How It Works – The Slabtek Company

How Tella Firma Works

See How Our Patented System Can Save You Thousands In Foundation Repairs

By elevating your foundation off of active soils, you allow the home to have a void space in which expansive soils can expand and contract with minimal effect on your structure. This saves the property owner headache and expensive repairs over time that occur from traditional foundation movements. While traditionally slabs can be elevated with a crawl space using a pier and beam home, the Tella Firma System is faster, stronger and requires 30% less concrete due to not requiring interior grade beams. This saves the property owner material costs and labor costs on the foundation portion of the home. This concept is similar to how suspended concrete buildings are constructed.

Our Product

Our Lifting PRocess

Step 1:

Once the lifting mechanisms have been cast-in-place, the lifting process can start. The first part of the lifting process is removing the protective foam cap from each mechanism.

Step 2:

A threaded bolt is then lubricated with grease to help allow a smooth lifting process.

Step 3:

The bolt is placed into the mechanism and hand threaded to get the bolt started.

Step 4:

A lifting wrench is placed on the bolt which will be used to turn the bolts which will begin lifting the slab.

Step 5:

The slab is lifted by uniformly turning the wrenches creating an evenly suspended foundation.

Step 6:

After the lift is complete, enjoy your suspended structure that will provide protection from expansive soils and costly foundation repairs.

Benefits Of SlabTek

Compatible With Any Foundation

Slabtek Foundations make use of either concrete or steel helical piers and can also work with spread footings in order to carry the load of the structure below the active zone to the structurally stable soil beneath the surface. No matter what foundation type you need, Tella Firma can handle it.

Fewer Piers with a Thinner Slab, No Interior Beams, Less Concrete

This technology requires a fewer number of piers than traditional slabs. Tella Firma slabs are designed as a “flat plate,” typically five inches thick. The slabs do not require interior or stiffener beams—like traditional “waffle slabs”—only a shallow beam around the perimeter. As a result, Tella Firma designs require approximately 30 percent less concrete.

‘’Light Design’’ Principles Lead to Lighter Costs

Traditional slab-on-carton-form foundations use “heavy design,” relying on heavy, drilled concrete piers and a thick slab to span the increased space. Tella Firma can harnesses the principles of “light design.” This makes use of steel helical piers, which are significantly more cost-effective than 18” or 24” concrete piers. A larger number of helical piers enables reduction in the pier spacing and allows for a much thinner slab to achieve the strength necessary to span the piers.

Thinking Outside of Old-Fashioned Carton Forms

Tella Firma eliminates the need for expensive and weather-prone carton forms—essentially, cardboard boxes used to create subfloor void spaces. These traditional void forms often get wet from rain or absorb humidity from the air, resulting in a collapse when concrete is poured. Conversely, if the carton forms are too strong and do not decompose over time, they may not collapse as soil expansion occurs, resulting in movement or damage to the floor slab. The Tella Firma system elevates the slab with lifting mechanisms, eliminating the need for problematic carton forms.

Raising the Bar Using Post-tension Reinforcement

Tella Firma foundations can be implemented with either traditional rebar or post-tension cable. However, the greatest savings are realized by making innovative and economical use of post-tension (PT) design reinforcement. The PT cables are profiled or draped up or down within the slab to place the reinforcement where it is most needed. Once the slab is poured on top of the ground and the PT cables have been stressed, it is then raised above the ground to a desired height with Tella Firma patented lifting mechanisms. The process of using the ground as a form is very economical, much like commercial tilt-up wall construction. After the lifting process is completed, a protective cap is placed over the lifting mechanism and left embedded inside the slab. This allows access to the mechanism should future adjustment of the foundation be required.