Quick and easy Round Pads

When Winnipeg contractor, Westland Construction Ltd., contacted the local Symons branch, they needed advice about forming two large round pads for tanks. It was a small job, but it had some unique requirements.

The forms for the two tank pads could not utilize turnbuckles with stakes anchored in the ground. Because of the geo-textile membranes underneath them, driving stakes for turnbuckles to plumb the forms was not an option.

Symons immediately suggested Steel-Ply. Because of the low pour height and the slow concrete placing time, it was suggested using 1" steel strapping, the kind used with banding machines, to wrap around the circumference.

Subsequently, the tank bases were completed ahead of time and under budget. Westland commented, "Had we done these in wood, it would have taken a lot longer and the results would not have been nearly as good".

Steel-Ply® is a contractor's workhorse

Per Del Construction, a busy concrete contracting company based in Lemont, Illinois, owns some Steel-Ply equipment, and supplements their inventory by renting additional forms when they need them. This arrangement provides the contractor more flexibility and better cost-effectiveness than either renting or owning all of their forms.

For large jobs or when they have several overlapping jobs, Per Del uses a combination of Steel-Ply forms that they own along with rented forms. They have found that this arrangement provides several important advantages. They can arrange to have only the forms they need delivered to the site when they need them, and they do not have to store the forms between jobs or tie up their money in idle equipment.

Although the contractor appreciates the flexibility possible with renting forms, they acknowledge the advantages of owning much of their equipment. Because the strong steel frame lasts a long time and the special ½" HDO plywood face can be replaced when necessary, they know that the money they put into their Steel-Ply inventory will benefit them for years. In addition, when they have occasionally rotated equipment out of inventory, they found the resale value for their used Steel-Ply was high.

Per Del Construction depends on Steel-Ply every day to contribute to the continued success of the company.

Symons Irons Out the Details

The Mesabi Nugget plant, in the Mesabi Iron Ore Range in northeastern Minnesota, will be the first full-scale, high-grade iron nugget plant to be built. The construction project started in October, 2007 with the Rotary Hearth Furnace (RHF) building. This portion of the project was awarded to Oscar J. Boldt Construction located in Cloquet, MN. The RHF building consisted of a 33' wide circular footing with an inside radius of approximately 82' with two ring walls that sit on top spaced approximately 16' apart. Because of an environmental permit expiration date that was very close, the contractor was given just five days from the award of the project until they had to be on site, starting the foundation. Because of the unusually narrow time constraints, the contractor needed a forming system with a true radius very quickly. The Minneapolis-area Symons branch immediately shipped Alisply™ Circular forming system components to form the wide footing. To build the ring walls that sit on top of the footing, the contractor chose Flex-Form® panels, which were shipped to the site already set at the required radius so that the project could continue moving along quickly. Symons provided all of the forming and shoring systems for the RHF construction.

Steel-Ply® was used to form the equipment ramp walls and other structures. ShorFast™ supported the elevated slab over the equipment ramp and the discharge chamber. Hammerlund Construction from Grand Rapids, Minnesota has been awarded the contract to construct five buildings on this project. As a previous user of the Symons Alisply™forming system, Hammlund has selected it again on this project. The buildings they are constructing are a Raw Materials Preparation building, Pelletizing building, Warehouse, an Electrical Substation and a Product Cooling Tower. The ability to quickly reconfigure the Alisply system for each of these different structures has kept the project moving.

See video and more photos at http://www.steeldynamics.com/index.php?page_id=117

What are "Symons forms"?

You hear the term "Symons forms" all the time, but what forms do people really mean?
Most of the time, contractors are referring to the steel-framed and plywood-faced Steel-Ply, which is manufactured by Symons.

Symons makes many other concrete forms, so why do builders call Steel-Ply "Symons forms"?
Steel-Ply has been around for over 50 years, they are Number 1, and they are everywhere, so it is only natural for them to be called "Symons forms".

Why are they so popular?
Instead of contractors having to build forms out of plywood and lumber and drilling holes for ties and for bolting them to each other the way generations of concrete contractors had to do before Steel-Ply, they can buy a bunch of standard forms that are reliably strong and easy to connect up. In the building boom that was going on in the 1950's when Steel-Ply was introduced, and in all the ones since, contractors snapped it up. It stays popular because it's a great form.