Tag: tunnel construction

How Many Building Frames Can a Sapphire Balcony Connect To?

Posted on by Nimrita Bassi

At Sapphire Balconies, we can connect balconies to various building structures, including traditional reinforced concrete (RC) frames, cross-laminated timber (CLT) frames, light gauge steel frames (LGSF), tunnel form structures (TFS), and even Peikko’s DELTABEAM® Frame.   

Leading the market through innovation, we ensure that our balconies meet the unique demands of each structure, providing lightweight options that complement sustainable materials while maintaining strong, safe connections.  

Cross-Laminated Timber Frames   

Cross-laminated timber, or mass timber, is created by glueing together layers of solid-sawn lumber taken from a single log. By glueing the wood layers at the right angles, CLT can achieve better structural rigidity than regular timber in both vertical and horizontal directions.  

Benefits of CLT:   

  1. Improved Project Efficiency: CLT as a prefabricated material is incredibly flexible for building design. Whilst concrete is the conventional option due to its perceived rigidity, some companies favour CLT over concrete as it is 20–30% faster to install and can reduce the need for on-site labour.   
  2. Strong Fire Performance: The fire performance of CLT is exceptional as it is fire-rated and compliant for ongoing use.  

Reinforced Concrete Frames  

A traditional concrete frame is built from the ground up, poured between stacks of rebar steel to create a sturdy wall to the building.   

Thanks to its rigidity, this method is used to this day as a reliable (albeit slower than a precast alternative) way to build apartment blocks and a durable material to anchor a balcony into. However, given how labour- and carbon-intensive this approach is, many countries are looking for more advanced approaches.  

  1. We can connect to a traditionally poured concrete façade in several ways with our lightweight aluminium Cassette® balconies. Their slim, manageable form allows any number of connections to be made.
  2. Using our innovative and speedy solution, we cast the anchors into the concrete slab. This forms a robust base for the balcony Cassette® to slide directly onto, at which stage it is secured by an on-site team.  

Light Gauge Steel Frames  

Light gauge steel frames are a modern solution for low-rise buildings (up to 15 storeys), offering faster construction, cleaner sites, and a reduced carbon footprint. As the name suggests, LGSF is a skeleton of sorts for a building, a dynamic and versatile application that uses lightweight, 100% non-combustible material to provide the inner support for a building whilst staying as green as possible.   

Considerations when connecting balconies to LGSF:  

  1. Due to the lightweight nature of LGSF, balconies should be as light as possible to avoid any instances of deflection. 
  2. With balcony anchors, a key issue is the connection back into the frame, as rotational deflection can occur here. Sapphire has developed new connection methods that provide extra rigidity.   

The DELTABEAM® Frame  

Peikko’s DELTABEAM® is an innovative steel building frame that reduces the number of columns needed in a building. This allows for longer spans of unsupported horizontal beams, giving you more floor area for any given building footprint.  

  1. Sapphire Balconies are able to connect to the DELTABEAM® frame without compromising on thermal performance, installation speed, or cost.   
  2. This solution is suitable for any project as it comes with standard components that don’t require unique costs, technologies, or modifications.   

Connecting balconies to a DELTABEAM® frame previously required a concrete infill, but – thanks to collaboration between Peikko and Sapphire – that’s now a thing of the past.  

We connected balconies to the DELTABEAM® frame at Silvertown Quays in Newham, London.   

Read our full blog to learn more.  

Tunnel Form Structures  

Tunnel construction is a framework that allows a building contractor or developer to cast walls and concrete slabs at once as part of a daily routine.   

It is one of the many modern methods of construction (MMC) that are now used to increase the speed of projects and the quality of the final result, based on the accuracy that off-site production and storage can provide.  

Connecting balconies to TFS:  

  1. As with standard concrete slabs, tunnel construction cells can be penetrated and thermally guarded on-site to create balcony connection points.  
  2. Because tunnel cells are cast in situ, the balcony connections can be cast with the concrete slab to avoid excess penetration of the slab itself.    

Sapphire’s lightweight balconies can easily connect to TFS.   

If you have a project in mind and would like to discuss it, get in touch with our team and we’ll be happy to help you.   

Connecting via tunnel construction

Posted on by Sajjad B

[vc_row width=”70″ background_image=””][vc_column][sapphire_textBlock]As is the case with a great number of matters, not all residential construction projects are built equally. Some use precast concrete facades to speed up the build process and allow for balcony anchors to be cast in a factory setting, others might use cross-laminated timer (CLT) framework to temper the overall cost of a project. However, an option for both rigidity and accuracy across the board for your balconies is connecting via tunnel construction.

What is tunnel construction?

Tunnel construction is a framework system that allows a building contractor or developer to cast walls and concrete slabs at once as a part of a daily routine. Tunnel construction is one of the many modern methods of construction (MMC) that are now used to increase the speed of a project, the quality of the final result and the accuracy that offsite production and storage can provide.

This type of modular construction results in a type of fortified, partitioned structure that is durable enough to only require minor adjustments to finish, such as façade details or balcony connections. Once the tunnel framework has been cladded and completed with thermal detailing such as thermal breaks or a balcony StubGuard, the structure is ready to take a load.[/sapphire_textBlock][sapphire_carousel images=”11739,11744,11745,11746,11747″ notch=””][sapphire_textBlock]

How to connect a balcony via tunnel construction

As is the case with standard concrete slabs, tunnel construction cells can be penetrated on-site and thermally guarded to create balcony anchor points. However, due to the insitu-cast nature of tunnel cells, the balcony anchors can be cast with the concrete slab to avoid excess penetration of the slab itself. This casting insitu means that solutions such as our Glide-On anchors can be used for different balcony connection options such as the Glide-On Cassette, Remote Locker variation or even for smaller anchor connections such as the tie-rod or Sapphire’s currently-in-development ultra-low carbon balcony solution.

Connecting via tunnel construction is yet another way to connect a lightweight Sapphire balcony to your residential construction project. Allowing both the walls and concrete slab to be cast at once as a type of partitioned cell can increase the speed and quality of a project, whilst also allowing various connections with different sizes of anchor, such as Glide-On, Remote Locker, Tie-rod, or our upcoming ultra-low carbon balcony solution to be used with ease and minimal penetration.

Learn more about connecting via other types of frameworks here:[/sapphire_textBlock][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row width=”70″ background_image=””][vc_column][sapphire_textOverlayBlock image=”11741″ heading=”Connecting to a traditional frame” button_text=”Read more” button_link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%2Fbalconies%2Fnews%2Fconnecting-to-traditional-frame%2F|title:Connecting%20to%20a%20traditional%20frame” double_height=””]Learn about connecting your balcony to a traditionally poured facade.[/sapphire_textOverlayBlock][sapphire_textOverlayBlock image=”11742″ heading=”Connecting to a precast facade” button_text=”Read more” button_link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Flocalhost%2Fbalconies%2Fnews%2Fconnecting-to-precast-facade%2F|title:Connecting%20to%20a%20precast%20facade” double_height=””]Learn more about connecting your balcony to a precast facade.[/sapphire_textOverlayBlock][/vc_column][/vc_row]