How to Build a House with Prefabricated Hollow Slabs

Building a house with prefabricated hollow slabs requires following scientific steps to ensure structural safety and functional integrity. The specific operations are as follows:

1. Base Treatment: Ensuring Contact Stability

Base treatment is a fundamental step in the installation of prefabricated hollow slabs. The top surface of the load-bearing wall must be thoroughly cleaned to remove dust, loose particles, and other impurities, ensuring a flat surface. One day before lifting, the wall top should be moistened with clean water, but standing water should be avoided to prevent a reduction in the strength of the subsequent mortar due to excessive moisture. Subsequently, high-grade cement mortar (such as M10 or above) should be used for leveling. The mortar layer should be full and uniform, with a thickness controlled between 20-30 millimeters, ensuring comprehensive contact between the prefabricated slab and the wall and avoiding stress concentration caused by local suspension, which could lead to cracking or deformation.

2. Slab Bottom Support: Preventing Deformation During Construction

Temporary support structures must be installed at the bottom of the prefabricated slabs during installation and cement pouring. Support points should be evenly distributed, with a spacing not exceeding 1.5 meters. Steel pipe scaffolding or wooden beams can be used for support, ensuring that the support is firm and level. The support should remain in place until the cement mortar reaches at least 70% of its design strength (usually requiring curing for 7-14 days), preventing bending, cracking, or even collapse caused by the self-weight of the prefabricated slabs or construction loads.

3. Slab Joint Treatment: Avoiding Structural and Leakage Risks

Slab joint treatment is a critical quality control point. In traditional splicing methods, two people should align the prefabricated slabs through the joints, ensuring consistent joint width (usually 20-40 millimeters), and fill them with high-strength mortar or special grouting materials. Before filling, debris within the joints should be cleaned, and the surfaces on both sides of the joints should be moistened to improve mortar adhesion. After filling, the mortar should be vibrated densely to avoid voids, and the surface should be smoothed and polished. If the joints are located in wet areas such as bathrooms or kitchens, waterproofing agents should be added to the mortar layer, or waterproof membranes should be installed to prevent leakage.

4. Installation Logic: Forming an Integrated Load-Bearing Structure

Prefabricated slabs should form an integrated structure through professional construction rather than simple stacking. During installation, it is essential to ensure that connections between slabs and walls, as well as between slabs themselves, are reinforced with steel bars or cast-in-place concrete nodes to form a combined force. For example, steel bars can be reserved at the slab joints, and concrete can be poured to form hidden beams, enhancing horizontal connections. Alternatively, embedded parts can be used to connect with the walls, avoiding safety hazards caused by independent loading. In modern construction, some projects incorporate a cast-in-place layer (such as 50 millimeters of fine aggregate concrete) to further strengthen the overall integrity.

5. Supplementary Information on Manufacturing Process: Understanding Structural Characteristics

When manufacturing prefabricated hollow slabs, a hollow mold is first made using wooden boards, with a steel bar mesh arranged inside. Subsequently, cement is poured and vibrated densely. After the initial setting of the concrete, the wooden boards are knocked off to form a hollow structure. The hollow design reduces self-weight (30%-50% lighter than solid slabs), lowering transportation and installation difficulties while saving material costs. However, it should be noted that modern buildings tend to prefer cast-in-place structures (such as cast-in-place floors) due to their stronger overall integrity and superior seismic performance, especially suitable for high-rise or complex structural buildings.