transparent protection and sealiing of an old concrete slab?
transparent protection and sealiing of an old concrete slab?
(OP)
Good Day
I have a special challenge
See attached photos of a very old slab-soffit of a underground tunnel.
Into this tunnel shall a bar build in. The challenge is now that the Architect wishes to keep this rough old structure as an feature. All the old bricks and the exposed rusted rebar’s shall remain.
Is there something like a transparent material which we could apple on the soffit of this slab and protect it from falling apart?
In some cases I will obviously need to prop the slab, but the places between should show the rusted beams and rebar’s and broken off concrete.
I have a special challenge
See attached photos of a very old slab-soffit of a underground tunnel.
Into this tunnel shall a bar build in. The challenge is now that the Architect wishes to keep this rough old structure as an feature. All the old bricks and the exposed rusted rebar’s shall remain.
Is there something like a transparent material which we could apple on the soffit of this slab and protect it from falling apart?
In some cases I will obviously need to prop the slab, but the places between should show the rusted beams and rebar’s and broken off concrete.






RE: transparent protection and sealiing of an old concrete slab?
RE: transparent protection and sealiing of an old concrete slab?
Seriously, is that a structural slab or just a ceiling? I hope the actual tunnel structure is in better condition.
RE: transparent protection and sealiing of an old concrete slab?
RE: transparent protection and sealiing of an old concrete slab?
this tunnel is just one meter below ground and on top is only a 1m soil backfill
i mean I also like the appearance of this old rough structure. I would definitely like to site in such an bar. it has some personality, some character but only ja the danger. I mean I want anyway to provide two steel beams under the slab which will be propped lets say every 5m. So the entire slab will not collapse but the problem are the smaller peace’s between.
what about a epoxy coating with mesh between or kind of a fiber?
Lolobau
RE: transparent protection and sealiing of an old concrete slab?
"only 1m of soil backfill"....that's more than 300 psf.
You can use an epoxy with mesh or fiber, but you'll lose the character of the rough look. If you want to do something like that, consider using shotcrete to encapsulate the loose stuff and leave the shotcrete rough. Can be made to look more like a "natural" tunnel.
RE: transparent protection and sealiing of an old concrete slab?
This reminds me of a project that I worked on twenty years ago. It was a theme restaurant and the architect wanted the new slab-on-grade to look like the floor of an old abandoned factory building. They gave us explicit instructions that they wanted the slab to be randomly cracked throughout. So usually we get in trouble if we have random cracks in our floor slabs. Now we were going to get in trouble if we didn't have random cracks. I forget what direction we gave the contractor to cause the slab to crack. Perhaps we told them to do what they usually do. The restaurant is no longer in business, otherwise I'd drive over tonight and have dinner there - and check out the slab.
RE: transparent protection and sealiing of an old concrete slab?
Agree with Ron et al, fix the problem and then make it look old like they do at Disney and other theme parks.
RE: transparent protection and sealiing of an old concrete slab?