PROJECT PROFILE: Florida Pool Deck Uses Geofoam to Reduce Weight

Posted by BethAnn Kruljac on October 9, 2014 in GeoFoam, Project Profiles

Florida Pool Deck | Tallahassee, FL | View Project Profile (pdf)

Known primarily for its use as a soil stabilizer in transportation projects, EPS geofoam is being viewed by engineers and contractors as the material of choice for a multitude of other commercial and residential applications.

Florida pool deck, geofoam installation

Contractors use geofoam to simplify construction of swimming pools in residential, commercial and institutional uses, including hotels, schools and community centers. Project teams can order the blocks pre-but to precise dimensions or can easily cut them to size and shape on site. This simplifies the concrete forming process, and greatly reduces weight for construction of rooftop pools or sites with poor load-bearing soils. Once crews form the pool basin and decks with geofoam, they can apply shotcrete directly to the foam.

In this Florida project, geofoam was used to lighten up the load over the upper elevations building given the pool is on the 2nd floor of this five-store building. Pool decks are installed on both the East and West buildings on the campus.

Given its low weight, EPS geofoam is well suited as a structural void fill in concrete forming operations. Crews can easily fabricate virtually any shape or sloe, and the material eliminates separate concrete pours for vertical wall sections and topping slabs. Applications include bridge column formwork, stadium seating in auditoriums and sports arenas, stairways, podiums, loading docks, and rooftop pool decks. EPS geofoam can be manufactured into custom-cut blocks in various shapes and sizes to enable contractors to quickly build up these and similar features.