Large floors up to several thousand square metres in area can be laid in a continuous operation. Concrete is discharged straight from the concrete truck into the floor area and spread using the Laser Screed. The laser screed works across the floor area in 4-5m widths.
Formed free-movement joints are used at the edges of each pour or large area which are typically 30m apart. This method does not use sawn joints at 6m centres but instead relies on the restraint being minimised to allow the shrinkage to occur at the formed free movement joints only. These joints tend to open quite wide up to 20-30mm.
Jointless floors have a higher risk of random cracking as the stresses within the slab are higher due to the lack of stress relief joints.
Over such large areas, it is not possible to control the surface regularity in relation to fixed formwork or joint and so there are limitations on the accuracy that can be achieved. This type of construction is typically suited to free movement areas. However to achieve defined movement specification floors additional grinding may be required using equipment such as the Laser Grinder®.
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