Storing blocks on a suspended slab

[Tony K]

Hi all. 

My blocks are arriving soon, and space is tight on my plot. I'm looking at storing the blocks on the slab. 

 

SE has said this...

 

The concrete slab has been designed for a total of 250 kg/m2 loads in addition of the selfweight and slab make up.  Consequently, when storing brick pallets you have to ensure that the height of brick on the pallet does not exceed this load allowance. Typically a brick pallet weight between 1.5 to 1.7 t (depending on the brick density).  So depending on the size of the pallet one pallet will be borderline to exceed the load allowance.  I would advise that you spread the load by removing some bricks off the pallet. 

 

A dense block is about 18kg, and a pallet holds 72 blocks, so that's about 1300kg (as the SE states). A pallet is just shy of 1m2.

 

What I don't understand is why, if the slab can only take a quarter of a tonne per m2, the engineer has described one pallet as 'borderline to exceed the load allowance'. Surely one pallet will be more than five times the maximum weight allowance? 

 

The SE is away on holiday at the moment, so if anyone can see what I'm going wrong in my reading of his comments I'd be grateful! 

[nod]

Your fine on top of the BB 

keep them near the edge and 3 mtre apart 

[Tony K]

27 minutes ago, nod said:

Your fine on top of the BB 

keep them near the edge and 3 mtre apart 

 

Sorry, what do you mean by BB? 

 

At risk of stating the obvious, the bricklayers need the edges clear to build the walls so I'm limited to storing blocks in the centre of the slab if at all. 

 

 

[markc]

@Tony K

What I don't understand is why, if the slab can only take a quarter of a tonne per m2, the engineer has described one pallet as 'borderline to exceed the load allowance'. Surely one pallet will be more than five times the maximum weight allowance? 

the per m2 is a distributed load over the entire slab, say the slab is 10mx10m at 250kgs/m2 then the load capacity is 100x250 or 25tonnes, so as long as you don’t have a high point load that could punch through the surface then the larger loads are fine as long as they are spaced apart and do not exceed the total.

[Tony K]

11 minutes ago, markc said:

@Tony K

What I don't understand is why, if the slab can only take a quarter of a tonne per m2, the engineer has described one pallet as 'borderline to exceed the load allowance'. Surely one pallet will be more than five times the maximum weight allowance? 

the per m2 is a distributed load over the entire slab, say the slab is 10mx10m at 250kgs/m2 then the load capacity is 100x250 or 25tonnes, so as long as you don’t have a high point load that could punch through the surface then the larger loads are fine as long as they are spaced apart and do not exceed the total.

 

Ah, I see. 

Thanks for that. 

[Conor]

Another thing to bear in mind is that the slab won't be at its design strength untill 28 days after pouring.

[Tony K]

10 minutes ago, Conor said:

Another thing to bear in mind is that the slab won't be at its design strength untill 28 days after pouring.

 

Thanks, I am past the 28 day period. 

[Tony K]

In my case the slab is circa 55m2, but I'll round down to 50m2 to provide a margin. 

 

A pallet of dense blocks is 1.3t so I can store about 9 pallets worth of blocks on the slab, though to avoid heavy point loads, the nine pallets worth will be spread across 12 pallets (or stacks as it may be). 

[markc]

1 hour ago, Tony K said:

In my case the slab is circa 55m2, but I'll round down to 50m2 to provide a margin. 

 

A pallet of dense blocks is 1.3t so I can store about 9 pallets worth of blocks on the slab, though to avoid heavy point loads, the nine pallets worth will be spread across 12 pallets (or stacks as it may be). 

50m2 is not a lot of space for 12/13 pallets and working room so do not be tempted to push them into a group in the middle, keep them as close to the edges or on supported areas if you have them

[nod]

2 hours ago, Tony K said:

 

Sorry, what do you mean by BB? 

 

At risk of stating the obvious, the bricklayers need the edges clear to build the walls so I'm limited to storing blocks in the centre of the slab if at all. 

 

 

Block and Beam 

[Tony K]

2 hours ago, markc said:

50m2 is not a lot of space for 12/13 pallets and working room so do not be tempted to push them into a group in the middle, keep them as close to the edges or on supported areas if you have them

 

Yeah thanks I'll keep that in mind. 

[Tony K]

2 hours ago, nod said:

Block and Beam 

 

Ah. Its a cast suspended slab, not bb. Thanks though. 

[Declan52]

Set them out in piles so they are ready to be used roughly 1m back from the wall. 4 in a row then 4 on top at 90 degrees and then again till it's 5 high. Cover them with some plastic sheeting so they stay dry. What's left over can sit on the ends of the slab resting on internal walls so the weight is down through onto the foundation.