Every builder faces challenges when confronted with bad weather, with foundation contractors being especially impacted when it rains. The resulting delays – additional carrying costs from increased construction cycle time as well as postponements in receiving sales or rental income – is often compounded when the structure is a multi-family building where meeting move-in timelines are more important than ever.
A key benefit of the Wafflemat Foundation System appreciated by all builders, but especially by multi-family developers, is the building cycle time reduction when compared to alternative foundation systems.
This feature is magnified with weather delays being a major hindrance for the other systems like in-ground ribbed slabs, that can experience completion delays of days or even weeks during rainy seasons.
Rod Dotson of RJ Dotson Foundations in California recently chose Wafflemat for a large multi-family project specifically for these reasons. He noted: “Architectural delays caused the start date to slip from summer to late fall, and we knew weather would come into play. We were building in highly expansive soils, and when you mix that with rain, it’s not a good recipe for digging foundations.”
Dotson continued: “We chose Wafflemat because we had done several installations with the Wafflemat foundation system before and knew first-hand rain would not be an issue. Waffleboxes go right on grade, eliminate all interior trenching, and provide for perfect cable placement no matter what the conditions are outside. Use of the Wafflemat Foundation System resulted in zero foundation cycle time delays, when use of an in-ground ribbed slab in these conditions would have set us back weeks. These benefits allowed us to meet our deadline, and in turn the General Contractor stayed on schedule for building completion.”
Currently, more than 40% of all Wafflemat installations are for multi-family structures. Included in this number is a large, decade-long, project being built in Hawaii for DR Horton on the Island of Oahu’s west side (Kapolei).
Typical to Hawaii, afternoon rains are common, yet crews experience no delays with Wafflemat. This is an important element in the project's financial goals, as most labor in Hawaii is billed at either union or prevailing wage rates, so meeting project cycle time schedules – especially with foundations – is a significant component.
Every builder faces building cycle time challenges when the weather turns bad and the rains come. Wafflemat helps to meet the challenge and is one of the reasons more and more developers – especially those constructing multi-family structures – are turning to the Wafflemat Foundation System for their foundations.
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Keep reading about Wafflemat for Multi-Family Builders, General Contractors, Single Family Builders, or Engineers.
