Hydronic underfloor heating: planning it into the slab before the pour
Hydronic floor heating is cheap to plan and expensive to fix. Once the concrete is down, every decision about pipe layout, manifold position and trade sequence is locked in.
12 min read
Topic
Concrete
Articles and news about Concrete for Australian builders.
Hydronic underfloor heating: planning it into the slab before the pour
Hydronic floor heating is cheap to plan and expensive to fix. Once the concrete is down, every decision about pipe layout, manifold position and trade sequence is locked in.
12 min read
Control joints in residential slabs: where to cut them and why
A slab will crack. The question is whether it cracks where you chose, in a neat line at a joint, or somewhere random across the panel. This article covers joint layout, depth and cutting timing for shrinkage control.
11 min read
Ordering concrete for a slab: specifying strength, exposure and slump
The concrete order is the last point at which a builder controls the mix. This guide sets out what the order must carry, and what to check on the docket before the pour starts.
11 min read
Structural anchor selection: verifying the substrate before you drill
Most structural fixing failures are not anchor failures. They are wrong-substrate failures — the anchor was rated for a material the base was never made of, or the material behind the face was not what the drawings assumed.
10 min read
Silica dust on residential sites: controls for cutting concrete, brick, tile and pavers
The engineered stone ban removed the worst material, not the hazard. Concrete, bricks, tiles, pavers and mortar all contain crystalline silica, and cutting, chasing and grinding them on a house site can produce dangerous dust. Here is what the rules require and the controls that work.
7 min read
Smart sensors on site: concrete maturity, slab moisture and humidity monitoring explained
Small wireless sensors can tell you when a slab is strong enough to load, when it is dry enough for flooring, and whether a frame is too wet to line. Where they save time and callbacks, and where a meter and common sense will do.
8 min read
Low-carbon concrete: what builders can specify, and what changes on site
Concrete is the biggest source of embodied carbon in most houses, and almost all of it comes from the cement. Here is how low-carbon mixes work, how to specify them, and the site practices that make them perform.
8 min read
3D printed houses in Australia: what has been built, what it costs, and what is still unproven
Australia now has 3D printed homes with occupation certificates, social housing printed in weeks, and a multi-storey printed house in Melbourne. How the technology works, and what a builder should believe about the claims.
9 min read
Sensor monitoring for concrete curing and early age strength
Curing sensors do not make concrete stronger. They tell you when the concrete you have already placed is strong enough to strip, load or stress, so you can stop guessing with the programme and start deciding with evidence.
12 min read
Formwork stripping times for residential slabs, beams and walls
Stripping formwork is a decision about load, not a decision about the clock. The rules differ for slab soffits, beam sides and soffits, and wall panels, and cold weather shifts all of them.
12 min read
Curing concrete in hot weather: what actually prevents cracking
Hot weather does not crack concrete by itself. It drives moisture out of the surface faster than the mix can replace it, and the surface shrinks against a cooler core. The decision that matters is when to start curing, and that is a measurement, not a guess.
11 min read
Reinforcement cover and concrete durability in coastal and exposed sites
Cover is not a dimensional detail you check once at pre-pour. On coastal and exposed sites it is the single largest determinant of how long the reinforcement inside a slab, footing or column stays passive.
13 min read