Reinforcement of floors

Reinforcement of wooden or metal or concrete and masonry floors

Wooden floor frames can be consolidated with a new lighter concrete slab reinforced with a FRP net laid on the former slab.

The reinforced slab is joined to the joists underneath through a special connection system to obtain a composite element featuring better load-bearing capacity.

Because the overlapping FRP sheets are only a few millimetres thick, the reinforcement will fit in the slab better. This means that the load will be better distributed on the floor and between the joists, while the overall thickness remains low.

The slabs are joined to the walls through special connecting elements consisting in FRP brackets.

Laying FRP nets requires no special procedures or specific expertise, because they are laid exactly like traditional metal meshes.

The nets can be cut to measure with any standard tools (brick cutter, cutting nippers, etc.).

As FRP nets are supplied in rolls 2 m high and 40 m long, only few joints are needed. Joints are made by overlapping two sheets and binding one or two meshes.

In some cases, the load-bearing capacity of floors is required to be greater. This is obtained by reinforcing the wooden or metal joists, or the concrete and masonry beams.

In this case, the stretched area of the joists will be impregnated with epoxy resins and bonded to pultruded carbon fibre sheets conveniently sized.

The carbon fibre sheets by FIBRE NET are manufactured with an epoxy matrix and feature excellent tensile strength. They are easily installed and will not require any special cutting or laying tools.

Before gluing the carbon fibre sheets to the frame, the latter must be cleaned of any dust, rust, moisture and all unsteady parts must be removed.