Todd LaBarge describes the ReddiForm block system used to create a one-step monolithic pour.
Clip Summary
A monolithic, or single pour, is used to create the slab and frost walls. Todd LaBarge of LaBarge Engineering reviews some of the steps involved in the process. To create the frost wall, they dig down four feet and use innovative insulated forms called ReddiForm blocks that snap together. These polystyrene forms can withstand the pressure of backfilling because they have a structural interior web that reinforces them. The frost wall is backfilled and a rebar cage is inserted into and over the ReddiForm blocks. The front face of the form is cut out and the rebar is extended out across the surface where the slab will be poured. The bearing is then transferred up to the top of the slab, which achieves in one pour what would normally require three: footing, frost wall, and floating slab. A column pad is put in place to increase the load for the load-bearing wall.
The product used for under-slab insulation is called Insul-Tarp, which can be laid out quickly and easily, saving time and labor costs. This is an all-in-one reflective and insulated vapor barrier. When the radiant tubing is put down over the barrier, the heat will reflect back into the living space instead of passing into the ground.
Okay, we're getting ready to start our first pour here at this project. We are just finishing out the footings.
We are going to be pouring this all in a monolithic pour and we're going to be able to do this by using ReddiForm. This is the first part where we're going to use ReddiForm today.
We are able to achieve our frost wall by going down four feet in these blocks. We can do that and back fill it because these blocks have a web in it and they can take compression.
And this is one of the huge advantages of ReddiForm. They go together.
We'll see a lot more of this later. But they just, snap together like that and then we stack our four foot wall up here and start to back fill it. The wall goes down four feet. And we've got a rebar cage in, and then we, what we do here is haunch the form, so we cut out the front face of the form and extended our rebar.
And essentially what we did is transfer our bearing up to the top of the slab, and conventionally this job would have taken, at this stage, three pours.
It would have done a footing, a frost wall, and then a floating slab inside. But with, by being able to do this with ready form, we are going to do all three of those pours in one pour.
This is actually our footing. We have fill coming up with, there's a wall above here at a later point. There's four foot of frost protection, which is going to be the soil, which is going to be the dirt, that's gonna give us our frost protection. So we put our footing right here. And this is ten inches thick, versus four inches thick here, and that's what we call it, is a haunch the footing, so we...
This is deeper and goes up to a shallower... It's just going to be the concrete slab for the garage floor.
This is at grade because there is going to be four feet of fill on this side. On this side there are gonna be the garage doors.
So now the garage door is going to be at grade, so you can drive in. Therefore, we need the frost wall. And by using ready form here, we can get our frost protection, four-foot frost protection, that's required by code, and have an integral footing, which is a huge savings of time.
It's gonna take three pours and turn it into one pour, and we'll be ready to do walls tomorrow.
This is a column pad which is gonna give me the bearing for my load-bearing wall. For the main beam that's going to come down, this is also a haunch And our main beam or, wall is going to come right down the middle of the garage door and the floor is going to get framed onto that. With, as a frost wall only, the ready form didn't provide enough bearing for the point load that's going to come right here so we created this column pad which is gonna be tied into the footing intricately and it's all monolithic. For the column will come down right on this point.
Okay. Concrete's coming. We're going to get ready to pour and this product that we're using for underslab insulation is called Insultop. We've been using Insultop because, for one of the main reasons the guy has just started, laying Insultop about ten minutes ago , and we're done and ready for the concrete truck.
When it rolls out here, it forms the insulation and the vapor barrier, so the labor savings is huge. And the cost is pretty much comparable to using a rigid insulation in the poly vapor barrier, but the labor is going to be. You're going to save on some labor.
So this is what the insultop is made up of. It's designed to be reflective, so when you put a radiant tubing on here, it will reflect the heat from the radiant tube.
So, you have a reflective layer you got another kind of an air bubble layer, and then two layers of some roll out insulation and another reflective layer.
So it's all in one and it comes out equivalent to conventionally, what we would have done is rigged insulation in a vapor barrier.
Clips in Reviewing Wetland Protection and Laying the Foundation
