Successful implementation of a complex project in Norway’s capital city
In Torggata, in the middle of Oslo’s nightlife district, MA Entreprenør renovated a historic five-storey residential building. One challenge was the necessary raising of the ceiling in the basement from 1.8 to 3.7 m. When building in existing structures, the lightweight multi-purpose formwork AluFix came into its own.
MA Totalbygg is the turnkey renovation contractor. The company specialises in the repair and conversion of listed residential buildings and in improving the floor conditions in existing residential buildings. In the case of Torggata 18, the project involved the total renovation and extension of an apartment building that now develops three floors of commercial space and two floors of living space, as well as technical rooms in the attic.
Challenging task
Kristian Lading, site manager at MA Entreprenør, describes several challenges in this project: “The renovation of an existing building is a completely different process than a new building. The conversion of the basement is usually particularly demanding. In this case, we had to dig downwards to significantly increase the ceiling height. We built a ramp downwards and used several small excavators to dig the basement deeper. It was a laborious process, but it went well,” says Lading.
The basement and the first and second floors were completely demolished and rebuilt, while the third and fourth floors remained standing. As part of this work, steel core piles were drilled to a depth of 18 m to ensure the stability of the building. Due to the high groundwater level, the basements were concreted in new waterproof construction. The use of a crane was, as is so often the case when building in existing structures, only possible to a limited extent. This became noticeable when forming the basement walls: “We could only walk on one side during the formwork process. We could not have lifted heavy formwork elements here. So we tried a completely new solution – and it worked very well for our application,” reports Kristian Lading.
This new solution was AluFix. MEVA partner MAXBO Teknikk supplied the lightweight manual formwork that can be transported without crane assistance. According to MAXBO Teknikk, the elements are assembled almost like Lego building blocks. Their heights range from 135 to 350 cm and six widths from 25 to 90 cm. In order to be able to safely absorb the concrete pressure via the one-sided formwork in the Torggata project, MEVA STB 300 support frames were installed.
Strong growth
Within a few years, AluFix has developed from an initial niche product to a multi-purpose formwork for everyone. More and more construction companies appreciate the flexibility of the system when building walls, foundations and even slabs. “In the beginning we owned between 50 and 100 AluFix elements, today we have about 1,000,” says Pål Kjustad, regional manager of MAXBO Teknikk. The formwork experts rent and sell formwork and accessories. AluFix elements convince with a full-surface fresh concrete pressure absorption of 50 kN/m². The lightweight aluminium frame profiles are fitted as standard with alkus all-plastic panels, which are easy to clean and repair, can be used over 1,500 times and thus make numerous timber panel changes superfluous.
Site manager Kristian Lading (MA Entreprenør) and project manager Bjørn Christensen (MA Totalbygg) discovered new solutions during their work on Torggate 18 in Oslo, and the use of AluFix was a successful premiere.
"We will definitely choose the system for future projects. It is very suitable for our purposes as we normally do not use a crane. AluFix is easy to assemble and saves us both time and money", Kristian Lading (MA Entreprenør)
Project details:
Contractor: MA Entreprenør as part ofMA Totalbygg, Oslo
Project: Torggata 18 renovation, Oslo, Norway
Engineering and support: MAXBO Teknikk, Sandvika, Norway.
