The MagnumStone retaining wall system from Austral Masonry featuring wet-cast hollow blocks combines cutting-edge engineering with environmental benefits.
Revolutionising the manufacturing, design and installation process, MagnumStone hollow blocks feature an innovative hollow core design that removes the dead weight from the centre of the unit while maintaining its strength and structural integrity. Developed with the engineer and installer in mind, MagnumStone uses just about half the concrete of a solid system, making it easier to assemble and dissemble for temporary wall projects.
MagnumStone offers excellent design flexibility and ease of installation, making it ideal for almost any retaining wall project from residential to large commercial installations, while offering a multitude of creative and engineering design options.
The hollow core, which is filled with crushed gravel during assembly, provides an excellent wall drainage system and superb connection with geo-synthetic reinforcements.
The MagnumStone system also features durable, high shear strength concrete SecureLugs that fit neatly into the hollow cores of the lower units, allowing significant lateral movement without losing unit-to-unit interlock. This helps to significantly speed up installation time and reduce costs.
Austral Masonry marketing manager Michael Monro explains the MagnumStone system outperforms traditional wall methods, with three installers able to construct 80-150m² of wall units per day, making it one of the quickest and easiest wall systems to build.
Using less concrete than a traditional solid wall system, MagnumStone is also a more sustainable construction option, contributing less CO2 to the environment during production and delivery process. Given the size of the voids, even producing a small retaining wall of 745m² saves 170 cubic metres of concrete, compared to construction using a solid wall system.
The MagnumStone concrete hollow blocks can also be loaded and unloaded two at a time, resulting in fewer trucks to manage, reduced labour and reduction in fuel consumption compared with typical solid systems.
MagnumStone’s wet-cast manufacturing process also provides the units with high strength, low absorption and great freeze/thaw results, while its tapered sides make it easy to build tight curves and straight walls with complete accuracy.
The large blocks enable gravity walls to be built up to 2.6 metres high as a single skin, and 4.8 metres high as a double skin in good soils and with no loading, making them perfect for use in boundary applications where crib-walls would generally benefit.
According to Monro, the MagnumStone system is meeting contemporary demands, with the industry now looking towards construction methods and materials with greater sustainability and design flexibility. The MagnumStone system offers unprecedented environmental, economic and design advantages, which translate into cost savings and a significant reduction in harmful greenhouse emissions when compared to solid concrete blocks, making them the perfect alternative to traditional systems.
Austral Masonry is part of the Brickworks Building Products Group, one of Australia’s largest manufacturers of bricks, pavers, masonry blocks, retaining wall systems, precast concrete panels, façade systems and landscaping products.
