265 yards of concrete 16,000 sq ft

hr

I spent the hottest week of my life tubing this 16,000 shop. Temperatures in the 92- 97° range all week. Two of us drank 6 gallons of water one day. I'm getting too old for this!

The pour started yesterday at 4:15 AM. By 6:30 the concrete crews were wrapping up! They used a $40,000.00 Copperhead laser screed. This machine would position from a laser at the far end of the pour and adjust to get a perfectly flat slab. This company also has a larger "ride on" model for really large pours.

After the placement they put 5 ride on power trowels on the slab to get a finish before the 90° heat and wind dried the pour.

They also had a new cut saw to score the slab while it was still green, that afternoon in fact. It has a special blade and shoe that prevents the chipping often seen with saw cuts done a day after the pour. Pretty neat tools to watch. This company does mainly slabs in excess of 20,000 feet for large shopping malls and stores. They place, easily, 125 yards per hour they claim.

I was worried about the tubing with the Copperhead walking over it. Looks to be fine with the large ballon tires.

I used Viega Fostapex on this job. It has and additional PE layer over the outside for a more jobsite friendly tube. I was pleased with the tubing and fitting system.

hot rod

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David Sutton_6

wow



THATS A GREAT LOOKING PROJECT, is there any ajustment to placing and water temps useing the fosta-pex compared to reg, tubing? thats a big layout, how many circuts?....David

Paul Rohrs

Equipment

What kind of boiler and control strategy do you have brewing?

PR

Biggerstaffradiantsolutions.com

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Gary Hayden_2

Impressive

HR

This is what we "live for" - I appreciate what you say about the heat. I was sitting up manifolds on project and the gauge said 44C - dry lips and the rest were happening to me. I was closer to an IV that I have ever been. And I was drinking water like crazy. ICF house contained the heat where I was working. Two of us were working - one would pull the tube into place - go find the shade, and then I would make the connections then go find the shade while two more pipes were pulled into positin for connection - and we kept going this way until done. Then hookup the air and hope that our test fittings were holding perfectly (NOT!). But we got it all done. BTW 44C is 112F! It even hurt (ouch) to pickup the metal tools. Next time we bring the beach umbrella.

hr

You had it bad, Gary

those basement jobs in the heat are as bad as it gets. Little if any breeze, and the white foam bounces all the sunlight back into your face. Sunburn City!

This shop was designed with 15" oc 5/8" Viega Fostapex. I use a 12" then 18" alternate spacing so the tube ends on a wire on the 6X6 mesh. This also allow us to use the ClipTie tool. The office had 12" spacing with 1/2" Multicor.

It will have two Clean Burn waste oil boilers a 350K and the new 200K on top. It is an equipment repair shop so we used Dow high load 60, 2" foam around the perimeter only. That stuff is pretty pricey air!

hot rod

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Cosmo_3

question

I have always been skeptical about using multi-cor type tubing (anything with an aluminum layer) in a concrete pour type job. My reason for thinking this way is that with the aluminum layer, when the tubing is stepped on the tubing will dent and stay that way especially when careless concrete guys step on the tubing right where it crosses perpendicularly over the wire mesh. In your experiance have you noticed this?

Why fosta-pex, $?

Cosmo Valavanis

Dependable P.H.C. Inc.

Tony_23

Try it

denting it, that is. Stepping on it won't do it. MC in a pour is the cat's meow, IMO.

Constantin

... great use of technology...

... yeah, buying that $40k tool probably was a "gulp" decision, but considering how much they use it, how much it speeds up their precision work I'm sure they now look back and call it a no-brainer. Then again, there aren't that many companies that can lay that much concrete in a day!

Hey hot rod, great work, as usual, from your end also. That is going to be one happy shop... nothing like a large mass of slab underneath to deal with the inevitable traffic opening and closing doors, etc. I look forward to seeing more of this job as you move it along. Cheers!

hr

That's a valid concern Cosmo

and I agree some of the PAPs are dentable! That is why I wanted to try the toughness of the Viega. As you can see it starts out as a full bore and OD pex. then the al layer, then a PE outer jacket. I feel much better with this than the standard pex with EVOH exterior barrier. I just feel a lot of EVOH gets lost in the concrete shuffle.

There were 18 concrete "dudes" and that machine tromping all over this tube. I wanted all the protection I could buy.

Maybe it was the extreme heat, but thet FostaPex rolled out very easily. I had a rubber tube flashback! Again maybe the 90° heat

The biggest concern is where the tube rolls over a wire bar chair. these present a small diameter "kink starter"

In all fairness I almost prefer the tube at the bottom of these commercial pours, both for kink protection, and the fact they like to score them 1- 1-/2" deep. that makes me real nervous! I'd rather a bit of efficiency and response hit than tubes cut in a brand new slab. I've been down that road

Concrete from a pumper truck really has a tendency to lift the tube and mesh as it slams against the foam and subgrade. You can watch it happen if you get close to the action. There is also some slop in the Clipties that allows the tube to rise up a bit.


hot rod

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Mike T., Swampeast MO

I feel for you Hot Rod! Looks and sounds like you've been having more than your usual share of typical Swampeast MO summer weather...

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Missouri climate, we have a surprising variance. Just look up design temps (both winter and summer) for St. Louis and Kansas City. While KC is only 20 or so miles N of STL, and about 250 miles west, the conditions are quite different.

Hot Rod is in the "tween land" that doesn't typically get either the cold of KC or the muggy hot of St. Louis. You can almost draw a line that starts a bit north of St. Louis and diagonally southwest a bit east of Springfield and different weather systems typically dominate on either side.

Paul Pollets

Nice Job!!

Impressive, HR!!

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