Most of our bulk storage customers need walls inside their buildings to organize and separate things such as fertilizer, agricultural commodities, salt and sand. In these cases, we usually advise using precast concrete walls. They give customers better capacity, more flexibility and they allow our crews to complete a building more quickly.
Improve Your Storage Capacity
As tough as our tension fabric buildings are, we do not recommend storing bulk materials up against the walls. Precast concrete walls inside the structure protect the fabric from heavy machinery and heavy loads. They provide the ideal interior space for bulk storage.
The size and number of panels you need will depend on the amount of product stored. We can help you make some of those calculations, because we know a building customized around business needs will realize a faster return on investment.
Salt sheds are a common application for precast panel walls. Check out some examples.
Precast Walls are Reconfigurable and transferrable
Our customers—especially those storing frac sand—must work with changing storage requirements on the fly. With precast concrete walls, panels can be moved to create more storage, accommodate larger piles and assemble blend bays.
Every so often, one of our buildings needs to be moved elsewhere. When that happens, precast walls can come with the building and aren’t left behind. Another reason why we and our customers prefer to use them.
Concrete panels are also easy to clean and dry, allowing the building owner to cycle through different stored material. This increases the ability to store multiple materials and keep the storage structure full year-round.
Using Precast Concrete Reduces Construction Time
This is a case where using precast concrete walls helps both you and us. If you’ve ever waited for a poured concrete slab to cure, it’s a lot like watching paint dry for days. With precast, the walls are fully manufactured and then delivered to the construction site. These factory panels create a better overall concrete product because they can mix the concrete more precisely, eliminate air voids and create the ideal environment for curing.
The panels can be manufactured any time, even before construction permits are secured – with no delays due to weather or other factors. Once the panels arrive onsite, they are lifted into place and construction continues.
One of our customers’ favorite use of precast panels is for storage and mixing bays. These can be built quite quickly, often in just a day or two. Storage and mixing bays can also be assembled after the walls and construction are complete, because the crews have access to clearspan space and can move more freely.
Precast panels are an important, efficient part of a flat storage building.
