Construction
The rigours and challenges of the construction program demand that Simon achieves a floor cycle of six days and concrete walls are making that happen. Quicker time means less scaffolding hire, and on a heavily scaffolded project this impacts dramatically on the cost of a multi-storey multi-residential project. Precast concrete walls means no mess and less clean up and this comes back to another added bonus of again quicker time because there’s less site clean up required which further improves the bottom line.
The Precast concrete walls were manufactured offsite in the Hanson Precast Concrete facility in Mulgrave Sydney and then when required are a loaded onto truck trailer and transported to the building site. From the kerbside delivery location they are lifted directly from the back of the truck trailer, by the tower crane, and directly onto their final resting place in the building. They are secured in place initially by temporary bracing and then grouted with a dowelled connection and permanently and robustly locked into the frame of the building. Using this system the wall sections for one floor can be fully installed in one day giving the builder unequalled walling cycles for each building level.
By manufacturing the precast concrete wall panels under factory controlled conditions the quality of the finished product is excellent, giving a fine dense hardwearing texture to the external surface of the wall. Dimensional accuracy of the size of the panels is very carefully controlled. Precision is achieved in the location of lifting points, ferules for temporary bracing points, starter bars and dowel bars producing high quality walling units that fit together like a hand in a glove. Window and door penetrations are simply created by using a blockout in the casting formwork.
Services can be provided by embedding ducts within the body of the panel to provide pathways for electrical circuits and other services. Additional insulation, if required, can be easily supplied by baton and plaster on the inside face of the units installed on site. Final finish of the exterior of the panel walls is provided as a simple direct painted system provided through application on site and in the colour palette selected by the designing architect.
