Hollow Core Concrete
Precast hollow-core concrete planks have been used for years in commercial construction because they’re quick and easy when you have the right equipment at hand. Lift them in place, tie them together, and you’re done. Yet we hadn’t considered hollow-core concrete for a Schultz Miller project until the structural engineer on one of our current jobs recommended them. The problem was a really long floor span over very poor soil. On top of the required helical anchors and grade beams, a poured-in-place concrete slab would have been too heavy, which would have necessitated larger grade beams and still more anchors.
Hollow-core concrete planks made sense, but never having worked with them, we approached them with due caution, as did our concrete subcontractor, Central Cascade Concrete, Inc., also unfamiliar with hollow-core concrete in residential applications. The installation turned out to be more complicated than the simplicity of the concept would suggest, but Central Cascade was up to the task, and the result has pleased everyone on the building team.
