What it is called, by market
One concept, four markets. Where a name means something else locally, the card says so rather than leaving you to find out on site.
United Statesyours
Same word, different thingcement
also Portland cement, concrete (colloquially)
In trade use, cement is the binder only. In everyday speech it is routinely used for concrete — a cement drive, a cement floor — which is the error this page exists for.
United Kingdom
Same word, different thingcement
also Portland cement, OPC
Identical to American trade usage, and the same everyday slippage: a concrete path is called a cement path by people who are not laying it.
Australia
Same word, different thingcement
also Portland cement
As the UK and the US — the trade meaning is the binder, and the colloquial use for the finished material is just as common.
Canada
Same word, different thingcement
also Portland cement
As the United States. The distinction is a trade one everywhere and a colloquial confusion everywhere, rather than a difference between markets.
The governing standard, by market
United States
ASTM C150
Portland cement — the binder's composition and types.
United Kingdom
BS EN 197-1
Composition, specifications and conformity criteria for common cements.
United States
ACI 318
Structural concrete — the finished material's design.
Calculators for this
Each works in either measurement system, and the terminology on the page follows whichever market you have selected.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the actual difference between cement and concrete?
- Cement is one ingredient; concrete is the product. Cement is a fine powder, manufactured by burning limestone with other materials and grinding the result, which reacts chemically with water — it hydrates rather than dries — to form a paste that hardens and binds. Concrete is that paste plus sand and coarse aggregate, in proportions chosen for the strength, workability and durability required. A cubic metre of concrete contains a comparatively small proportion of cement by mass, and most of what is in it is stone and sand. So ordering cement when concrete is meant orders a fraction of the material, and the words are not interchangeable on any document that will be priced or delivered from.
- Does it matter if I say cement when I mean concrete?
- In conversation, rarely. On anything that turns into an order, a specification or a claim, considerably. A supplier quoting for cement is quoting for bagged binder; a supplier quoting for concrete is quoting for a delivered mix with a specified strength, slump, aggregate size and exposure class. A specification calling for a cement floor tells a contractor almost nothing about what to lay, and a defect report describing cracked cement makes it impossible to tell whether the complaint is about a concrete slab, a screed or a mortar joint. The other reason to keep the distinction is that cement content is itself a specified quantity — mixes are described partly by how much binder they contain.
- What about mortar, grout and screed?
- All cement-based, all different materials, and all frequently called cement by the same slippage. Mortar is cement, sand and usually lime, without coarse aggregate, used to bed and joint masonry. Grout is a fluid mix used to fill voids — the cores of blockwork, the gap under a baseplate, the joints between tiles — and is proportioned to flow rather than to be worked. Screed is a levelling layer over a floor, in British and Australian usage, laid comparatively dry and compacted rather than poured. Each has its own specification, its own strength criteria and its own failure modes, so describing any of them as cement loses the information that decides what should be delivered.