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"Over the years we have seen entire villages destroyed by harsh tropical storms, but every Waffle-Crete building we constructed is still standing."
-- Jerry Kramer, CEO Pacific International
Build more sustainably with Waffle-Crete
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Affordable Disaster-Resistant Construction
Click on the buttons to the left to view examples of Waffle-Crete structures. Contact Waffle-Crete International for information on many other applications and projects.
Project: Low Cost House 1
Location: Jamaica
Notes: This model home demonstrates how
a low-cost design can still be attractive, storm-resistant, long lasting and low-maintenance.
All walls, roof, floor and even the front support columns were constructed with Waffle-Crete panels.
To keep the cost down, the builder elected not to use sheetrock or other wall covering. But with tasteful selection of paint colors, the exposed voids in the wall and roof panels look more aesthetically pleasing.
Project: Low Cost House 2
Location: South Africa
Notes: This model home, much like the one in Jamaica, was built to demonstrate that high quality housing could be built affordably. Also, like Jamaica, the weather in S. Africa is
temperate year round so the panels don't require insulation, and the thermal mass of the concrete helps keep the living space cool during the day.
Unlike the Jamaica model, this home was built with gabled Waffle-Crete walls and a sloped roof. This type of roof, however, requires more labor and materials, making it a more expensive option.
Project: Medium Cost House
Location: Bolivia
Notes: This was one of several model homes
built in an all Waffle-Crete middle-class housing development. These homes were built with voids facing out and then covered with stucco siding.
The bottom photo shows a model with slightly different layout under construction. Note that the floor of this house was constructed on Waffle-Crete Grade Beams as opposed to a pour-in-place foundation.
Project: Low Cost Row House
Location: Philippines
Notes: This 5 unit (each unit is 2-story) row house was one of several built for low income families. The low-cost Waffle-Crete design has effectively withstood both high wind and seismic activity, making it an even more cost-effective solution over time.
Project: Medium Cost Row House
Location: Kwajalein, Marshall Islands
Notes: The US Navy, which uses Kwajalein as a military base, built a community of upscale 4-unit, 2-story officer row houses using the Waffle-Crete system.
The contractor, Pacific International, cast the panels at its headquarters on Majuro, the Marshall Islands' capital, and delivered them to Kwajalein by ship.
Project: Apartment Complex 1
Location: Guatemala
Notes: These four-story apartment buildings were subsidized by the Guatemalan government for low income families. All walls and floors were made with Waffle-Crete.
The slotted Waffle-Crete panels on the front of each building offered ventilation for the staircases, while still providing protection from strong winds or earthquakes.
Project: Apartment Complex 2
Location: Indonesia
Notes: This five-story middle-income apartment complex provided an upscale look, but most importantly, it offered residents and their possessions protection from the forces of nature.
The bottom photo shows one of the buildings under construction. In this photo you can see that the first story of apartments is raised several feet above ground level to protect them from flooding.
Project: Apartment Complex 3
Location: The Philippines
Notes: KBR (a division of Haliburton) built these attractive 3,4 and 5-story apartment buildings overlooking Subic Bay as part of a $100M project to convert an old Naval ship repair facility.
The Philippines has some of the fiercest tropical storms along with high seismic activity. KBR selected Waffle-Crete as the most cost-effective solution to meet The Philippine government's disaster protection requirements for this project.
Project: Outrigger Hotel
Location: The Marshall Islands
Notes: This hotel is one of dozens of Waffle-Crete buildings erected by Pacific International, Inc. (PII) in the Marshall Islands and Guam.
The Marshall Islands are formed from atolls that are all close to sea level and leave buildings like this one mostly unprotected from typhoon winds and flooding.
Concrete is the ideal building material for this climate, but solid precast is not cost-effective in these remote Pacific Islands because of the high cost of shipping heavy construction materials.
However, because Waffle-Crete requires half the concrete and rebar of solid precast, PII can still cost-competitively bid and build weather-resistant concrete buildings.
Project: Days Inn Hotel
Notes: This is perhaps the most elaborate of the 27 Days Inn Hotels constructed with Waffle-Crete in The Philippines. Days Inn built this multi level hotel by stair-stepping it down the rim of a volcano.
Project: Restroom Facility
Location: Hays, Kansas
Notes: The panels for this very simply designed and low-cost restroom factility was cast one day at the Waffle-Crete headquarters and fully erected by noon of the the following day.
Project: Student Housing
Location: Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas
Notes: Hays, Kansas is located in the mid-west's notorious tornado alley. The exterior Waffle-Crete walls of these two and three story apartment buildings keep students safer than conventional wood frame construction during tornado season, but don't look at all like traditional concrete construction.
Many exterior finishes, like the stamped slate finish shown here, can be added during production of the Waffle-Crete panels, or added after they are erected.
Project: Curtain Walls
Location: Shanghai, China
Notes: Waffle-Crete panels can be used alone as structural walls or as non-load bearing curtain walls, as is the case here.
The builders of this steel-frame warehouse facility needed a perimeter wall to withstand the daily abuse from forklifts and other equipment. Because they didn't need to span the full wall height they elected to use 8' wide Waffle-Crete floor panels to span between the steel support columns. The Waffle-Crete panels form an abuse-resistant rigid curtain wall that was inexpensive to construct and require little ongoing maintenance.
Project: Warehouse
Location: Lawrence, Kansas
Notes: This 12,000 s.f. building is a combination warehouse and office facility. Unlike the previous curtain wall example, the 24 foot Waffle-Crete walls in this building provide structural support for the steel roof.
Project: Portable Building
Location: Throughout the US
Notes: Waffle-Crete has constructed hundreds of relocatable buildings that were then shipped around the US for various purposes such as cell phone communication shelters and hazardous materials storage.
The Waffle-Crete system is ideal for this type of building because the lighter panel weight makes moving the buildings easier with smaller equipment. In addition, because Waffle-Crete panels bolt together, assembly is faster and makes it easy to assemble buildings on site.
Project: Sound and Barrier Walls
Notes: Waffle-Crete sound and barrier walls and fences can be constructed in two basic configurations: post-supported (for a straight wall), as in the photo to the right, or free-standing, which uses an articulated pattern, as in the photo below.
Panels in the post-supported configuration are connected by H-columns, which are bolted to the panels at each vertical junction.
Free-standing Waffle-Crete wall panels are bolted to V-shaped steel plates that are placed between the panels in an alternating pattern. Free-standing walls of up to 12 feet (3.65m) have withstood high wind loads without peers or footings (in good soil).
With sound walls, the joints are acoustically sealed with rubber gaskets. If additional sound dampening is required, an acoustical coating can be applied to either side of the panels.
Project: Retaining Wall
Location: Albany, New York
Notes: This 18 foot (5.5m) Waffle-Crete wall was built along a river and the land adjacent to it was backfilled for a mall expansion.
Tensar Geogrid sheets were cast into the panels and then attached to Geograd mats on the jobsite. The mats were buried in 2 foot lifts to stabilize the backfilled soil and also to hold the panels in place.
Project: Cooling Towers
Location: Biosphere II, Oracle, Arizona
Notes: The Biosphere II was built as a completely self-contained ecosystem designed for closed-system research.
The three 39' X 39' (12m X 12m) Waffle-Crete cooling towers were used to cool the hot water produced by the air conditioning system used to control the temperature inside the 3.5 acre Biosphere.
Concrete was selected as the building material because of its non-corrosive properties and low maintenance costs. The Waffle-Crete system was selected because it offered the fastest erection speed and the lowest construction cost.
The panels for Biopshere II are standard flat panels cast with angled blockouts at the outer ribs of each panel so they could be bolted directly together to form the cylindrical shape of the tower.
Project: Artifical Reef
Location: Boston Harbor
Notes: Waffle-Crete designed and patented a modular reef system that has been time tested to be a highly effective aquatic habitat.
Because these modules are constructed with the Waffle-Crete system, they use 50% less concrete and reinforcement than solid precast panels and are also easy to assemble with unskilled local workers.
The result is that Waffle-Crete Artificial Reef Modules offer the maximum amount of exposed surface area per dollar invested.
Project: Underground Manure Tank
Location: Western Kansas
Notes: Waffle-Crete built and delivered this manure tank for a dairy farm in Western Kansas. It is a 350,000 gallon (1,300 cubic meter) below grade tank designed to catch the run-off from cattle.
Wall panels were cast with angled blockouts at the outer ribs of each panel so they could be bolted directly together to form the cylindrical shape of the tank. The vertical seams were sealed with neoprene rubber strips.
Because the tank is below grade, it had to be reinforced to withstand both hydrostatic pressure as well as the outward pressure from its contents. This was accomplished by casting panels with an extra inch (2.5cm) of concrete and post-tensioning with seven strand steel cable around the tank at every two feet of wall height.
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