Here is the steel mesh
before being placed on the ground floor.
Construction Design 1
Ground Floor Construction
All of the ground floors built on the site are solid ground supported floors. Here, all of the dead and live loads are supported by the ground. Due to the fact that concrete is not in itself able to take tensile forces very well, steel reinforcement has to be built into it. The steel mesh is allowed to rust slightly before delivery, this has the advantage of increasing the surface area for the concrete to bond to, resulting in less chance of the concrete breaking away from the steel under loading. The mesh is held off the polythene by small plastic supports.
Here is the steel mesh
before being placed on the ground floor.
This image shows how the
ground floor looks before the concrete slab has been poured. No extra measures
such as underfloor insulation are being used. The design relies on the solid
floor to reduce heat loss.
This image shows how a
thin layer of concrete and then sand has been placed on the concrete slab,
before the screed is placed down.
A
cross-section of the ground floor, with the damp proof membrane under the
screed.
On the site, the developers choose to use a solid ground floor, this allows for some of the pressure to be taken away from the walls as the floor rests directly on the ground. It is however more difficult to install pipes and electrical cables. The decision was probably made on a cost basis due to the type of houses being built.