Natural Stone-faced Precast Concrete Cladding
Description
Natural stone-faced precast concrete panels are concrete units faced with any type of natural stonework. Stone-facing can be incorporated on to structural elements, as on cladding panels.
Benefits
Natural stone-faced precast
- Combines a traditional natural stone appearance with the durability and other benefits of precast concrete panels.
- Alleviates challenges of in-situ stonework in hazardous places - produces a high standard of workmanship in factory conditions, reduces potential for accidents, addresses on-site skill shortage.
- Enables faster programme times - not affected by weather or labour shortages.
- Improves buildability - early enclosure of dry envelope enables follow-on trades to start sooner.
- Has a high quality finish that can be left exposed - concrete's thermal properties can be exploited in low-energy buildings.
Process
Natural stone-faced units are produced by laying the natural stone face-down in the bottom of the mould prior to casting the concrete backing mix around the stone. Hard stone, such as granite, should be a minimum of 30mm thick whereas other stones, such as Portland and Bath, should be a minimum of 50mm thick.
A debonding agent is applied to the back of the stone, and stainless steel pins are arranged at the ratio of 11 per square metre, so that the stone can move relative to the backing panel to accommodate thermal movement. The joints between the stones are also soft-pointed.
Please see our case studies which show the use of stone faced units.