South Africa still practicing the ancient method of construction. Hence it is much behind than other developed and developing countries in the world w.r.t construction of multi storied buildings - according to the precast concrete supplier, Echo Group.
The major economic advantage which European, American and Asian countries believe is through the excessive and proper use of the hollow core concrete slabs and other precast concrete elements.
Precast concrete is the most preferred medium of multi storey superstructures in most parts of the world. Infact in Europe today, 90% of the super structures comprise of the precast concrete and 10% of the cast in-situ.
But in South Africa the scenario is totally opposite. Precast concrete is considered as an alternative substance to be used while 90% of the building construction mixture is comprised of the cast in-situ. As a result the buildings are far more costly and also time consuming. It is a disadvantage for the property developers and also for the consumers.
In Europe the use of precast material for building is a default method and is incorporated in the designs from the starting itself. In South Africa the use of the hollow core slab flooring and other precast elements such beams and column are used by the construction engineer after the architects’ have drawn their plans. The architects’ in South Africa rarely include the use of precast in the beginning.
However SA seems doubted in taking the advantage of hollow-core and precast technology. Not as one would suspect due to the substantial use of the cost and time and the other advantages of this technology, but for other ordinary reasons that the skills pool in in-situ building practice is seen decreasing over the past five years.
Small and medium companies have lost much of their in-situ expertise during the downturn and for the many ordinary reasons about the art in the in-situ buildings have shown remarkable decrease since last five years. Small to medium companies also have lost much of their in-situ expertise during the downturn and now only the major construction companies adopt sufficient skills to follow in-situ construction. Hollow-core and precast concrete are likely to be adopted as a whole.
South African Builders now adopting the European standards:
Now the local precast companies in South Africa are adopting European standards. Eurocodes for precast concrete provide extensive and detailed guidance in especially in hollow-core slabs as they are far more detailed than local codes.
The local standard for the suspended precast slab is very basic. Consider for example, it doesn’t cover durability properties and thermal values are not properly described. Nor it include U values and sound transmission values. Due to some of these kind of reasons local construction professional are now adopting the European methods and specifications for precast concrete in their planning structure to build better and efficient buildings.
