Shower curb is a type of concrete curb, but it’s constructed in different location and situation. Shower curb is using the similar materials with normal concrete curb which is concrete or cement mortar, but it’s different in term of the purposes of building shower curb. Usually concrete curb is built in the roadside, yard, and etc, while shower curb is built into the rest room.
The purpose of building shower curb in the rest room or wash room is to prevent the water flow out to the external floor. It’s act as a shower drain as well, it directs the water to the drain instead of flowing out to the external floor. In this situation, it’s meaning that the shower curb will be contacted with the water, shower curb is built by concrete too, which means in order to prevent the water contacts the concrete shower curb and affect the durability of shower curb, shower curb needed to be protected by some kind of water proofing system.
How To Build Shower Curb
There are several ways and methods to build shower curb, one of the way is using plaster board. The plaster board acts as a wall to prevent the water soaks into the shower curb. It’s kinda simple to build the shower curb with the method of using plaster board. Procedures as below :
1) Assuming that the concrete curb has been done.
2) You have to install the plaster board that has been bought from the supplier.
3) Jointing the plaster board with screws that can be joining with the shower curb.
4) Cutting the extra portion of the plaster board.
5) For the curving shower curb, the plaster board need to be cut in 45 degree that can be joining with the following shower curb.
6) After shower curb has been cut, join them in a suitable length.
7) After the shape has been set, install the plastic board on the shower curb.
8 ) After placing them nicely, secure the plastic board outside the wall of the shower curb by using the galvanized roofing nails.
There are couples of design of concrete drain in construction, such as berm drain, toe drain, embankment shoulder drain, cascaded drain and etc. All of them are made from concrete, the mixture of the concrete is depending on what drain to be constructed. Concrete drain can be constructed by hand, without any machine, concrete can be mixed by hand as well if the quantity used is less. Sometimes concrete drain can be spoiled or failure, concrete drain such as cascaded drain is connecting with the concrete curb, if the concrete curb doesn’t function well to control velocity of the water flow, the high speed of water flow might destroy the concrete cascaded drain, so rectification work for concrete drain has to be carried on.
How To Rectify Eroded Concrete Drain
1) The eroded concrete drain shall be excavated and form benching with a case backhoe.
2) Suitable earth shall be filled in layer and compact with a plate compactor.
How To Build Concrete Drain
1) After completion of reinstatement of the eroded concrete drain to the profile, excavation of the concrete cascading drain shall be carry out by case backhoe.
2) The bottom trench earth shall be levelled and trimmed manually by general workers for laying for 50mm thick lean concrete.
3) After the lean concrete had set, erection of formwork shall be carried out.
4) BRC reinforcement of the correct dimensions shall be installed.
5) Grade 20 concrete shall be laid and compact with poker vibrator up the drain bottom slab.
6) After the base concrete had set, concrete drain side wall reinforcement and formwork shall be installed.
7) Grade 20 concrete shall be delivered, laid and compact to specification.
8 ) Prior to all concreting works, formwork and reinforcement shall be inspected by the Engineer or his representative to ensure that the formwork and reinforcement are properly aligned and secured in place.
Curb and gutter form is common concrete curb which is constructed in combination of concrete curb and a concrete gutter, the function of curb and gutter forms is the same as common concrete curb, to direct the water to the nearest drainage system. There are 2 types of curb and gutter forms which is Straight Curb & Gutter and Radius Curb & Gutter, obviously from the names for both curb and gutter form and we could know they have different shape and components to be used. Usually curb and gutter forms are used to form a concrete curbing as traffic barriers on the sides of streets, parking lots, driveways, and roads to direct the rainwater to the nearest drainage system.
This type of concrete curb doesn’t require concrete curbing machine to construct, this type of concrete curb might need to be constructed by hand. Several concrete curb workers might need to be hired and concrete mixer need to be used too. The materials that will be used to construct the curb and gutter forms are concrete, expansion joint filler, curing compound and steel reinforcement bar. The concrete curb and gutter forms will be measured in meter according to Standard of Method of Measurement.
Components of Curb Gutter Forms
The components that used to construct the curb and gutter forms system are slightly different between both types of curb and gutter forms system. The components that will be used for Straight Curb and Gutter setup are front form, nail stake, curb face form, division plate, back form and top spreader. While the components that will be used for Radius Curb and Gutter setup are radius back form, curbface form, full division plate, radius front form, skeleton division plates and form pins.
Types of Curbs for Straight Curb and Gutter Forms
There are 5 basic types of curbs that are used to construct straight curb and gutter forms, types of concrete curb to be used is depending on the situation and location of the curbs to be built.
1) Vertical face – A setup with the front and the back must be in 90 degree angle.
2) Battered face – A curbface with the front and the back must be in somewhere around 90 degree angle.
3) Bottom radius – A battered curbface with a single radius formed into the bottom of the curb.
4) Top and bottom radius – A battered curbface with a radius formed into the top and bottom of the curb.
5) Drive over – A curbface with a slow, gradual batter allowing traffic to pass over.
Most of the concrete used in the construction have to be gone through the concrete testing procedure to ensure the strength of the concrete, if the concrete is crack or spoil in the concrete test, which mean the concrete is failed to be used in construction. There is several types of concrete testing in the construction, where Cylinder Test and Slump Test are commonly used. Some of them are very costly and time consuming, while some of the concrete testing are very simple and low cost.
Type of concrete testing depends on type of concrete used, purpose of the concrete used and requirement from client. Concrete for concrete curb is not required to go through the concrete testing process because it’s just a light duty work, usually concrete testing used to test the concrete for commercial building, concrete bridges, and etc.
Types Of Concrete Testing
1) Cylinder Test
For Cylinder test, concrete is poured into a 6 x 12 inches cylinder (6 inches diameter, 12 inches height). The cylinders are usually plastic, like the ones below. The plastic cylinders filled with concrete are allowed to cure at 70 degrees Fahrenheit for 28 days.
Then each cylinder is loaded axially in a laboratory, the cylinder is stood up in a loading machine and an arm of the machine pushes down on the top of the cylinder until the cylinder breaks. The maximum amount of force the machine used on the cylinder is important, it tests the maximum strength of the concrete.
The compressive strength of the concrete, f’c (f¡¯c=P/A) where P is the load at which the cylinder failed A is the cross-sectional area of the cylinder, in this case, pi*r^2, where r is the radius of the cylinder. Cylinder concrete test is to be done in a closed room, no one will be around the concrete testing during the compressing process, because it’s very dangerous when the spoil concrete pieces will be flying everywhere.
2) Slump Test Concrete Slump Test is another method of concrete testing, which is a easiest way of testing the concrete. Slump testing is a means of measuring the consistency of concrete using “slump cone”. The cone is made of galvanised metal with an 8-inch-diameter base, a 4-inch-diameter top and a 12-inch-height. The base and the top are open and parallel to each other and at right angles to the axis of the cone. This is the most economic way for concrete testing which don’t require any machine.
Concrete curb can be done in several ways, some contractors build it by hand, while some contractors build it by using concrete curbing machine, it’s depending on the situation and requirement by client. It goes same to building concrete landscape edging, it can be done in several methods. Basically the procedure and method are almost the same with building concrete landscape curbing. In this tutorial will show you how to building concrete landscape edging by using concrete curbing machine which is Miller MC250 & MC350.
How To Build Concrete Landscape Edging By Using Miller MC250 & MC350
1) Mixing concrete by using concrete mixer or concrete batch. If by hand, wheelbarrow need to be used. Materials for concrete mixing such as cement, sand and water.
2) Once the concrete been mixed properly, put it in wheelbarrow. Move it to the place that the landscape curbing need to be done.
3) Start the concrete curbing machine (Miller MC250 & MC350).
4) Put in the ready mixed concrete into the concrete curbing machine.
5) A worker is pulling the concrete curbing machine, and the concrete landscape edging is built in shape. Another worker keep filling concrete into the concrete curbing machine.
6) Once the concrete landscape edging is done in shape, pull out the concrete curbing machine from the edging.
7) After that, a worker is smoothing the concrete landscape edging with a tool. Finishing the surface of concrete landscape edging and make it stable. Repeat this step for the whole concrete landscape edging.
8 ) Done!
Building concrete landscape edging by using concrete curbing machine is actually easy, it has lot of advantage such as time saving because these can be done in short period, minimum workers needed, low cost because of less time and worker, works done in clean and tidy condition, and etc. Most of the contractor like to use this method to build concrete landscape edging because it’s simple and low cost.
