European Standards for Repair and Protection of Concrete

Within Europe, the Construction Products Directive (CPD) governs the sale of goods in the construction sector. Among other things, it requires that products approved for sale in the meet minimum standards of performance, safety and quality control, thereby promoting free trade of approved materials across the member states. The public procurement rules within Europe will mean that the use of these standards and approved "CE-marked" products will become mandatory for much of the construction sector. Concrete repair products and systems fall under the CPD, meaning that any repair product or system made available for sale must be pre-approved to meet minimum standards. This paper summarizes the latest progress in the development of these standards for concrete repair. The enclosed tables list progress with standards to April 2008. The paper describes the basic scope of the standards and the philosophy which has been adopted by the CEN Committee, and outlines the likely operation of the standards and their implications in practice. The paper also describes the interaction between the standards and the Construction Products Directive. A summary of the objectives of the ISO committee working on a global standard for repair will also be given.