FORMWORK AND FALSE WORK

TABLE OF
CONTENTS
1. Definition
2. Quality of Form Work Material
3. Construction of Form Work & False Work
4. Removal of Form Work
5. Reuse of Form Work
6. Storage of Form Work
7. Method of Measurement
8. Payment
 APPENDICES

Project Director, Project Manager, Area Manager, Engineering Manager, Engineering Discipline
Managers, Documentation Dept

2 10.12.14/ NXW 10.12.14/ PVK 10.12.14 /WB General update

1 11.04.07/ AHN 11.04.07/ EJS 11.04.07/ JPV General update

Rev. Date/Checked Date/Approved Date/Issued Notes

Orig. Original issue HHO
10.10.03 AHN 10.10.03 RJB 10.10.03 KE

1.0. DEFINITION
Form work: All such materials or arrangement of materials, directly in contact with concrete shall be called form
work.
1.1 False work: All such materials or arrangement of materials, not in direct contact
with concrete but holding the material in contact with the concrete and which shall
be removed at the time of stripping of forms shall be called False work.

2. QUALITY OF FORM WORK MATERIAL

The form work material can be of:

a. Wood or wood products
b. Steel
c. Any other approved material
The quality of material shall be as under:
2.1 General
The material shall be of a uniform size, shape and thickness. The surface intended to be in contact with concrete
can be either smooth or rough, depending on the requirement and the approval of the Engineer, but shall be of
uniform nature.
2.1.1 The material shall be strong enough, all throughout its usage, to resist all the
loads that it will have to resist in use, at the time of stripping, in storage or during
transportation. The loads shall be deemed to include the live loads occurring during
construction.
2.1.2 The material intended to be in contact with the concrete shall be impervious or
shall be coated with an impervious substance not detrimental to the concrete.
2.1.3 The material shall not impart its color to the concrete.
2.1.4 When the material has to be used as "left in place" form work either due to
construction requirement or due to practical difficulty in removing the form work, in
both the cases with the approval of the Engineer, it shall be of durable nature.
2.1.5 The material shall be such that it shall not deteriorate when in contact with
ground or ground water.
2.1.6 The material shall have the required flexibility, workability and other properties
to enable workmen to produce the form in an efficient manner without having to resort
to expensive, time consuming and /or unforeseen methods.

2.2 Wood or Wood Products

In addition to the requirements of section 2.1; the wood or wood products shall satisfy the
Following:
2.2.1 The wooden material shall be of good quality, free from
inherent defects such as knots, wet or dry rot, cracks etc.
2.2.2 When form finished surface concrete is required, the material used shall be
RGM's Garuda form plywood or its equivalent.

2.3 Steel
In addition to the requirements of section 2.1; the steel materials shall satisfy the following:
2.3.1 The steel material shall be of good quality, free from inherent defects such as
rust, cracks, dents, etc.
2.3.2 The steel material intended to be in contact with the concrete shall form a
smooth surface, the maximum variation permitted being 2mm in one square meter of concrete surface
or as specified in the drawings.
2.4.A contractor may use a patented or custom built system for concreting and /or slip
forms with the permission of the Engineer. All such systems shall be subjected to the
provisions of section 2.1 in addition to the requirements/specification/guidelines of
the manufacturer. Any conflict between the two, shall be brought to the notice of the
Engineer and suitable amendment shall be made to suit the site conditions with the
approval of the Engineer.

3. CONSTRUCTION OF FORM WORK AND FALSE WORK

3.1 All form work shall be constructed to the outlines of concrete shown on the
drawings. In case of long beams (exceeding 7.0m span), it may be previously agreed
with the Engineer to provide a self compensating camber.

All joints in the form work shall be reasonably watertight and shall prevent flow and/or loss of
slurry from concrete mix and shall ultimately form a uniform continuous surface.
3.3 The form work along with the accompanying false work should be strong enough
to resist all loads including its dead load, live load, wind load and seismic load and
loads occurring during the construction, without deflection or movement, without
showing any bulging, twisting or sagging on the finished surface of concrete. Any
defects of this nature shall be corrected by the contractor at no extra cost to the owner.
The method of correction, shall be specified by the Engineer. The form work shall be
properly braced against movement in any direction. Safety rails, covers for large
openings shall be provided, free of cost to the owner, by the contractor.
3.4. The construction of form work shall be such that it shall not cause any damage,jarring and /or
shall not require any excessive load to be placed on the fresh concrete or adjacent existing concrete.
3.5 The construction of system form work or custom built including those used for
slip forms shall be subject to provisions of 3.1 through 3.4 in addition to the
manufacturer’s specifications/guidelines/requirements.
3.6 No hole should be made in the form work without the permission of the
Engineer except for the tie rods, dowel bars, anchor bars etc. at approved locations.
3.7 Any nails, wires or any other material projecting into the concrete or likely to be
embedded in the concrete without any purpose shall be removed by
suitable means before placing the concrete.
3.8 All embedded material such as inserts, pipes, conduits etc. shall be placed in the
 form work either after placing the rebar or before placing the rebar as per the
convenience of the contractor, but their locations, configuration and
numbers shall be as per the approved drawings and shall be checked by the Engineer.
Any nails, wires, bolts required to hold the embedded material in place shall be
cut after removing the form work. In case of inserts, the Contractor shall ensure
that the exposed face of the insert after removal of form work shall be flush
with the concrete surface. Any unacceptable deviation shall be made good by the
Contractor as per the method suggested by the Engineer at no extra cost to the owner.
3.9 Form work for deep beams shall be provided with through bolts at least 12 mm in
dia., the bolts or cones at an agreed spacing along the length of beam to restrain the
beam from bulging. All such through bolts shall be placed inside PVC
conduits. The tightening of nuts of these through bolts shall not affect the dimensions
of the beam nor shall it distort the plane of beam.
3.10 All form work shall be of such a construction so as to facilitate stripping of one
member without causing disturbance to the form work of another member. e.g.
The contractor should be able to remove the sides of beams without having to
remove a part of the form work for slab.
3.11 All the form work and false work shall be inspected by the Engineer before
placing the rebar in case of R.C.C. and before placing concrete in case of
plain cement concrete and approval shall be obtained in writing.Such an
approval however does not absolve the contractor of his liability.
3.12 All surfaces of form work intended to be in contact with concrete shall be
coated with an approved bond releasing agent before concreting.
3.13 The tolerances for form work shall be as below:

ITEM Tolerance
1. Shuttering dimension for insitu concrete
- slabs, columns, beams
- foundations

2. Location of members in relation to column lines

- columns, beams
- foundations

3. Precast concrete column fixing bolts

- c/c distance between bolts in a group diagonal c/c distance between bolts in a group

- distance between adjacent bolt groups

- level on top of bolt

4. Machine plinth positions relative to column lines

5. Circular walls for tanks measured along any diameter

6. Level of top of machine plinth before grouting

7. Position of box-outs in machine plinth relative to machine center lines

8. Depth of box-out in machine plinth

 9. Level of top of holding down bolt

10. Position of sleeved bolt, horizontally and vertically

11. Position of cast-in insert, horizontally and vertically

3.14 In case of any accident or failure of form work, to take corrective measures to
remake the formwork to the required dimensions and shape during
construction shall be the responsibility of the contractor & any damaged direct or
consequential shall be borne completely by the contractor.
3.15 Unless mentioned otherwise in drawings, the foundations,
columns, beams shall have chamfered edges 25 mm x 25 mm.

4. REMOVAL OF FORM WORK

4.1. No form work or false work shall be removed until the concrete has attained
sufficient strength to support its own weight and any other load that may have to be
taken in such a period between the removal of form work and the time taken for the
concrete to achieve its design strength.
4.2. Concrete strength requirements when bottom form removal
Types of concrete member To meet the design standard cube
reinforced span（m） compressive strength of concrete in
percentage (%)
concrete member
slabs ≤2 ≥50
﹥2，≤8 ≥75
＞8 ≥100
beams、arch、shell ≤8 ≥75
＞8 ≥100
cantilever — ≥100
member
4.3 In special cases the form work may be allowed to be removed
earlier than specified by section 4.2. All such cases shall be envisaged before
concreting and special quality control procedures shall be followed. Unless the
concrete attains at least 75% of its design strength ( to be verified by testing at least 6
cubes kept at site) no form work shall be allowed to be removed. In no case this will
be waived for any other considerations.
4.4 No form work shall be allowed to remain in place after a
reasonable time unless it is "left in place" type of form work and satisfies provisions
of section 2.1.5. No form work or false work shall be buried.

5. REUSE OF FORM WORK

5.1 Before reuse of form work the form work shall be thoroughly cleaned of all
traces of concrete, dirt or any other undesirable material.
5.2 Nominally damaged surfaces of form work can be repaired with the approval of
the Engineer to allow reuse.
5.3 Reuse of form work is subjected to the provisions of all previous sections.
 6. STORAGE OF FORM WORK
6.1 The storage of form work is entirely contractor's responsibility, however the
location of storage shall be approved by the Engineer.
6.2 The storage of material of form work shall not cause any safety hazard.
6.3 The contractor shall take all the care to prevent and avoid damage to the stored
form work material.

7. METHOD OF MEASUREMENT
7.1 The form work shall be measured for the area actually in contact with the concrete
as per drawings.
7.2 The form work for the columns shall be measured from the top of the foundation
or floor to the top of the next floor. The form work for the slab shall be measured
from the edges of the beam to the edge of the next beam in the same direction
provided the slab is intended to be constructed in that manner. The length of the
beam shall be treated as the clear distance between the supports. For cantilever beams
the length shall be taken as the distance between the support and the free end.
7.3 No false work shall be measured & paid.
7.4 Openings in form work mentioned on drawings less than 0.3 m2 in area shall not
be deducted from the measurement of the form work. Openings which are larger than
0.3 m2 in area shall be deducted from the measurement of form work but the sides
required to form work shall be measured separately & paid.
7.5 In case of left in place form work the unit rate for concrete shall include the cost of
material, labor, equipment, tools, erection & fixing of such form work i.e. such form
work shall not be measured separately for payment. For the progress payments the
agreed percentage of the quantity shall be considered.

8. PAYMENT

The unit price paid for form work shall be full compensation for furnishing all labor, materials,
tools, equipment, false work (cost & erection) and incidentals & for completion of work involved
in form work as shown on the drawing as specified and directed by the Engineer.