I made a monolithic floor using the MARCO technology with my own hands. It turned out to be cheaper than wood and warmer than slab floors

Even at the beginning of the construction of the house, I considered the construction of an attic floor using the technology of often ribbed monolithic floors with aerated concrete filling. It is also called MARCO floor slabs. The task is to avoid using wood as much as possible.

But transporting the finished beams from this manufacturer across half of the country is an overhead. The case helped, or rather, the manual developed in the design bureau of Gleb Grinfeld. He figured out how such a floor could be built using a board formwork system and self-reinforcement. A link to the calculations, I will indicate its manual at the end of the article. In the meantime, we are watching the process of erecting a monolithic floor.

At the end of May, I bought and brought lumber and blocks of aerated concrete:

Timber for formwork. The volume, price and size of the board are on the third slide. Now lumber is already at a price of 20-22 thousand rubles / m3. Aerated concrete blocks with a density of D400 and a thickness of 200 mm.

For accurate marking of the length of the boards on the props, I purchased a laser rangefinder. An article about him here. This is not to jump alone on the walls with a tape measure.

He insulated the contour of the future overlap in advance. External block - 100 mm. Tied up and raised the reinforcement cages on the walls.

About the process of laying fixed formwork and tying reinforced frames articles here and here.

Marked the level of installation of the formwork and the depth of support of the blocks on the walls (2.5 cm) using a homemade template.

Two holes - 2.5 cm and 5 cm from the edge. This will save a lot of time later and increase the accuracy when placing blocks on formwork and walls. He began to install the formwork, props under the floor.

The principle of installing the floor is as follows:

I screwed boards 150x50 cm onto the walls. They were propped up with vertical supports made of the same board with a pitch of 700 mm. And on them he laid horizontal beam bases made of a 200x50 mm board. But the pitch of this board is 575 mm. The length of the aerated concrete block is 625 mm. By 2.5 cm, they will rest on the boards and on the walls. There is 150 mm between the rows of blocks. It will be a reinforced concrete beam. And the blocks are like warm filler in the ceiling.

From above it looks like this. At this stage, everything was done by one:

A grid of props with a step of 1x0.7 m.On the horizontal boards on which the blocks will rest, I also made markings:

After I assembled all the formwork on the floor, I started laying the blocks:

He glued the blocks to each other and glued them pointwise to the boards with glue-foam. They will definitely not fall out when poured with concrete. In some places it was necessary to level the formwork by placing wooden spacers under the boards. Controlled the block level by the level.

The blocks had to be lifted up an uncomfortable staircase to the second floor. It took a lot of time and effort. Having lifted 3 m3 (2 pallets) of blocks, I decided to involve an assistant. He lifted the remaining 6 pallets. In total, 12 m3 of gas blocks were needed for the perimeter of the house 8.5x9.3 m. Concrete for pouring will need even less.

I sawed the finishing blocks on my machine. It is still running this season and the bearings in the saw did not have to be changed for the second time.

A separate process is the installation of blocks at the exit points of the ventilation ducts. Drilled with a crown and a perforator

Before laying the blocks, I left one place without formwork. This is the place of the staircase. Here you need to install 6 m supports, and double ones, screwed into the letter T. It was difficult to do it alone. Here he called for help from a team of builders. In the meantime, he raised the reinforcement mesh to the floor. Marked and left openings in the ceiling for the hatch (1200x600 mm) and the chimney (600x380 mm)

During the evening, the builders installed the props. For reliability, I tied them with horizontal boards:

In several places, it turned out that the blocks had to be sawed and installed such inserts:

He left a place, a window for lifting the reinforcement and raised it to the ceiling. Fittings with a diameter of 12 mm, 44 pcs:

Then he bent the clamps of 6.5 mm smooth reinforcement with a pipe and laid them between the blocks. The reinforcement of the beams will rest on them.

He laid out the fittings in them and fastened them with knitting wire to the clamps. It turned out that the reinforcement is located 2 cm from the blocks and from the horizontal boards. 22 beams were needed for 22 pieces. fittings 6 m long.

I installed OSB sheet formwork for the chimney opening and the hatch opening.

I bought plastic stands for fittings. They allow you to raise it above the base by 2 cm or 2.5 cm. With the help of them, the armored frame was raised 2 cm above the walls.

From the scraps of reinforcement, I bent the corner elements for anchoring the main reinforcement to the reinforcement cage and:

I bought rods, studs М16х2 m, nuts and washers for them. Sawed them at 50 cm. This is for attaching the roof Mauerlat to the walls. I screwed them to the reinforcement cage with a knitting wire, having previously inserted them into a shallow hole drilled in the wall (so as not to move the hairpin).

He blew out all the dust and debris from the ceiling with a hair dryer, laid out and tied the finished reinforcing mesh (cell 200x200) from 5 mm reinforcement. He bent the protruding ends of the reinforcement at the edge of the walls.

Raised the net over the blocks by 2 cm using stands. Immediately before pouring concrete, he poured abundantly the blocks with water from a hose.

I ordered 9 m3 of concrete and a concrete pump. Concrete grade M350 and strength B25. According to the project, you need not lower than B20 (M250), took it with a margin. I called the workers on a certain day to level the concrete. The process of pouring with concrete was not removed, tk. he worked himself, pouring concrete over the ceiling. There were three more people who worked with me. Concrete must be vibrated with a deep vibrator. After pouring with concrete:

They leveled, smoothed out not very high quality, tk. in the heat, concrete set quickly and there were no comfortable ironers. But for the attic floor it is not critical. Below, only in a few places small smudges of concrete milk formed (due to the unevenness of the boards). After a couple of hours, when the concrete grabbed, I covered the overlap with polyethylene:

I wetted the concrete with water for several days. The formwork will stand for 28 days until the concrete reaches its optimum strength. The installation process of this monolithic floor can be seen in the video:

Link to the manual, calculations of this type of overlap here

For the price (not counting the lumber that will go to the roof), this overlap in cost came out in an amount of about 200 thous. rub. I will give a detailed calculation, as well as its pros and cons in a separate article. When the cost of lumber is more than 20 thous. rubles / m3 (and in the European part of the country the price is already under 30 thousand. rubles / m3) - such an overlap has become cheaper than a wooden one. Because lumber on wood with a filing needs about 10 m3.

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© Blog of the self-builder. Photos by the author

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