Expat Community > Colombia

elgringuito
Joined 2021
Posts: 381

Fiber Mesh in concrete?

1 year ago

Hola a todos. The Father provided a storefront we needed for our business, in a pueblo setting. It has a nice half-hectare in back, to build a few houses.
We will need to bring in fill dirt (which is easy here, because of local road construction), and then we will need to compact it down real well (as it is brought in).
Then after that, we will want to put in over-wide foundations and footings, to prevent cracking.

I noticed that they use columns here, and then they fill in between with bricks.
I am in like a 3 year old gated 2-story azotea-flat roof house built for a doctora, with the local recommended "best" contractor, and I think they use like 12" wide foundations or something here--and especially I notice that there are cracks in all of the walls. This makes me suspect that a much wider foundation (or footer?) would be better.

I thought we could use like a 24" wide foundation, to distribute the weight more evenly, so the walls do not have so many cracks.
I also thought we could build a single story, so there is not so much weight.
I am not yet sure if we want an azotea. I was thinking so, but in the new property, maybe a normal tile techo roof might be better, not sure yet.

Just to check my understanding, if the foundation is STRONG, will the plaster on the inside of the bricks still crack? Or is it only the plaster on the bricks built on a weak [settling] foundation that crack?)

Además, I read that Fiber Mesh does not replace rebar, but that you can use it along with rebar to stop concrete from cracking (and then rebar carries the real weight). However, they also say that Fiber Mesh has to be done just right, or it can make things worse.
That makes me wonder, does anyone have experience with using Fiber Mesh here? Because I like the concept, but I do not want to be their Guinea Pig (cuy).

Or to put it another way, are there any tips on building in concrete on top of compacted fill dirt?
We are looking at a single-story structure, to not make it too heavy.

Do we also need extra rebar in the slab, to keep it from cracking?
Gracias.

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