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Introduction to Tiltwall Construction
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A General Contractor's Approach to Innovative Commercial
Building Construction
Have you ever driven past a construction
site and seen massive cranes lifting huge panels of
concrete in the air? Have you watched with amazement
as a new commercial building seems to spring into place,
almost overnight? What you have witnessed is tiltwall
construction, an innovative method for building office
buildings, retail centers, warehouses, distribution
centers, call centers, manufacturing facilities and
other commercial / industrial structures with
amazing speed, safety, and cost benefits.
So what is the difference between tiltwall
and other types of construction?
In traditional forms of wall construction,
the walls can be built with CMU blocks or blocks faced
with brick. For some types of buildings, the exterior
wall is made up of structural steel columns with heavy
gauge metal studs covered with gyp sheathing, which
is then faced with brick or stucco. Regardless which
traditional approach is used, building the exterior
walls is a time-consuming, multi-stepped process. A
tiltwall building's walls are created horizontally in
large slabs of concrete called panels. The panels are
then lifted, or tilted up, into position around the
building's slab. This means the tiltwall structure's
exterior wall is virtually finished when it is tilted
into place.
Tiltwall construction (also called tiltwall
or tilt wall construction) has a long history, but its
widespread use is a relatively new phenomenon. In spite
of this, tiltwall construction is fast becoming the
method of choice for constructing modern warehouses,
call centers, distribution centers, retail stores, office
and storage buildings and other types of industrial
and commercial facilities.
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