Dramix

[Pablo]

Quick one for anyone with concrete experience. I have a laneway to build and was wondering if anyone has experience of using steel fibre or Dramix as a substitute for traditional mesh. I'm aware of the price difference but would like to hear others opinions especially if you were the one who paid for it. Is the extra money a good trade off for time and hassle saved. Does the fibre give the same strength as 10mm mesh etc. Thanks in advance.
Paul

[Tony McC]

We only ever used steel fibre on a high-strength industrial floor that was to take a beast of a machine once the factory was finished. For pavement works, we only ever used polymer (polypropylene) fibres and found they were fine for most light traffic projects.

One of the regular jobs we had was building haul roads on landfill sites. One such site handled containerised waste, and the stacker truck used to manoeuvre the containers exerted a 42 tonne axle load. The handling section was cast with B-series mesh top and bottom of a 250mm slab, but all the other access roads, which would be carrying 50-80 bin wagons per day, plus a similar number of 6- or 8-wheelers, were constructed using 200mm thick fibre-reinforced slabs with regular movement joints (5m c/c, IIRC)

[seanandruby]

have used it on a lot of floor slabs. It is very strong and hard to break out. We use on a controlled pour involving thousands of metres non stop. Machine lays it lazer level controlled. The pins are mixed into the drum. I would say its as strong, if not stronger than mesh. Its so much quicker.

[Pablo]

Thanks fella's the lane will be occasional farm use like slurry tankers silage machines and cattle trucks there's also several houses. The stone has been in for years and is very tight was thinking 150mm c35/20 with 252 mesh. Will need approx 120 sheets of mesh but the fibre will cost £2500 more so I reckon I'll stick with mesh I don't think it's worth the money for stuff like this.

[lutonlagerlout]

we did a turning circle for artics the weekend and that was specified at 200mm subbase,150mm c35 with 130 mesh (think thats what it was called)
we have used this spec before for lorry stuff with no problems
LLL

[Mikey_C]

fibres should cost that much more have you tried a couple of different suppliers? it terms of improved handling/time on site you could try the job specific mesh rolls that hyten do, depending on your bay size?

[Pablo]

Believe me mate they do I've bounced the price around a few suppliers and only managed a discount of £4.50 a cube. It works out at £47 for a cube of concrete then £48 per cube for the steel fibre thats £95 and thats pricey.