SolutionsDufferin Concrete Newsletter

April 2015

Excellence in Health & Safety

2CSA A23.1 2014 standards focus on industrial floor slabs

4Improving your bottom line

Reduce drying time up to 40%

53

Strength. Performance. Passion.

Foamcrete - An innovative lightweight fill

& grout concrete solutionPage 5

Message from Peter MoylanAs you know, in July 2014 in the context of their planned global merger, Holcim Ltd and Lafarge SA announced their proposal to divest certain assets to proactively anticipate and address potential requirements of competition authorities. Holcim Canada (and its divisions including Dufferin Concrete) was among the list of companies to be divested.

On February 1st, 2015, it was announced that Holcim and Lafarge received a binding offer from CRH for the assets in the global divestment package, including Holcim Canada. CRH is an international, diversified building materials group based in Dublin, Ireland, with a long and successful history in the industry. The group is present in 35 countries, employing 76,000 people. It is the largest building materials company in the U.S., a regional leader in Europe and has a growing presence in India and China.

The proposed divestments will be submitted to the relevant Competition authorities and to the shareholders of CRH. The divestments are subject to the completion of the merger, including a successful public exchange offering and approval by Holcim’s shareholders in the second

quarter of 2015. Holcim and Lafarge (and Holcim Canada and CRH) will continue to run their businesses separately until the proposed merger and divestments are completed, which is expected to be in the first half of 2015.

Dufferin Concrete, and Holcim Canada’s other divisions, will continue to operate as usual and our commitment to your success and to the products, services and value that we offer is unwavering. Once the sale of Holcim Canada becomes effective, we are confident that our new owner will do its utmost to support us in ensuring that you will continue to receive the highest quality products and services.

We will do our best to keep you updated as information becomes available but we wanted to assure you that at our sites, in our offices and in the field, our employees will continue to deliver the performance and value you have come to expect.

Peter Moylan General Manager Dufferin Concrete

Peter Moylan General Manager Dufferin Concrete

Excellence in Health and SafetyDufferin Concrete is incredibly proud to have been recognized last year by the Infrastructure Health & Safety Association (IHSA) and Ready Mixed Concrete Association of Ontario (RMCAO) for our OH&S performance in 2013. Our team is committed to achieving our vision of ZERO Harm and bringing that dedication to each job we are a part of to ensure everyone returns home safely every day.

The IHSA awarded Dufferin Concrete (DC) with an Achievement Award for Injury Reduction. DC was also recognized by the RMCAO for Outstanding Achievement in 2013 for demonstrating excellence through good practices and policies and sharing information about health and safety successes.

“Achieving our vision of ZERO Harm is a daily challenge. I am proud of

DC employees who have embraced our vision and understand that our goal can only be reached if we all contribute individually and as a team,” said Peter Moylan, General Manager, Dufferin Concrete.

Presentation of Achievement Award by Al Beattie, President and CEO of IHSA, to management and employees of Dufferin Concrete, Ontario Redimix and Holcim Canada

More individual acknowledgedment

The RMCAO also acknowledged individual ready-mix concrete plants for No Lost Ttime Accidents or Injury in 2013, including the following Dufferin Concrete plants: Aylmer, Beamsville, Bowmanville, Bradford, Burlington, Cambridge, Etobicoke, Georgetown, Kitchener, London, Malton, Maple, Mississauga, Niagara Falls, Orangeville, Peterborough, Scarborough, Simcoe, Stratford, Tillsonburg, Toronto, and Whitby.

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Through innovations in strategic areas of our business, our team has developed tools and processes to help you improve your business and add value to your customers.

Dufferin U-Track One of the tools we are proud to offer is the Dufferin U-Track mobile application, a one of a kind tool that will allow you to track your trucks from plant to site from your mobile device. This allows for real time status that can save time and money to help meet scheduling needs. The tool also gives you access to mix information so you can verify order accuracy.

Site Supervision Construction projects and sites are becoming more complicated and congested than ever before. The size of projects, scope of work, aggressive construction schedules and number of subtrades working on a single site can put huge demands on Site Superintendents. To help our customers better manage their job sites, Dufferin Concrete now offers site supervision in order to assist in concrete pours involving major volumes, high profile pours or pours involving complicated concrete specifications. Dufferin Concrete recently completed a major wind turbine project near Seaforth Ontario where the General Contractor took advantage of this new value-added service to ensure all major and high profile pours went smoothly and to spec.

Qlickview Delivery has become more difficult and costly across the industry and reducing delivery time can help improve your bottom line. Qlikview is another exciting tool DC offers that can be used to assess efficiencies within the cycle time of concrete deliveries on specific construction sites

Our team is determined to continuously improve in all areas of our business and we are eager to work alongside our customers to develop products and services that improve their business. Your sales rep can give you more information on all of these value-added services.

Improving your bottom line

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New location for our Bradford Plant

CSA A23.1 2014 standards focus on industrial floor slabs

Dufferin Concrete is happy to announce the successful relocation our Bradford plant in 2014.

This new site will not only address this growing market’s needs but also help us reduce our environmental footprint by decreasing distances travelled to supply this growing

community. Join us for a plant tour at our Open house in the spring of 2015. Stay tuned for more information.

Dufferin Concrete Bradford Plant 215 Artesian Industrial Parkway Bradford West Gwillimbury, L3Z 3G3

The Canadian Standards Association which manages the CSA A23.1 “Concrete materials and methods of concrete construction” has specific design requirements for interior concrete floors that are to receive a steel trowel finish. Such mixes must have a maximum w:cm of 0.55 and minimum compressive strength of 25 MPa.

In the 2009 edition of this standard, this applied to all floors except for the residential R-3. Changes in the 2014 version of the standard saw this now apply to all floors including residential.

In order to draw attention to this point, the 2014 edition has created a new exposure class, “N-CF” defined

as interior concrete floors with a steel-trowel finish that are not exposed to chlorides.

A “N-CF” exposure class has a maximum w:cm=0.55 and a compressive strength of 25 MPa at 28 days.

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Contractors are often faced with delays in construction schedules due to the slow drying process of conventional concrete. Floor cover-ings should be applied on concrete slabs once the relative humidity drops down to 75% - 85%, which is over four months for regular 4-inch concrete slabs. If floor coverings are installed before the targeted relative humidity is reached, it can lead to severe flooring failures and health issues such as molding.

Dufferin Concrete has developed a Fast Drying Concrete solution to address these concerns. The solution can reduce concrete drying time by 40% to reach the required relative humidity in approximately two

months for 4-inch conventional floors. The rapid moisture reduction in concrete over time permits early installation of coating, flooring or tiles which can speed up the construction schedule. The Fast Drying Concrete solution also includes the technology to evaluate the drying performance of concrete on-site and provide assistance to customers in determining floor covering installation time. The solution is an ideal choice for flooring applications of high-rise buildings and condominiums, where it is a challenge to meet tight construction schedule deadlines. It also reduces maintenance costs and extends the service life of concrete floors, adding value to end-users.

DC Foamcrete, an innovative concrete solution from Dufferin Concrete, is an ideal filling and grouting material for tunnelling and rehabilitation of waste mines and infrastructure. With reduced density of up to 1/4 of water’s unit weight, it can easily float on water surfaces.

Due to excellent flowability and filling capacity, easy-consolidation, good insulation, lightweight properties, fire-proofing and sound attenuation, DC Foamcrete is a cost-effective solution for various applications. It allows for density ranging from 300 to 1700 kg/m3 with strength development at 28 days from 0.4 to 25 MPa.

The concrete can be used in the insulation of pipelines, roofs and energy saving structures as well as for soil stabilization of road and building foundations. It can effectively help with dead load reduction of building structures and provide alternative solutions for fire-proofing and sound attenuation applications.

Dufferin Concrete has developed a DC Foamcrete procedure to optimize performance and consistency, ensuring quality control along with technical expertise from concrete production to the completion of installation on-site. The solution is excellent for complex project challenges.

Reduce drying time up to 40%

Foamcrete - An innovative lightweight fill & grout concrete solution

DC Foamcrete application

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Over $1.3 million raised for Ontario hospitals Dufferin Concrete takes great pride in giving back to the communities we live and operate in. With help from our customers, the Ready Mix Drum Sponsorship Program, an initiative spearheaded in 2008, has raised over $1.3 million in support of Ontario hospitals.

This investment in our community hospitals is made possible by our business partners who contribute to much-needed hospital programs. In appreciation, the companies have their logos placed on select Ready Mix Concrete trucks which offer “rolling recognition” throughout the communities of Durham Region, Halton Hills, Hamilton, London, Milton, Oakville, and Toronto for one year.

In the fall of 2014 Dufferin Concrete launched three new ready mix trucks in support of McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Grandview Children’s Centre in Durham Region and the Children’s Health Foundation in London.

Thank you to our 2014/2015 partners:

Golfi Concrete & Drain, QC Construction Products, Windmill Construction, Calibre Concrete, Cardi Construction, Tri-Star Forming, DeFaveri Group,JCL Concrete Pumping, Alfidome Construction, Walker Industries, London Machinery, Euclid Chemical, Tri Car Developments, Con Wall, Melloul Blamey Construction, Hyde Construction, H & L Forming, Sturdy Form, Kal Tire, Form & Build, Durham Region Heavy Construction Association, Midhaven Homes, City Homes, Newton Concrete, Mack Canada, Wuis Brothers Construction, Raymar Building Group, Veltri Homes, Harmony Creek, Langilles Scrap

2014 Ready Mix Drum Sponsors

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Dufferin Concrete2300 Steeles Avenue West4th floorConcord, ON L4K 5X6