Concreting and support formwork
Description
AC sheeting or pipes used as formwork for shaping, reinforcing or underlaying concrete pours. Permanent formwork or temporary. AC products left in-situ as permanent formwork may not be visually apparent as AC due to the similar colour to concrete, particularly if painted.
Hardie’s marketed a 2.7m set shaped slab edge for DIY concreters.
Up until around the 1940s, Hardie’s manufactured AC Hollow Floor Blocks, an alternative to (Coal) coke breeze blocks, which were a popular method used in the late 1800s into the 20th Century to reinforce concrete. Breeze was small cinders and cinder-dust (extinguished partially burned coal). This was mixed with cement, cast in wooden moulds, and made into blocks. The AC product provided other advantages as advertised.
Brands/products
- Any brand product
- Fibrolite
Years of production/use
- Slab edges – produced to mid-1980s
- Hollow floor blocks – Late 1920s-1940s
- Ad-hoc use of other material is an ongoing issue
Residential uses
BBQs, DIY construction, framework support
Industrial uses
Ad-hoc concrete infills, older bridges
Be aware
DIY construction decisions may dictate use in unexpected situations.
Painted AC may display dimpling pattern.
