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Civil Engineering & Construction vocabulary · Concrete and Steel

Formwork

Meaning in civil engineering & construction, with examples

/ˈfɔːrmwɜːrk/nounCore term

In civil engineering & construction, formwork means: A temporary mould, usually made of timber, plywood or steel, that holds fresh concrete in the required shape until it is strong enough to support itself.

In Turkish: kalıp, beton kalıbı

How it is used

Formwork is erected, checked, oiled and later struck or stripped. British sites also say shuttering, and American sites often say forms. Props hold up slab formwork from below.

Example sentences

  1. The formwork for the lift shaft is up, so we can pour this afternoon.

  2. We can strip the formwork from the walls after two days, but the slab props stay longer.

Common collocations

  • erect formwork
  • strip formwork
  • formwork system
  • slab formwork
  • formwork carpenter
  • concreteA building material made by mixing cement, water, sand and gravel. It is placed while wet and hardens into a strong, stone-like mass.
  • pourTo place fresh concrete into formwork or an excavation from a truck, pump or skip. As a noun, a pour is one continuous concreting operation.
  • slabA flat, horizontal concrete element that forms a floor or a roof. It carries the loads on its surface and passes them to beams, walls or columns.
  • curingKeeping newly placed concrete moist and at a suitable temperature for several days so that the cement keeps reacting and the concrete reaches its full strength.
  • rebarShort for reinforcing bar: a steel bar with ribs on its surface, placed in concrete to resist tension and hold the concrete together.

More terms: Concrete and Steel

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