Some Commonly Used Concrete Slab Designs in New York

Introduction to Concrete Slabs

Concrete slabs are a modern building innovation that is being used in most, if not all modern buildings in New York City. Commonly employed in horizontal slabs of steel reinforcement bars of 4 to 20 inches thick, they are used to construct floors, ceilings, and pavings.

They are usually supported on foundations, and in some cases directly in the subsoil in the ground floor of a building. They are built by professional concrete slab contractors in NYC, according to required specifications and dimensions.

Commonly Used Concrete Slab Designs

There are many standard concrete slab designs that are employed for construction. The main purpose of the design is to improve the strength-to-weight ratio so that it offers better strength without being too heavy. Some of the designs are:

1. Corrugated: It is formed by pouring concrete into a corrugated steel tray. It strengthens the concrete slab and prevents it from bending under loads.
2. Waffle: Here, the strength is added in both directions unlike the corrugated design, where it had strength design in only one direction.
3. Ribbed: Here, the extra strength is added twice on one side, so as to make it heavier in one direction and lighter in the opposite direction.

On the basis of reinforcement layout, they are of two types:

1. One-Way Slab: It has reinforcement only in one direction, such as either x-axis or the y-axis. The basic principle is to keep the ratio of the length of long direction to the shorter direction of the slab is greater than 2.
2. Two-Way Slab: It has reinforcements in both x and y-axis. It offers extra load-bearing capacity and is commonly employed by concrete slab contractors in NYC in structures that are subjected to heavy, constant loads such as public pavements and walkways, building basements etc.

Construction of Slabs

Concrete slabs are either prepared on-site or off-site. On-site, they are made by pouring concrete in pre-fabricated trays. Off-site, they are mass-produced in a quarry or warehouses and are transported to the construction site.