Sometimes Pocket Form Isolator can pay for itself in concrete savings alone. We think this simple demonstration will easily show you how PFI can save you money.

1. Pocket Form Isolator
“Project Prismoid” Demonstration
of Potential Savings via
Concrete Waste Prevention
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2. Pocket Form Isolator…
• Seems to “Cost too much” to many people
if they don’t understand how its cost can
be offset with Concrete Waste Prevention.
• Stays where it is used to retain level soil,
which is placed atop a concrete footing.
• May be placed prior to, or after steel
column erection. Nothing needs to be cut
in the field – only simple corner bolting.
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3. Pocket Form Isolator…
• Never needs to be removed, which saves
labor, money, time and reputations.
• Enables a wide variety of finish options.
• Often enables a contractor to cast slabs
and pocket infill concrete simultaneously.
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4. Pocket Form Isolator…
• Works very differently from wooden or any
other temporary forming method.
• Is designed to meet the specific project
needs with all factors considered.
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5. Temporary Formwork…
• Must always be removed, and therefore; causes
slab casting and pocket infill to be always placed
at separate times. This unfortunate circumstance
always increases time needs and results in
chipped slab edges due to formwork removal.
Utility penetrations often become a nightmare!
• PFI offers a very simple, precise solution! We
have an amazing array of configurations!
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6. Pocket Form Isolator…
• Enables “outside the box” conditions to be
ideal for uniform thickness slab casting.
Being able to maintain uniform slab
thickness makes vapor barrier installation
more practical and eliminates the waste of
concrete being cast into unnecessary
places. Concrete uses valuable natural
resources and should be conserved.
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7. With temporary formwork…
• The contractor must thicken slab edges
around isolation pockets to prevent loss of
soil (as cave-ins). It is very rare for anyone
to bring-in soil and compact this soil to a
slope atop of the footing to form a “proper
thickened edge”. The fact is that any
thickened edge around an isolation pocket
will always cause problems when the slab
inevitably shrinks!
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8. Concrete Waste Prevention…
• Is the key to building the best possible
pockets and casting a uniform thickness
slab-on-grade.
• For the slab to maintain a uniform depth,
there must not be areas where someone
wastes money on thickened regions of
concrete to enable a cheaper form to be
utilized.
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9. Project Prismoid…
• Utilizes hollow wooden
cubes to indicate one
cubic yard of concrete.
Since the scale for this
model is 1.5” = 1’-0”,
the cubes have an
interior measurement of
4.5” in all three
directions. This is the
simplest shape, 1- yard
in all 3- directions!
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10. Project Prismoid…
• Is a model where rice indicates waste concrete.
Using this approach, rice only indicates waste,
rather than necessary concrete for the slab.
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11. Project Prismoid…
• This model is built
with a slope of 1:1,
which for this model
and at this scale = 20”
of rise in 20” of run.
• Anchor bolts give one
a feel for where this
applies to their own
comparative project.
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12. Project Prismoid…
• Just to help this best
look realistic, we also
made a scaled-down
column to mount to
the anchor bolts.
• This small column is
not utilized in showing
the concrete waste, it
only provides spatial
orientation.
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13. Project Prismoid…
• Is designed to only indicate concrete waste and
it is for this reason that all wood pockets made
for this demonstration are 1’-8” deep. This model
indicates where the change occurs between
necessary and waste concrete. Obviously, the
footing and (4” thick) slab are necessary
concrete, so the rice will only indicate the
unnecessary concrete. Remember unnecessary
concrete = waste concrete. This will show you
where lots of money may be saved.
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14. A 24” square x 20” deep…
• Was made from wood to be
used for the 24SQ24
comparison. The top 4” to
be the floor slab.
• The top photo shows how it
will be used for rice to be
placed.
• The lower photo shows how
it aligns with the red lines
on the “footing”. The
pocket’s text is also red.
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15. A 28” square x 20” deep…
• Was made from wood to be
used for the 28SQ24
comparison. The top 4” to
be the floor slab.
• The top photo shows how it
will be used for rice to be
placed.
• The lower photo shows how
it aligns with the green lines
on the “footing”. The
pocket’s text is also green.
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16. A 36” square x 20” deep…
• Was made from wood to be
used for the 36SQ24
comparison. The top 4” to
be the floor slab.
• The top photo shows how it
will be used for rice to be
placed.
• The lower photo shows how
it aligns with the blue lines
on the “footing”. The
pocket’s text is also blue.
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17. In an effort to only indicate…
• Waste concrete, the
interior pocket is only
built up to the height
of the sides – 20” for
this example of 24”
square with 20”:20”
slope of soil base.
• The 24” square wood
pocket is held-down
with the anchor bolts.
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18. In an effort to only indicate…
• Waste concrete, the
interior pocket is only
built up to the height
of the sides – 20” for
this example of 28”
square with 20”:20”
slope of soil base.
• The 28” square wood
pocket is held-down
with the anchor bolts.
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19. In an effort to only indicate…
• Waste concrete, the
interior pocket is only
built up to the height
of the sides – 20” for
this example of 36”
square with 20”:20”
slope of soil base.
• The 36” square wood
pocket is held-down
with the anchor bolts.
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20. To enhance the sales of PFI…
• We have a spreadsheet which shows how
much concrete waste costs for any variety
of isolation pocket configurations.
• We are always glad to work w/ customer’s
“numbers” and show them how much
money can be saved by eliminating their
thickened slab edge. They are always
shocked to learn the savings potential!
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21. The Concrete Waste Calculator…
• Uses the aforementioned variables to run
calculations with a formula for the volume
of the resultant prismoid with the pocket’s
infill subtracted from said prismoid. The
infill is necessary concrete – and cannot,
therefore; be considered waste. There are
figures provided “along the way” to verify
accuracy.
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22. Customer’s numbers we need:
• Cost of slab concrete per cubic yard.
• Pocket dimensions X, Y and Z.
• Ideal slab thickness (if uniform).
• Minimum edge width (bearing atop of footing).
• Quantity of similar pockets.
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23. The “numbers” we need are:
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24. The Concrete Waste Calculator…
• May easily be tailored to any condition for a
square column isolation pocket.
• Will be easily used to “prove” certain examples
that we have models made for.
• Uses formulas that are 100% accurate. The
models simply indicate these volumes in a visual
manner – which is often more easily understood.
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25. Since the model’s footing exposure…
• Is 6’-0” (72”) square, the below listed
examples have the following minimum
edge distances (E.D.):
• 24SQ24 example, E.D. = 24”
• 28SQ24 example, E.D. = 22”
• 36SQ24 example, E.D. = 18”
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26. Project Prismoid 24SQ24 results…
• On the left is a photo of the model utilizing the 24”
square wooden pocket. Around the pocket is rice, which
is representing unnecessary concrete w/ PFI.
• On the right is a photo showing the removed rice placed
into measuring cubes. Our spreadsheet proved that this
example would require 3.44 cubic yards of slab concrete.
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27. Project Prismoid 28SQ24 results…
• On the left is a photo of the model utilizing the 28”
square wooden pocket. Around the pocket is rice, which
is representing unnecessary concrete w/ PFI.
• On the right is a photo showing the removed rice placed
into measuring cubes. Our spreadsheet proved that this
example would require 3.35 cubic yards of slab concrete.
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28. Project Prismoid 36SQ24 results…
• On the left is a photo of the model utilizing the 36”
square wooden pocket. Around the pocket is rice, which
is representing unnecessary concrete w/ PFI.
• On the right is a photo showing the removed rice placed
into measuring cubes. Our spreadsheet proved that this
example would require 3.13 cubic yards of slab concrete.
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29. Concrete Waste Prevention…
• People often focus on the cost of the form and
thereby consider PFI to be more expensive than
their temporary form, but these same people fail
to understand that in order to use a removable
form, they must waste a huge amount of money
to provide unnecessary concrete.
• PFI permanently retains the soil – placed atop of
the footing – enabling a uniform thickness slab
to be cast. This saves lots of money and gives a
contractor perfect pockets for less cost than has
been spent in the past.
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30. One could accurately say that his pockets are “free”…
• When the mountain of costs using removable pockets is
honestly and accurately considered!
• Also, his slab’s edges are clean and undisturbed
because there has been no form removal.
• Don’t let this problem cause you to lose profits while
building sloppy, wasteful, time-consuming junk pockets!
• Step-up to the plate and do things the modern way!
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