SLABS ON GROUND – THE CUPOLEX SOLUTION 

Standard Floor Slabs
Typically a 150mm (6 ) or a 300mm (12 ) thick CUPOLEX^® floor slab is used for a standard floor such as residential or light commercial using CUPOLEX^® and the corresponding accessory BETON STOP^®. Where allowable bearing pressures are less than 100 kPa, additional reinforcements are used and a specific design is applied to reduce the imposed bearing pres sures.

6x6 W4.0/4.0 (152x152 MW25.8/25.8) welded wire mesh with saw cuts or 152 x 152MW34.9/34.9 (6x6 W5.4/5.4) mesh without saw cuts are used in the topping throughout the slab. Additional reinforcing is used where increased load capacity is required such as garage areas or heavy loaded floors.

A common criticism of wire mesh is that it settles in the fresh concrete and ends up lying on the granular base, rendering it completely useless. The wire mesh when placed on the CUPOLEX^® elements is positioned exactly at the elevation required with no need to be lifted up into place.

Where top soil layers are thick, higher CUPOLEX^® can be used to create a deeper slab. This replaces the hard fill that typically is required to bring the slab to level and eliminate the costs associated with importing, compacting and certifying engineered fill.

Each slab is specifically designed and includes; Stamped constructio-n drawings with schedule indicating the number of CUPOLEX^® and BETON STOP^® required, the total concrete volume required and the reinforcements for the entire floor, an inspection and certificates from
a Registered Professional Engineer on completion of each slab.

When the slab is ready for construction simply phone your Registered Approved Contractor and quote the reference number of your design to arrange delivery. The exact quantity of CUPOLEX^® and BETON STOP^® will be delivered to the project site. No cutting, wastage or disposal of the CUPOLEX^® components.

Conventional Floor Slab: Hardfill Replacement, Floating Slabs or Crawspaces
Where conventional block base construction or concrete wall foundations are used, the CUPOLEX^® domes can be placed between foundation walls to
replace the compacted hard fill or clear gravel.

Advantages of the CUPOLEX^® system include a reduction in:

• Labour / Subcontractors
• Hard fill or gravel and associated compaction and plant costs
• Concrete consumption
• Exterior footing size associated with retaining compacted engineered fill
• Minimal construction traffic damage
• Mould and mildew associated with conventional crawl spaces.

The CUPOLEX^® units can be installed flush against the fou-ndation wall with
out using BETON STOP^® On sloping sites various height CUPOLEX^®
from 26cm (10 ) to 70cm(28 ) high can be used, stepping down the site to
form a level upper surface. The CUPOLEX^®slabs can also be stacked if finished floor elevations are required to be higher.

Fully Suspended Floor Slab

• Reasons for suspending a floor slab may include:
• Unsuitable ground conditions ( very low bearing pressures) and expansive soils
• Bridging over public storm water and sewer lines
• Slope stability issues

The CUPOLEX^® floor slab can be fully suspended on r-einforced con
crete piles. Additional reinforced internal ribs are then used in the slab
by introducing PONTEX^®, the structural CUPOLEX^® accessory to
provide a structure capable of spanning between pile locations.

Very little additional work or material is required to provide a suspended floor slab system and in many cases exterior footing reinforcement remains unchanged. As with all slabs, each suspendfied CUPOLEX^® floor is specifically designed to suit site conditions, pile numbers are optimized to limit additional costs. Specific desi-gn calculations, engineered drawings and Design Certificates are provided for eachdesign by an Approved Registered Professional Engineer.

Industrial/Commercial Floors
CUPOLEX^® Dome Forming System can be specifically designed for industrial floors. Loads of more than 10 kPa can be acco-mmodated ping thicknesses ranging from 50mm (2 ) to 120mm (5 ) ovfier the elements.

In industrial applications, the reinforcing cages, pad foundations load bearing wall lines can be fixed into place first. The CUPOLEX^®
can then be used between load bearing lines to act as hard fill and to bring the slab up to the required elevation. The footings, and the floor slab can be poured in one operation.

Advantages of the CUPOLEX^® industrial floor slab system include:

• Footings, grade and tie beams, load bearing wall lines cast monolithically
  with the floor slab
• Elimination of interior box forming without wasting concrete
• Reduced concrete consumption
• Reduced reinforcement usage
• Eliminate or reduce engineered or hard fill and compaction requirements beneath the slab controlling slab thickness
• Ease of transportaion of components 1.2m (4 ) x 1.2m (4 ) x 1.9m 110 m2 (1200sq.ft.)
• Reduced labour costs, 150 m2 (1600 sq.ft) laid in 2 man hours, assembly with minimal site work requirements and construction traffic damage on site.