Beam and block,

[Russell griffiths]

I remember somebody talking about there beam and block floor and a few comments trying to dissuade them from having it, 

can anybody give me some pointers as to why I don’t want one. 

 

I personally don’t want one, but I want to be armed with some good justification as to why, 

after I have had my soil tests and the structural engineer has had a look I want to be able to steer him towards the method I want. 

 

 

Cheers. 

[nod]

6 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

I remember somebody talking about there beam and block floor and a few comments trying to dissuade them from having it, 

can anybody give me some pointers as to why I don’t want one. 

 

I personally don’t want one, but I want to be armed with some good justification as to why, 

after I have had my soil tests and the structural engineer has had a look I want to be able to steer him towards the method I want. 

 

 

Cheers. 

Hi Russel

 

ive B&B Not through choice But due to the likely Heave I had to put one in 

Now that it is screeded you wouldn’t notice the difference between slab

I know that most engineers seem to prefer B&B

[Ian]

@Russell griffiths

the main difference between a ground bearing concrete floor slab and a b&b floor is one of thermal efficiency.

In winter the temperature below a ground bearing slab will be a lot warmer than the air that will be circulating below a b&b floor

[bissoejosh]

12 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

I remember somebody talking about there beam and block floor and a few comments trying to dissuade them from having it, 

can anybody give me some pointers as to why I don’t want one. 

 

I personally don’t want one, but I want to be armed with some good justification as to why, 

after I have had my soil tests and the structural engineer has had a look I want to be able to steer him towards the method I want. 

 

 

Cheers. 

Thermal performance, cost & depending on the type of build, a potential issue around sole plates.  We've got beam and block for a large part of our build, it's fine and was the only viable solution but we're aware of the downsides and have had to work out solutions to some of the issues.

[PeterW]

Some of the issues with B&B start when you have integral garages where the beams need to be closer and deeper and the blocks on their short side. We looked at this as Building bear trees so needed heave protection however the BCO wasn’t worried in the slightest as on sand with a very low clay content. 

 

B&B in this situation needs quite a lot of detailing - from memory ours would have needed a 180mm deep beam over 4.5m with blocks on 215mm width and then a 100mm mesh reinforced concrete screed over for a garage 3.6m x 4.5m

 

Counter that with the solution we used which was poured fibre reinforced concrete with two 8x4 of 150mm EPS “former” in the centre under the DPM which has basically created a 300mm ring beam under the edge of the garage slab. Cost was about a cubic metre extra of concrete and two sheets of insulation.