Corporate Images’ New Facility

Background

For over a decade, Corporate Images has been manufacturing and distributing ready-to-assemble furniture for offices and homes in Surrey, British Columbia. However, this long-term success wouldn’t have been possible without the creation of a long-life, low-maintenance facility in 2004. After all, the company’s business was growing, and they needed to adapt to the increasing demand for furniture.

To that end, Corporate Images contracted the CTA Design Group to design and engineer a 208,000-square foot facility. Considering the size and particular needs of this building, the CTA Design Group went with a tilt-up style construction, which would require concrete that would be compatible with bond breakers that make up part of the tilt-up wall panels. They also needed to consider the heavy traffic and loading that a typical manufacturing and loading facility like Corporate Images’ latest one would encounter. It would involve a number of vehicles traversing back and forth across the new facility’s concrete floor. In turn, without the proper protection, that concrete would eventually erode away. This erosion would then create an uneven floor, which would be a major workplace safety concern.

Solution

It didn’t take the CTA Design Group long to come up with the perfect solution. After considering all the building materials available to them, they chose to specify Hard-Cem. Compared to other hardening solutions like dry shake products, Hard-Cem would significantly increase the durability of the new facility’s concrete floor. There was no need to add in extra time or labor for this integral admixture to work either. All the construction team needed to do was add it to the concrete mix. With that in mind, they created 3,900 m³ of Hard-Cem concrete that would deliver a quality hardened floor and work well with the tilt-up wall panels’ bond breakers.