Gypsum concrete is a building material used as a floor underlayment used in wood-frame and concrete construction for fire ratings, sound reduction, radiant heating, and floor leveling. It is a mixture of gypsum, Portland cement, and sand. The brand name Gyp-crete, a Maxxon Corporation trademark, has come into general use as a term for gypsum concrete by construction professionals and architects.
Gypsum concrete usage in the construction industry started in the 1980s due to the advantages over lightweight concrete. Gypsum concrete is light weight and fire resistant, and doesn’t shrink crack. A 1.5 inch slab of gypsum concrete weighs 13 pounds per square foot versus 18 pounds per square foot for regular concrete. Both the quality of installation and strength in terms of PSI have increased significantly since the 1980s.
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“Beauty, like all other qualities presented to human experience, is relative; and the definition of it becomes unmeaning and useless in proportion to its abstractness. To define beauty not in the most abstract, but in the most concrete terms possible, not to find a universal formula for it, but the formula which expresses most adequately this or that special manifestation of it, is the aim of the true student of aesthetics.”
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