Most of us are, in some ways, in contact with concrete in our daily lives. Our houses and apartment buildings that we live in, or the roads that we have travelled on daily, or the skyscrapers that we see on the road side, there are many examples. But, we never really think about what constitutes concrete slabs, have we? Unless we are operating in the concrete business, we never realised that concrete is the second most consumed substance in the world behind water.
A concrete slab is widely used in construction as the foundation for: walls, bridges and footpaths. While unreinforced concrete has a long history since the Roman era where they built the Colosseum in 300 BC, when looking at modern construction, reinforced concrete slabs are mostly used to minimise cracks’ openings by keeping it reasonably tight until being repaired.
This is because concrete is very strong when it is squeezed in compression but very weak when it is being pulled apart in tension.
So, what are the different types of a concrete slab?
1. Steel reinforcing bars and welded wire reinforcement are popularly used by construction companies. The process of constructing reinforced concrete slabs starts with leveling the desired concrete slab with a board on the side. The thickness typically goes from 4 to 20 inches. Then, build the bed and mesh wires are stacked, like the UNO stack that we used to love to play, horizontally and vertically. Now you are ready to pour in the concrete and let it dry. Well, this may sound really easy but it actually requires a lot of work and time.
2. Other alternative is the fiber-reinforced concrete. While it is less expensive than the mesh wire, it still increases the strength many times. The steel fibre may be more ductile as compared to the glass and plastic fiber. Why use glass and plastic fiber then? Being environmentally-friendly is the current trend, while steel has the potential of corrosion, glass and plastic fiber is corrosion-proof and lighter. Those are definitely plus points for our environmentally-friendly friends in reducing harm to the surrounding environment.
The ‘green’ trend that is ongoing has also inspired Danterr to provide more environmentally friendly options to our customers. We have previously introduced the Micro synthetic fiber and HPP50 Macro synthetic fiber in conjunction with the artificial reef project that we helped work on with Subcon.
If you have a project coming up don’t hesitate to contact us on: 1800 262 383 and one of our friendly staff can assist you in choosing the right products to best suit your project needs. Alternatively, please email our sales team for any enquiries: sales@danterr.com or visit our website: www.danterr.com