When apartment and condominium complexes are designed with a swimming pool on an upper level, the architect or engineer typically designs a large rectangular pit commonly referred to as a vault where the pool is going to be located. This vault represents the outer limits of what a future swimming pool may look like.
For this project in Columbus Ohio, the vault was 10’ deep. After installing EPS15 geofoam, the pool tapered from 36 inches deep at the sundeck to 60 inches deep at the deep end. EPS geofoam is used for this application because of its strength to weight ration. EPS15 geofoam, weighing just .9 pounds per cubic foot has a compression strength of 520 pounds per square foot at 1% deformation. A cubic foot of water weighs just under 63 pounds. 5 feet of water weighs under 315 pounds plus 6 inches of concrete at 75 pounds equals 390 pounds per square foot, substantially less than the 520 pound per square foot capacity of the ESP15 geofoam.
The 4,800 cubic feet of EPS15 that was delivered to this project weighed just 4,320 pounds. The same volume of sand or gravel would weigh approximately 528,000 pounds. It is easy to see why EPS geofoam is the void fill of choice for more and more applications throughout the construction industry.
