Why established construction firms go to Apex for steel solutions

Who wouldn’t want to eliminate waste while enhancing precision and craftsmanship during construction? Who wouldn’t want to save on labour costs while also eliminating pilferage of building materials — especially valuable steel?

Leading civil engineering firm SS Mehta & Sons Ltd, which recently celebrated 60 years of helping build Kenya, is one such firm that uses innovative building solutions.

One of its secrets of success is the enduring partnership with Apex Steel, the premier supplier of innovative construction steel products. Apex Steel is a member of the Apex Group of Companies.

Innovation and technological advancement are just a couple reasons why companies as established and highly regarded as SS Mehta & Sons choose Apex for all their construction needs.

Apex promises to continue supporting SS Mehta & Sons with innovative products such as the Bartec rebar (reinforcing bar) coupler system manufactured by Dextra, and its world-renowned Cut and Bend solutions.

Many engineers throughout the world, including Kenyan, are now specifying rebar couplers.

REBAR COUPLERS

Rebar couplers are often used for slab column connections as an alternative to lapping rebar. They can, if necessary, be placed flush with the top of the slab.

Although no specific code of practice requires construction firms to stagger rebar couplers in the event of seismic loading, it is common practice to do so.

However, Bartec rebar couplers offer guaranteed bar break performance, meaning that when loaded to destruction, it will ultimately be the rebar that fails away from the influence of the connection.

This alone ensures the ductility of the reinforcement is maintained throughout the system.

REBARS

Rebars need to be cut and bent as per the designer’s drawings. Often, cut and bend is done by unskilled labourers.

This consequently leads to inefficiencies such as wastage of materials.

Thus, the introduction of cut and bend off-site is revolutionary because of its many benefits as detailed here.

• Cut and bend at factory is done by machines. It is thus error-free and can achieve precision and consistency. This improves quality control on site.

• It is cost-effective, as you only pay for the blueprint requirement and therefore no waste material is included in the costing. It means you do not incur cost transporting kilos of bars that you will waste later on.

• Easy and fast preparation of bill of quantity due to better estimation of reinforcement steel for the whole project, hence better accountability and audit of building materials.

• Labour saving on site. A project needs less people on site to cut and bend the bars and look after the wastage or the bars that need to be re-used elsewhere.

• Space saving: The contractor will not need a cut-and-bend machine or a place to do it on site. There is no clutter of waste that would otherwise result from cutting on site.

• Pilferage on site:  With cut-and-bend pieces coming ready, there will be no wastage on site to pilfer.

• Hassle-free construction. One can get just-in-time deliveries and there is no waste material, hence you don’t have to arrange for waste disposal.

• Efficiency: It is simple, safe and operational. The rebars are customised to the project.