It all depends on what you class as concrete, ancient materials were very crude cements made from the crushing, compacting and burning of gypsum and or limestone. Mixing sand and water with the mixture it became a mortar, almost plaster like, strong enough to combine stones together.
Over the many thousands of year since this first began it’s been improved greatly with different stones and materials.
First use of concrete
Nabataea traders who occupied what we now know as Syria and Jordan in around 6500 BC built structures and by 700 BC they were using concrete for floors and underground waterproof cisterns.
The precursor to this was around 1300 BC when in the Middle East builders coated clay structures with a thin covering of burned limestone, reacting with air it formed a hard surface. Not quite concrete but the start.
Roman Empire – The use of concrete widespread
The ancient Romans cannot be the ones to claim they invented concrete but they were the ones that were the first to spread it around the world, and before the end of the Roman Empire they were using it to construct all buildings.
Portland cement and its use it construction
Joseph Aspdin in 1824 invented Portland cement, this was done by burning ground chalk and clay until the carbon dioxide was removed. The name came from the high-quality building stones quarried in Portland. Portland cement became widespread in England and France from the 1850’s onwards for the construction of industrial buildings by Francois Coigent who added steel rods which stopped the exterior walls from spreading.
Buildadrive – Pattern Imprinted Concrete Driveways
Concrete has come a long way since 6500 BC and is now commonly used for driveways, it has been around a number of years but as the designs and colours have increased so as the desire for one, in fact it is now a very popular driveway surface choice and we install Pattern Imprinted Concrete Driveways all across Yorkshire.
We believe the surface offers great value for money, it’s extremely hard wearing and low maintenance.