Hollow walls made of reinforced concrete. The use of reinforced concrete products in construction

During the construction of structures and buildings very often make hollow walls of reinforced concrete. However, few people know what these walls are and what their characteristics are. Therefore, before using these structures for construction, it is worth exploring all their features.

Types of slabs made of reinforced concrete

Depending on the composition and type of construction, reinforced concrete slabs are of the following types:

• Reinforced concrete slabs with continuous construction. These products are available in different sizes. Their length varies between 1790-6260 mm, a width of 1200-4500 mm, and a thickness of 120 mm, 170 mm, 210 mm. This type of product has a large mass. Their weight depends on the size of the plate itself and ranges from 0.625 tons to 3.7 tons. The height size reaches 220 mm. These products are used to block walls in residential and public buildings.
• Plates with round voids. It is also a fairly large design. Plates with a width of 100 mm have a length of 240-1200 mm, with a width of 120 mm - 170-890 mm, with a width of 150 mm - 240-890 mm. Their height reaches a maximum of 220 mm. But unlike a continuous floor slab, reinforced concrete multi-hollow slabs have good sound insulation and thermal insulation. These indicators are ensured by the presence of voids in the inner part of the plate.
• Special plates. These designs are suitable only for balconies, loggias, bay windows and overlapping plumbing units. Their difference is that in the design there are special openings for laying pipes. The height of these structures is 200 mm.
• Ribbed plates. They are used to overlap brick residential and public buildings, they are also very often used to equip the bearing base of the roof. They are very large. Their length can reach up to 18 meters, width - 3 meters, and height - from 600 mm to 800 mm.
• Floor slabs spacer. They are installed between the columns of buildings. The length of these plates reaches 1.5 meters.
• Heavy concrete slabs. These structures are installed between the columns on the ground floor.

Features of the walls of hollow slabs

Currently, hollow slabs are used in the construction of the walls of many buildings, including residential buildings. This is understandable, because hollow walls made of reinforced concrete have the best characteristics and qualities.

It is worth paying special attention to the following features of these designs:

1. Due to the fact that there are voids in the panels, they are very easy to install and the load on the walls is significantly reduced.
2. Voids provide good thermal insulation, and therefore the walls do not need additional insulation.
3. Another good feature is sound insulation. Despite the fact that the thickness of the walls of reinforced concrete does not change, the sound insulation is very high. External sounds and noise practically do not penetrate the walls.

Criteria for choosing slabs for hollow walls

It is especially important to choose the right structures for the construction of hollow walls. Therefore, before you start to make hollow walls of reinforced concrete, you should pay attention to the properties of the plates.

Many people think that they differ only in parameters and sizes, but this is not entirely true. Multi-hollow panels also have distinctive characteristics that are useful in the construction of houses and public buildings.

Distinctive criteria for hollow panels

• The first distinguishing characteristic is the method of reinforcement. Depending on the type of slab, reinforcement is used using prestressed reinforcement or without prestressing reinforcement. Especially often during construction, panels with prestressed reinforcement are used.
• Another important feature is the number of sides of the support of the entire structure. Basically, all hollow structures can only be supported on two short sides. But sometimes there are constructions with supports on three or four sides.
• It is worth paying attention to the method of manufacturing plates. Basically, hollow reinforced concrete slabs are available with two markings of PC or PB. Depending on this, the method of manufacturing the design of these products is different.

Differences between hollow PB panels from PC

Panels under the PB brand are made by casting continuous formwork. They have a flat and smooth surface, and they almost do not crack. These constructions use capital construction. Reinforced concrete slabs of this type can be easily cut along or into separate parts, and they can also be made oblique at an angle from 30 to 90 degrees. Moreover, their supporting structure is not violated. These properties greatly facilitate the work on the construction site.

Plates under the brand name PC are cast in the formwork. With a length of up to 4.2 meters can be produced without prestressed fittings. In addition, they have free deflection.

Features of the installation of plates during the construction of hollow walls

Of course, in order for the hollow walls of reinforced concrete to be strong and strong, it is necessary to correctly install the panels.

Installation of hollow walls consists of the following:

1. Since there are no mounting loops for mounting on hollow plates of the PB brand, the loading and unloading of these structures should be carried out using soft rods or a special traverse.
2. In order to pull the stock from under the panel, during laying it is necessary to leave a small gap to the next panel. Next, the already installed slab should be moved with a crowbar to the adjacent panel.
3. It is worth observing the value of the minimum depth of the structural support. These figures depend on the type of wall. For example, for brick walls, the minimum depth should be 8 cm, and the largest 16 cm, for reinforced concrete walls, respectively, 7 cm and 12, for gas and foam concrete blocks - from 10 to 15, for steel structures - 7 cm.
4. Before you start installing the panels, you must hammer the ends of the holes with voids. Voids can be patched with pieces of wood or fragments of bricks. This is done so that water does not get into the structure. Due to this, the service life of the hollow walls increases, they do not crack, do not crumble.
5. After complete installation of the plates, it is necessary to anchor and fill the cracks with cement. For PC marking boards, the anchor hooks onto the mounting eye, and the void is poured with cement.

Also, before proceeding with the installation of hollow structures, a crane should be ordered. It is important to take into account the size of the access paths, the maximum possible reach of the crane boom, and the possibility of an allowable crane load weight.

The cost of hollow structures made of reinforced concrete

Few people know how much hollow concrete costs, the price of this product is different everywhere. Of course, it all depends on the quality and design of this product.

A PC brand plate costs from 2 to 12 thousand rubles. A panel brand PB cost from 1,500 to 15 thousand rubles. The cost of these products depends on the size of the structure, quality and composition. The better and larger the plate, the correspondingly higher the price of the product.