look at a bridge, patio, sidewalk, or dam, you’re looking at concrete.
    • You might occasionally see handymen use cement for smaller jobs where they need to seal or glue something, but it’s never used for larger projects.
    • A building made entirely of cement would crumble to pieces quickly. Concrete buildings can last hundreds of years, though!
    • Picture the difference between milk and ice cream. Ice cream can’t exist without milk, but you’d never put whipped cream on some 2% and serve it as dessert!
  2. Advertisement
Section 5 of 5:

Concrete Uses

  1. Concrete is the primary building material for most construction. Due to its extreme durability and cheap cost, concrete is the penultimate construction material around. Foundations, bridges, fences, driveways, sidewalks, buildings, and more—all of it is often made exclusively with concrete. It’s versatile, sturdy, and very easy to work with, so it’s hard imagining anything else taking its crown any time soon.[5]
    • There are 16 different variations of concrete, but normal concrete, plain concrete, and lightweight concrete are the most common. Basically, it boils down to the ratio of cement, water, and stone.
  2. Advertisement

About This Article

Eric McClure
Co-authored by:
wikiHow Staff Writer
This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Eric McClure. Eric McClure is an editing fellow at wikiHow where he has been editing, researching, and creating content since 2019. A former educator and poet, his work has appeared in Carcinogenic Poetry, Shot Glass Journal, Prairie Margins, and The Rusty Nail. His digital chapbook, The Internet, was also published in TL;DR Magazine. He was the winner of the Paul Carroll award for outstanding achievement in creative writing in 2014, and he was a featured reader at the Poetry Foundation’s Open Door Reading Series in 2015. Eric holds a BA in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an MEd in secondary education from DePaul University. This article has been viewed 2,192 times.
2 votes - 100%
Co-authors: 3
Updated: November 28, 2022
Views: 2,192
Categories: Home and Garden
Advertisement