Stay on Course With ‘Tilt-up’ for School Construction

Stay-on-Course-With-‘Tilt-up-for-School-Construction-Tilt-Wall-Ontario-Featured-Image-Tilt Up

Ontario’s new educational institutions are opening sooner than ever when innovative construction techniques from Tilt Wall are implemented.

One of the biggest public complaints about the process of opening a new school in Ontario is how long it takes to go from: A) Addressing the need for a school, to Z) the building is now open for students. The concept approval alone can take years, followed by design revisions, hiring trades, building the structure and finishing the interior.

For school boards that care about the need for speed in school construction, tilt-up construction is here to help.

How Does Tilt-Up Make the Grade?

Once a school’s floor is poured, tilt-up ingenuity starts shaping the next step. Wood forms are built directly on the concrete slab, including openings for doorways and windows. A steel grid of reinforcing bars is tied into the form, and inserts and embeds for lifting the panels and attaching them to the footing, roof system, and to each other are also installed. Then the concrete is poured, followed by a ‘sandwich’ of practically impervious insulation and another layer of concrete.

Casting and curing these concrete elements on site at ground level also cuts a construction timeline. It’s here on the ground that school wall customizations are added: brick textures, colours and and coatings. Very little work on the walls is required after erection resulting in significant time savings.

Since there are fewer constraints on panel size when they are cured on site, as opposed to trucked in, some panels can be over 160,000 pounds, resulting in an entire school’s walls to be raised in as little as a day or two. Once the panels are finished, a crane is brought in to ‘tilt’ each panel into its ultimate position.

By drastically reducing design time, wall construction and exterior finishes, schools can cut 10% or more on their building enclosure schedule!

Faster, Better Schools. But Wait, There’s More to Learn!

Tilt-up panels also give schools much more than ‘just’ fast construction speed. They are extremely well-insulated, with fewer thermal breaks in walls, and have thermal mass – which allows the concrete to gradually store and release heat. The walls are extremely durable and are often less expensive than conventional methods.

Tell Your School Board About Tilt Wall

To learn more about our many educational facility success stories and see if tilt-up construction is right for your next school expansion or new build, call Tilt Wall at 519-602-2990 or email info@tiltwall.ca. We can also provide you with a brochure on the benefits of tilt-up construction for your school to share with others.