CASE STUDY – LARGEST POST-TENSION SLAB IN THE WORLD

Kalman Floor Company is proud to have the distinction of installing the world’s largest post-tensioned slab on ground at the time of installation. The slab, measuring a whopping 850,000 square feet, was installed for what was formerly the Bruno’s warehouse and distribution center located in Birmingham, Alabama Inc. (now owned and operated by AholdUSA) Kalman also installed 630,000 square feet of exterior paving at the facility, providing Bruno’s with a total of over 1.4 million square feet of high quality installations.

Bruno’s realized early in the planning stages that the floor was one of the most important elements, if not the most important. At this location, problems with the grade beneath the building made a structural slab necessary. This was solved with post-tensioning where cables were placed in the middle of the slab but were sheathed to prevent them from bonding to the slab. After the floor was poured, the cables were “tensioned” by tightening them with hydraulic jacks. When the massive slabs slid together the floor was structurally sound and had no joints between the pours.

Warehouse owners know that continuous, random-traffic cycling will quickly wear out conventional concrete surfaces. For Bruno’s, Kalman installed its Monorock® monolithic, stone-densified surface finish to make a floor with superior abrasion resistance that is also smooth, non-dusting and easily cleaned.

The post-tensioned slab in Bruno’s new facility provided them with a floor that would require little to no maintenance. It eliminated approximately 45,000 linear feet of floor joints, was made 1” thinner than the original proposed thickness, saving the owner construction costs without compromising strength in the finished floor, and had a surface finish made for the working environment.

To read more about Kalman’s Specialty Floors, click here.