Tag: environmentally friendly building products

Expando – Ideal product for greener building

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Explosive blasting, ignition of dangerous gases and heavy equipment – these are the traditional methods employed by mining, building & construction and civil engineering for quarrying, demolition or rock removal.

As these industries face escalating urban and natural environmental concerns including the unnecessary destruction of natural habitats, disruption to surrounding wildlife and proximity to residential or cultural heritage areas such as schools and hospitals, Expando has arisen as an environmentally friendly, non-toxic alternative for breaking rocks and concrete. As such, it’s the ideal product for greener building.

Expando, a non explosive demolition agent is used throughout Australia for concrete cutting, rock breaking, trenching, concrete demolition, excavation of ground rock and quarrying of valuable slabs such as Limestone, Granite, Sandstone and Marble.

Expando is noiseless, easy to use, reduces labour & equipment costs, doesn’t cause flyrock, ground vibration, gas or dust and is safer than explosive demolition, blasting rock, jack hammering, concrete saws or stone cutters. Expando does not produce fumes or gaseous emissions that could potentially harm the environment or disrupt surrounding work operations, equipment, filtrations systems or the air quality. This makes Expando ideal for sites with noise restrictions, confined spaces or environmental pollution concerns.

Expando is made from organic ingredients including calcium oxide, quartz, aluminium oxide and ferric oxide, is odourless, non-flammable, doesn’t cause toxic pollution and can be safely washed away after it has been used.

  • Made from organic ingredients
  • Odourless
  • Non-flammable
  • No ecological contamination to flora or fauna
  • No dust contamination
  • No toxic pollution
  • Environmentally friendly – the ideal product for greener building.

When mixed with water, Expando has an impressive 14,000 PSI expansive strength, producing significant pressure to fracture and break up rock or concrete in a controlled fashion. Much less energy is required to break the rock in this way, and therefore less must be dissipated on breakage.

Because of its ability to reduce the destructive impacts on the environment that other traditional methods cannot deliver, we believe that Expando is an ideal product for greener buildings and houses.

Buy Expando now via our secure online shop, delivered anywhere around Australia. For more information on Expando expansive mortar please contact us.

Tunnelling a horizontal shaft through Sydney Sandstone

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Expando came to the rescue in this small residential tunnelling project in North Sydney. The owner is in his early 70s and knows that in the future the 38 steps from his gate to his door are going to become a really big obstacle. The project involved tunnelling a horizontal shaft through sandstone to the rear of the garage under the front lawn and then under the existing lounge room, where a small elevator shaft was to connect the vertical shaft to the horizontal tunnel under the front lawn. The project was a hobby for the former mining engineer.

Due to the cost and time taken to excavate the first five metres of the tunnel, we were engaged to help. The challenge was to fill horizontal and vertical holes using the chemical solution Expando. We initially used a grout pump to fill the horizontal holes but the hire cost was too expensive for this residential job so we came up with an alternative method.

We filled long skinny bags with the chemical Expando and forced the bags into the horizontal holes using a PBC pipe and timber ream. The effect was the same as if we had poured it into the holes from the top.

Expando enabled tunnelling a horizontal shaft to proceed far enough under the house to start cutting in the vertical shaft. Holes were drilled up from the lower tunnel and as the rock was removed from the top it was simply dropped down the hole to be cleaned out through the garage. Success!

Buy Expando

Expando is a non explosive demolition agent that cracks rocks and concrete without the need for blasting or heavy equipment like excavators, jackhammers or concrete saws.

Buy Expando now via our secure online shop, delivered anywhere around Australia. For more information on Expando expansive mortar please contact us.

Energex – Demolishing a Concrete Slab

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When I was contacted by Adam Philippini, the Construction Coordination Officer for Energex (an Australian energy provider) to remove a concrete plinth from their basement yard, I knew that Expando Expansive Mortar was the perfect solution for the job. Demolishing a concrete slab was a breeze for Expando.

The concrete plinth needing removal was being used as a base for a transformer; the slab itself was approximately 1 metre thick by 3 metres wide and 10 metres long.

Given the location and size of the plinth, removal was not going to be a straight forward demolition job. This is one of the reasons that Expando was an excellent choice.

Demolishing a concrete slab

The slab was between two buildings where there could be no vibrations, minimal dust and no airborne concrete chips. This meant that traditional demolition methods such as pounding the concrete with an evacuator was not an option.

After researching alternative solutions, Energex decided to use the unique non explosive demolition method that Expando Expansive Mortar provides. It was also chosen due to the cost saving it provided over other demolition options.

Drilling the holes

To carry out the concrete demolition, Energex loaded Expando SCA-2 into holes drilled 38mm wide, approximately 450mm apart and around 850mm deep.

The chemical started to crack the slab early on the second day after application – the weather was warm which helps with a quicker concrete burst.

Saw cuts not needed

To further speed the process and to ensure the reinforcing was cut, Energex decided to run diamond saw cuts along the slab, as you can see however in the images below, these cuts were not necessary as the job was completed entirely by the chemical expansion.

Expando Expansive Mortar ensured a safe and effective means of demolishing the concrete slab, with none of the usual concerns that need to be considered with demolition in a busy area.

Energex have been very happy with the result and will continue to use Expando in future jobs.

Buy Expando now via our secure online shop, delivered anywhere around Australia. For more information on Expando expansive mortar please contact us.