Categories
Concrete New Homes

Waffle Slab Inspection With Engineer’s Commentry

G’day. This is Matt Cornell from Cornell Engineers. This is a waffle slab inspection that we did a little while ago and I wanted to go through and put some words to it to let you know what we’re looking at during this inspection.

So here we go coming in from the front I’ll just pause it there and explain some of these things.

The white things that you can see are the polystyrene waffle pods. They are the voids in this soon to be poured concrete waffle slab. The waffle pods are about one-metre x one-metre squares. They’re sort of semi-hollow underneath. They’re not solid polystyrene but on top they’re solid. The space between waffle pods is about 110mm wide.

Categories
Home Renovation New Homes

Waffle Slabs on H2 Class Soil

Here’s a question about waffle slabs on Class H2 soil that we have been asked more than once:

“We have a soil test for our new house. It came back as Class H2. The builder we went to is planning on using a waffle slab. Will our house be ok?”

So let’s work out some of the terminologies first and then I’ll explain what my advice was and why.

Categories
Home Renovation New Homes

A Holistic Approach to Building Sustainability

An article by Joanne Galea

A Holistic Approach to Building Sustainability

Many could be under the belief that it is the energy and water-efficient fixtures and low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) finishes that satisfy sustainable and healthy building outcomes.

Important as these are, a holistic, whole of building fabric and systems approach is the attitude of this biological building designer.

Categories
Footings and Slabs New Homes

The Inevitable Failure of Waffle Slabs

I took the time to read right through the Softley v Metricon Homes Pty Ltd decision that was published by VCAT on 11 December 2014. Metricon was ordered to pay costs to knock down and rebuild the Softley’s house.

I was editing some of my waffle slab posts when I suddenly realised that the amount of slab movement in the Softley’s home was a lot less than the amount of slab heave and movement I have inspected and reported on in Queensland – even recently.

Categories
New Homes

Check out this stunning home engineered by Cornell Engineers

Cornell Engineers provided the structural engineering design and certification for this beautiful home in Mackay.

Stunning residential home engineered by Matt Cornell and the team at Cornell Enigneers

Tour this stunning home by video now:

We provide engineering for simply stunning homes. We work hard to make your home easy to build and easy to love.

This beautiful home was engineered by structural engineer Matt Cornell.

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