33 / 40
March 2015
walls.” CDPContractsManager, Johan
Badenhorst said that he particularly
liked Echo’s slabs superb finishes.
“We were able to paint themwithout
any skimming. Moreover, Echo also
cut out small sections on some of the
slabs to accommodate our service
ducting in the passage areas. We also
liked the fact that the top sides of the
slabs were cast with rough finishes
which made for good bonding sur-
faces for our screeds.”
Esterhuizen says that Echo prefers
to get involved with hollow-core
slab projects at the design and pre-
planning stages as it enables the
company to offer a total slab-design
installation solution.
Echo Group Marketing Director,
Melinda Esterhuizen, advises that the
success of any slab project essentially
rests on pre-planning and Echo’s
involvement in the early stages often
yields savings for the developers.
■
T
he villages were developed and
form part of Central Develop-
ments Projects (CDP) portfolio.
he company’s in-house building
contractor division has completed
six retirement villages during the
past five years and another four are
currently under construction. This
includes Olivedale, which is due for
final completion in the first quarter
of 2015.
CDP Operational Manager, Wouter
Brouwer says that hollow-core slabs
have been used in all its retirement
village projects.
“We’ve been working together
with Echo Group Projects Director,
Danie Esterhuizen, for the past 10
years and use hollow-core slab tech-
nology whenever we can as it short-
ens the overall construction time on
our projects by up to 12% and saves
approximately 20% in costs. Besides
the retirement village we also use
slabs on our other multi-storey de-
velopments such as high-rise rental
blocks in secure complexes,” says
Brouwer.
He goes on to explain that all
the retirement villages comprise a
combination of low-density free-
standing housing and high-density
multi-storey apartment blocks. Both
Featherbrooke Hills and Olivedale
comprise six high-density blocks
and other amenities. Featherbrooke
Hills offers 222 one and two-bedroom
apartments and Olivedale 225. Units
vary between 40 m² - 45 m² for the
one-bedroomunits and 61m² - 70m²
for the two-bedroom units.
Featherbrooke Hills has a service
centre and Olivedale includes frail
care units, shops, consulting room
and a multi-purpose centre.
The size of the apartments made
them ideal for slab utilisation and
Echo supplied reinforced hollow-core
precast in different sizes. Brouwer
said reinforced precast slabs were the
preferred option as they were more
economical than the prestressed
alternative for this type of short-span
application.
“Another plus for reinforced pre-
cast slabs is availabilty, whichmakes
it easy to incorporate last-minute
design changes.”
“To facilitate the use of reinforced
slabs at Olivedale, the engineer, Wim
van Straaten from Pro North Consul-
tants, designed the internal walls of
the ground floor apartments with
foundations. This meant they were
load-bearing and could support the
weight of the upper slabs and internal
The Echo Group has supplied precast concrete hollow-core slabs for
the construction of upper-level flooring in multi-storey apartment
blocks at two Gauteng retirement villages, Featherbrooke Hills
Retirement Village and Olivedale Retirement Village.
Cement & Concrete
Central Developments opts for Echo slabs