We recently took a tour of a site of a new building under construction. It is a mixed use development which uses an increasingly common drop head shoring system for the construction and formwork of the elevated concrete deck.
We are taking a closer look at the construction of an elevated concrete slab using a drophead formwork system. This is a handset shoring system intended to reduce the cost of traditional scaffold shoring.
This development has been designated as a 3a zone limiting construction height to a mid-rise building. This type of formwork works well for a mid-rise medium density elevated slab construction. We'll take a look at attributes which make this type of lightweight form system better than the traditional field scaffold built systems.
Unlike traditional formwork systems of the past with aluminum 21-foot A-beams, every component of this system is small and lightweight and easy for an individual worker to carry away and put in place by themselves.
At this stage of construction, concrete formwork systems of the past left the area below the new concrete deck crowded and almost impossible for other tradesmen and other contractors to work simultaneously to the formwork and even the concrete work above. In this case there's ample room to move around and other contractors can be in that space and work freely simultaneous to the construction above.
In addition to efficiencies in the formwork construction, this type of system also allows for more efficient safety provisions. For example, the aluminum beams supported by the post below come fitted with concentric slots that allow for fall protection to be inserted and installed along the elevate slab perimeter and leading edge.
This system, although composed of smaller components, actually has a lower number of overall elements. That simplicity of the system, and repetitive individual pieces makes it easier for the contractors to inventory and manage their parts on the job site and materials management is a key to running any commercial job site with success.
This system allows for graded decking to be installed and used with the same shoring without additional provisions up to a grade of 12° in many cases. These posts come with an integral pin which can be struck with a hammer to release the post from position by dropping the top of the post by up to ¼”.
The building in the photo below is a totally separate project, which we also visited recently. In contrast, the photo below shows how the same system can be used to build multi-level above grade concrete deck work, as well.
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