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Fibre Focus for ICF
2nd October 2007
24th June 2008
PolySteel becomes the world's largest producer of ICFs
9th May 2008
Logix UK Become First UK Supplier to Receive BRE Certification
3rd October 2007
Building a Zero Carbon Future
1st October 2007
WALLFORM Centrepiece
5th September 2007
Award for Excellence
26th April 2007
The Lodge at Cawston Park
12th March 2007
Grand Designs in ICF
MMC Magazine examines the increased potential that modern reinforcements can offer insulated formwork.
The low weight and speed of assembly are accepted benefits to the Beco Wallform system of permanently insulated concrete formwork; featuring as it does a series of polystyrene formers that are quite literally stacked up and then filled with concrete.
The system copes well with erecting conventional dwellings with storey height lifts being poured before the first floor and the next set of wall units are put in place. If you want to go higher than three to four floors, however, the concrete requires reinforcement, the installation of which is less straightforward than when employing traditional shuttering where the steel-fixers generally tie all the bars and links for the cage before the second shutter is fitted along with the she-bolts and bracing. The possibility, therefore, of utilising fibre reinforced concrete becomes a fairly attractive and economic alternative.
While in Asia major civil engineering structures have been built using concrete devoid of steel reinforcement, and the popularity in this country of similar solutions for floor slabs and even precast elements, is gaining momentum, Beco has been working with Bekaert Building Products on the use of steel and even chopped polypropylene fibre mixes to fill its polystyrene moulds.
Most recently a small private developer in the Orkneys built two pairs of semi-detached properties where fibre reinforced concrete was selected as a means of dealing with the extreme wind loads to which they will be subjected.
"The possibility of utilising fibre reinforced concrete becomes a fairly attractive and economic alternative."
Robin Miller, the Managing Director of Beco Wallform confirms: “We have been cooperating with Bekaert and we can now provide specifiers with a set of tables that offer them different mix designs depending on the load conditions. This means that the amount of fibre reinforcement varies depending on the width and height of a wall as well as the loads imposed on it.”
Clients wanting to make use of the highly insulated, Lego-like building system can consult Beco’s own technical department on the various structural considerations as well as issues such as training for personnel to optimise the speed of erection and other benefits. Additionally one of the main distributors has now established its own design capability.
Looking at the progress MMC and ICF in particular have made over recent years, Robin Miller reflects: “At the moment there is still some confusion in the industry. Many architects tend to specify products they are familiar with - they may, for example, lean towards timber because it is pleasant to work with and they see it as green. As more information about ICF construction is spreading on a broader front, however, we are seeing more and larger projects in the RSL sector as people become used to the system and recognise both the environmental and the long term benefits of this method of
building.”
