I'm No Civil Engineer But....I Don't Think They Are Either
byu/ReesesNightmare inWTF
This looks really weird, but there's a perfectly reasonable explanation. Are they putting soccer balls between rebar to save on concrete? Yes, yes they are. This is common in concrete construction and it's called a biaxial voided slab. Notice that the balls are not near the walls or columns, but in the emptier areas. This not only saves on the amount of concrete used, but the ultimate weight of the floor. It also increases the floor's insulating qualities.
However, this particular project is more colorful than others. Builders more commonly use plastic boxes or styrofoam to make concrete voids. These are most likely not regulation soccer balls, but much cheaper plastic orbs. Still gets the job done. (via reddit)
1 comment:
Concrete is a fantastic material that is unfortunately quite energy intensive. When I was looking into a greener foundation for a proposed garage at my home I discovered that slab foundations in Australia are often done as "wafflepods", often with polystyrene-formed voids so that the thickness can be concentrated where thickness is needed and otherwise the floor can be much thinner thus using much less material. Downside is that you need to know where any point-loads might be -- you don't want the jack-stand holding up your car to suddenly descend into the void while you are under the car, for example.
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