Concrete, the single most widely-used building material in the world, has a history dating back to the Romans and ancient Egyptians. Given that concrete is used twice as much in construction over all other building materials, emphasis on quality, performance and sustainability is essential for the industry to grow and thrive.

One of the most important ingredients in high performance, long-lasting, durable and beautiful concrete produced today are concrete admixtures. Concrete admixtures are natural or manufactured chemicals or additives added during concrete mixing to enhance specific properties of the fresh or hardened concrete, such as workability, durability, or early and final strength. 

Explore our Solutions for Different Types of Concrete

With this One Material – Concrete – Sika Supports You in Your Project Needs

Our local sales and technical services teams support you throughout every phase of the construction process: from the initial consultation and project planning phase, to the detailed design phase and application on the job site and finally quality control, completion and final handover.

For over
100 years,
Sika has been producing high quality, innovative technologies for concrete, beginning with the first product named Sika®-1, which is still in the Sika product portfolio today.
20,000
metric tons of Sika concrete admixtures were used in the record-breaking Gotthard base tunnel project.
Thanks to Sika’s range of water-reducers for concrete, more than
6 billion
liters of water are saved annually in concrete production.
In the Lakhta Tower in Russia,
20,000 m³
of ready-mixed concrete with Sika admixtures were poured in one continuous operation, setting a Guinness World Record.

See How Sika Provides Solutions for the World of Concrete

Chemical Admixtures Are One of the Components in High Performance Concrete

The first step in optimizing concrete is to recognize that concrete is no longer simply cementitious materials, aggregates and water. It is a high performance material with not just four, but seven essentials – consisting of water, cementitious material, sand, gravel, chemical admixtures, additives and fiber reinforcement.

Ready-mix Concrete Producer

Engineering of concrete structures is a continuously evolving process. Invention and development of new construction methods place increasing demands on the building materials. Concrete producers face this technological challenge daily alongside other factors such as economy, ecology, raw material and energy costs and logistical complexity. In the duration of the whole construction process, time itself is an increasingly important factor.

Sika provides a wide range of concrete admixtures with innovative options for concrete mix design, whether it's for substantially reducing the water content of a mix (e.g. with Sika® ViscoCrete), using a more economical mix design or achieving sufficient early strength. Sika's concrete admixtures help you meet the challenges of modern concrete technology and the construction business.

Tec Crete is delivering all the concrete for the One Vanderbilt office skyscraper
Precast Concrete Industry
  • Wet Precast

Structural design and construction with precast concrete elements requires versatile products, from wet precast production to erection on site. Sika, a full range supplier, meets the diverse complexity of the entire precast concrete element production and construction process with solutions for all requirements, e.g. SikaRapid® for fast cycle times.

  • Semi-Dry Precast

The semi-dry precast concrete industry manufactures large quantities of finished concrete products with high quality surface appearance and excellent durability. SikaPaver® products significantly improve both the manufacturing process as well as the quality of semi-dry precast concrete products. Furthermore, it is possible to reduce efflorescence or even incorporate water-repellent behavior by using SikaPaver® AE.

Prefabricated elements produced with Sika precast concrete admixtures
Shotcrete Production
  • Shotcrete Solutions

Sika is the expert in all sprayed concrete technologies, including both wet and dry spray processes. This allows us to provide the optimum solution for each type of project and application, including the development of our own Aliva sprayed concrete machines. When combined with our research, development and globalized production of specialized sprayed concrete admixtures, such as Sika® Sigunit® and Sika® ViscoCrete®, plus our years of experience in tunneling, mining and all types of major construction projects, this makes Sika the ideal partner for owners, designers and contractors on any type of sprayed concrete works.

Learn more about our sprayed concrete solutions.

Application of Shotcrete with Sigunit accelerator
Admixtures for Distribution

Sika’s professional products have been approved on the biggest job sites in the world. Besides the direct sales to contractors and concrete professionals, Sika makes its products available through a broad network of distributors. Be it in professional trade or in retail channels, regarding product quality, Sika does not differentiate between the two market segments. Packaging and appearance of Sika products have been adapted to different requirements of the retail business. We believe that every customer deserves the best product.

Shopping basket filled with SIka products
Specifiers - Architects and Engineers

For those who are designing and engineering the fresh and hardened concrete specifications, Sika provides expert support, from the drawing board to the job site. We welcome the chance to work with specifiers and help design cast-in-place concrete to exceed your expectations – whether it is a high-strength mix or a unique color or finish texture you want to specify. In addition to our support services and concrete admixtures, we have a comprehensive range of proven products from “basement to roof” for your project.

Learn more about our full range of construction solutions available.

Sika concrete expert advising engineers during bridge construction