The best joint is no joint for Al Areen

The challenge

The client was interested in reducing future operational expenditure that might be incurred by floor repairs and associated downtime. These might be expected in a traditional ‘Slab on Grade’ with saw-cut, and to a lesser extent even with a so-called ‘jointless’ floor (which in practice still has some joints, albeit around slabs of 1,000 m² or so). Additionally, the floor was to fill an irregularly-shaped site.

The solution

CBS Flooring recommended a floor combining steel fiber reinforcement with traditional rebar where required, in a truly seamless solution. Here, the entire floor constitutes a single slab and moving joints (and saw cuts) are completely eliminated.

The seamless approach overcomes the usual constraints on width:length ratios on individual slabs, while the combination of reinforcement methods allows for the casting of irregular shapes. The design proposal, for a slab of only 150 mm thickness, allowed for a nominal crack-width of just 0.2 mm over the entire 26,000 m². Bekaert was engaged to design, specify and supervise the mix and casting method as well as to supply the steel fiber on short lead times from its Dubai facility.