Thailand has two commodity Portland cement products hand mixing as well as several other specialist products.

Red Branded Portland Cement ASTM 1

Commonly branded as Cement Red there are several major brands of this “type” including TPI, Rajasri and Elephant Brand – all of these brands are considered equivalents products as they are all are manufactured to ASTM C150 Type 1 making them more than suitable for any high compressive strength construction requirement.

All of the “Green” Branded Portland Cement products from TPI, Rajasri and Tiger are actually portland cement blended with an inert product usually limestone that improves plasticity is cheaper but also reduces the cured  strength of the finished concrete.

In practice the cost difference between Green and Red cement products is a tiny, only a few baht and on a normal house this extra cost is very small  however it should be pointed out that the difference in the finished strength of the concrete is worth noting.

The compressive strength tests after one full week or curing are as follows:

Green – Tiger Brand @ 173 kgf/cm2

Red – Elephant brand @ 290 kgf/cm2

That is more than 40 % stronger for Red “brand” at only extra bath a bag, certainly worth considering.

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