Plain concrete slabs have served as the flooring material for basements garages patios and utility areas for many years but concrete is now also a viable material in home interiors where it can be polished etched or stained to serve as the finished flooring surface if you are used to thinking of concrete as a utilitarian surface suitable only for utilitarian surfaces the many virtues.
Suspended concrete floors for houses.
A suspended floor is a ground floor with a void underneath the structure.
They can be insulated both underneath and on the edges.
Durability a properly constructed concrete floor will outlast most of the other components of the house.
The reasons for choosing a concrete flooring system are many and varied and will differ from one project to the next.
All you need to know.
There are still be many suspended floors out there however because retrofitting them is prohibitively expensive and often impractical.
What are suspended slabs made of.
Just how well this works depends to a great extent on the floor construction.
This is particularly true of residential properties.
This guide describes and illustrates the various types of concrete slab on ground floor systems and suspended floors suitable for residential buildings ranging from single detached houses to medium density buildings of apartments and flats.
Concrete floors are high mass and will act like a giant storage heater staying warm for many hours without any heat.
Conventional concrete has high embodied energy.
These days most homes are designed with concrete floors because damp proofing technology allows us to create a dry floor without an air gap.
Floors footings or in suspended floors.
Slabs can be on ground suspended or a mix of both.
They are normally pre fabricated offsite and transported by truck.
Suspended slabs are made of concrete and steel mesh the same as a ground slab.
The floor can be formed in various ways using timber joists precast concrete panels block and beam system or cast in situ with reinforced concrete.
Most self builders now fit underfloor heating into their homes.
Suspended timber 58 m.
Some of the advantages concrete flooring offers are.
Concrete slab floors come in many forms and can be used to provide great thermal comfort and lifestyle advantages.
Block and beam 81 m.
They are commonly used to create floors for the upper storeys of houses but can also be sat on top of pre constructed walls to form a ground floor.
The 6 inch suspended slab in detail 21 weighs 75 pounds per square foot but the formwork should be designed to carry 130 150 psf due to the weight of workers and equipment used during pour.
They are relatively easy to install and provide a safe working platform for the rest of the build.