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Building a First-Floor Slab and Walls With Concrete

Bob talks with Ron Ardres from ReddiForm about the construction of the home's concrete-slab floor. To build the floor, the walls were constructed using ReddiForm expanded polystyrene foam forms. The distance between the walls was then spanned using foam decking that forms a ceiling over the basment story. The decking is ten inches deep and contains grooves to hold reinforcing rebar. The foam decking was set up to be temporarily supported with falsework until the concrete sets. Steel is placed using stirrups between the grooves in the foam blocks. PEX tubing is put down on top of the foam after the steel has been put in place. A rollout mesh is then put down on top of the PEX tubing. After all this is done, the concrete is poured. More information