The move towards ever lighter building materials over the last 30 years in the shed and building industry in general, has meant significant changes in the way we also consider concrete floors, slabs and piers as well as attachments of new structures to the ground in these projects. Often called the supporting foundation of any building project. Good foundations and a base to build on can never be “underdone”
With sheds in particular - 30 years ago we rarely ever bolted a new shed to a concrete slab.
The most common form of attachment was the traditional steel post or column into a concrete footing. The days building work started with marking out posts locations and then spending hours digging into (sometimes awful) ground to get holes deep enough to meet engineering requirements.
The jack hammer was the poor shed builder’s best friend. Plus, it added to the end cost for the client if an allowance for hard, hand digging had to be included in the building contract.
It feels like the change happened overnight but on reflection the transition from RHS and angle welded sheds to cold rolled sections was probably around 10 years in total.
This meant with lighter gauge members and the desire to speed up the install process, bolting the shed down to the slab became very popular. In fact it is so popular now that 95% of the sheds we supply nationally are all “bolt to slab” solutions
This change has also meant that 99% of the time the shed is level and square straight up – speed was achieved, and the installation prices came down accordingly without compromising the integrity or durability of the shed product.
Concrete slabs (like the sheds) had a standard design in most instances and could be incorporated into generic engineering packages and punched out very very quickly with the software design.
Less friction points made the industry more profitable (competitive) and able to deliver quality products faster.
But not all concrete slabs are the same and not all concreters know what they are doing either. If there is any one trade that gets a bad rap industry wide for dodgy and cowboy activity – it’s the concreters. Its not a normally recognised trade qualification but it is a licensed company entity recognised within the industry. Certificate 3 qualifications are available but in 20 years of building I have never met a single concreter who had one.
The Certificate III in Concreting is designed to lay the foundations for a career in this growth industry with a Certificate III in Concreting. This qualification is designed to meet the needs of concreters working in concreting operations on residential and commercial projects.
I am sure they are out there though!
