LEGALETT

Amvic and LEGALETT join together in providing an Air-Heated Foundation system.

Amvic is pleased to announce that we have partnered with LEGALETT North America as an authorized distributor, to provide the LEGALETT Air-Heated foundation system. The LEGALETT system is ideal for insulated concrete form (ICF) residences and buildings, along with traditional building systems.

LEGALETT is a building system that in contrast to other heating systems, designs the foundation and the heating system as a whole.

This approach involves a thermally stable, modified two-way raft slab or ‘GEO-Slab.’ A Legalett GEO-Slab offer several advantages over a thickened edge slab design or frost wall and shallow footing design, with time and money saving advantages, such as:

● builders are not limited to construction below the local frost depth;

● deep earth excavation is not required, eliminating any soil or water issues below the building plane such as high water tables, unbalanced soil bearing pressures, or shallow bedrock outcroppings;

● sump pumps are no longer required so associated maintenance and operations costs are eliminated; and

● separate concrete pours for footings, foundation walls, and slabs are not required—with the GEO-Slab’s structural slab, all concrete pouring is completed at once, reducing construction time and costs.

The LEGALETT GEO-Slab foundation is designed in accordance with the National Building Code.  The concrete slab is laid on a 4” flat, well-packed gravel bed.  An R 12 stay-in-place perimeter formwork is provided by the LEGALETT edging units. EPS insulation under the slab is typically R-24 made up of two offset layers of 3”EPS.

Concrete is placed over and around the reinforcing steel wire mesh and air pipe system, which is installed in the slab throughout the floor area according to the drawings and specifications.

GEO-Slabs also protect against frost in the same way as conventional foundations or frost-protected footings. The biggest difference is they are designed as a modified two-way insulated raft slab. They are built on-grade so high water tables do not impact the design; because the building loads are spread over a larger area, earth-bearing pressures can be as low as 200 PSF for one storey buildings and as low as 1,000 PSF for 3 storey buildings with little or no change to the GEO-Slab engineering.

A heating system specifically designed to be part of the GEO-Slab eliminates most—if not all—the perimeter insulation skirting that would normally be installed up to 6 ft away from the building’s edge in Eastern Ontario.

A GEO-Slab’s engineering requires no complicated thickened edge detail; instead, it uses a common concrete slab thickness of 5, 6, or 8 in. and is reinforced with heavy-gauge wire mesh. All this sits on a 6-in. thick bed of EPS.

The engineered design spreads the perimeter loads over a larger area of the slab, which can store large amounts of heat providing unparalleled temperature balance and control throughout the building. This system simplifies installation over other types of FPSFs as the composite concrete/EPS design is the same thickness from edge to edge, it reduces installation time by eliminating thickened edges and multiple concrete pours.

Water or electric coil heaters and a fan are located in the heating units.  The heating unit is placed flush with the top of the floor and can be accessed via an inspection hatch.

For further information on the LEGALETT system please Contact an Amvic Sales Representative.

Or visit the LEGALETT web site;  http://www.legalett.com/