Floor slab embedded with balls used at Montreal engineering school residences

Teknika HBA is the first engineer in Canada to use an innovative honeycombed floor slab system that is 35% lighter than full slabs. Teknika spearheaded the use of the BubbleDeck Technology for a residential building at the École de technologie supérieure in Montreal. The $45-million project was completed last year.

The BubbleDeck system consists of basket-shaped reinforcement wire meshes with large balls made of recycled plastic installed between the meshes. These components are installed on prefabricated pre-slabs in the field, then coated with poured concrete to form a reinforced concrete structural floor slab. (See photo)

Teknika started researching the technology in 2006, though it was invented in Europe over 10 years ago.

The advantages over traditional construction methods include a reduced dead weight – 35% – which allows for the upper decks of a building to have less reinforcement. They also need lighter partitions and columns.

The system also allows longer spans between columns – up to 50% longer than traditional structures.

The system is also non-inflammable – considered as such by NEN 6064. The concrete pre-slabs are prefabricated off site, reducing on-site labour.

Louis Crépeau, ing., project manager at Teknika HBA for the Montreal project says that since the client, the École de technologie supérieure, is an engineering school they were very pleased to adopt the innovative system. The architect was Cardinal Hardy, and the contractors were Coffrages Alliances and Pomerlau.