Implementation and usage aspects for floors in the residential houses

Abstract

Concrete floors at the building’s rooms are made of concrete, as well as fibre-reinforced concrete, or with the reinforcement meshes of various kinds. On one hand, such aspects have an influence on technical capabilities, as well as cost and labour-consumption when making the floors; on the other hand, they influence operational properties. The floors, as a result of significant dimensions, are particularly vulnerable to cracks, following the overlapping effects of shrinkage and thermal strains, as well as mechanical loads. Detailed design guidelines concerning the implementation method and the recommended materials (application of the respective plasticising admixtures and reinforcement, various kinds of steel meshes or a distributed reinforcement as steel or polypropylene fibres) have been developed, in order to prevent the cases above. It is visible (according to a great deal of experimental research) that the abovementioned guidelines limit the undesired shrinkage effects. Nevertheless, average typical conditions for making the floors very often differ from those in the guidelines, which may lead to the appearance of future shrinkage cracks, irrespectively to the applied reinforcement. The paper presents conclusions from the analysis of research results for three types of concrete ground floors made in the detached residential house, in the same operational conditions, differing with the reinforcement applied. The research was conducted from the moment of implementation and then, during the initial operational period.