Pop Cement In Nigeria And Its Prices
WHAT IS POP/WHITE CEMENT?
When it comes to the beautification and decoration aspects of buildings, the white cement is known as the POP cement remains the best option.
Though the cement is not as strong as the normal concrete types of cement, it has proven very useful for soft and fancy molding operations in modern buildings.
When it comes to cement, little had been said about the POP cement, especially in Nigeria.
All the POP pillars, ceilings, parapets, etc. were made from the mortar made with the POP cement.
The color of the cement defines its name because it is white in color and offers a very good when used in any part of the building, especially the ceiling.
Though POP is not modern in some countries it appears to be modern in Nigeria because the presence of POP ceilings and POP pillars can only be seen in the modern buildings in Nigeria.
Modern buildings are now having many POP sections included in the building design for decoration purposes and the cost of making POP sections in buildings is very expensive because the country has few POP experts when compared to the availability of carpenters and Mason.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ORDINARY CEMENT AND POP (WHITE) CEMENT
The heavy presence of White cement in the market has attracted attention to what the cement is meant for, though few people knew about its uses, the majority with no knowledge of building are yet to understand the difference between POP cement and the block molding cement.
When it comes to the mixing of colors to cement to obtain a particular design and decoration in any building, the ordinary cement will be ineffective no matter the quantity of the color mixed with it.
But in terms of making concrete pillars, blocks, and other parts of the building where strength and durability are required, ordinary cement becomes the best option.
Meanwhile, white cement remains the best option for building decorations, especially where bright and attractive colors are needed.
The POP cement can be mixed with any coloring agent to form colors such as red, yellow, blue, orange, etc. that could be used in any part of the building for decoration and strength.
However, when it comes to major parts of the building such as blocks and pillars, the white cement will not offer as much as the ordinary cement would do.
Ordinary cement is gray in color while the POP cement is white in color.
Another issue is that the White (POP) cement is costlier than the ordinary (grey) cement. 25 kg of the POP cement is more expensive than the 50kg of grey cement according to the volume of their bags in the market.
When considering the price, one will not consider it economically advisable to use the white cement for places meant for the grey cement because a job that 500kg of grey cement can do would require 800kg of the POP cement if it would have the same strength.
But if the 500kg of the grey cement would cost N300,000 the POP cement of the 800kg would be at N1,000,000 which will be a waste of money.
POP cement is very expensive in the market and does not last long when kept unused for a long time.
Hence builders and the POP experts have ways of ensuring that there is no wasting of POP cement during the building projects so that the clients wouldn’t be annoyed, hence; they buy sometimes with a strict quantity mapped out for the specific work.
USES OF POP (WHITE) CEMENT
 Because of its uniqueness, the white cement is used in the building projects for basically decoration and finishing job purposes which include:
The casting of POP ceilings is usually fixed as the ceiling for building, the POP ceiling has the advantage of being highly fire-resistant and has more strength and durability than other types of the ceiling, but it is the most expensive so far.
In Professional Tiling, the POP cement is usually added to the surface of floors during tiling to act as the link between two and more tiles and is usually colored according to the color of the tiles. It is a practice that is common with professional tilers.
The modern building pillars with curves and image inscriptions on them were made possible through the application of POP mortar by the POP experts.
Some artists now make use of POP cement for the erecting of human and animal statues with incredible colors on them.
With POP cement. Some buildings now have special carves on their four edges.
THE COST OF THE POP (WHITE) CEMENT
The POP cement can be found in almost all the building materials markets in Nigeria, and it is usually sold in bags just like ordinary cement.
However, each bag of the POP cement measures 25kg or 45kg in each but when less than one bag is required some retailers may have a way of measuring it per cup for the users.
The price per bag varies slightly according to location and quantity. If dealing with the major dealers one could obtain the price per bag at a lower cost than dealing with retailers.
Places like Lagos, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, and Aba may have major dealers in their major markets where one could obtain the price at a cheaper rate.
Meanwhile, here is the standard price of the POP cement per bag based on the brand and the volume of the bag.
For the SUPER WHITE CEMENT which measures 25kg per bag, the cost is within N4000 – N 5500
For the HIGH-QUALITY WHITE CEMENT which measures 40kg per bag, the cost is within N6,000 – N7,500
