Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1385297
J U N E 2 0 2 1 | 21 Landscape Products The new Fjord pavers are designed for walkways and patios and offer soft, warm colour blends with a subtle slate surface texture for unique design charac- teristics. Fjord's three-millimetre (mm) spacers differentiate it from Keystone's popular 65-mm Broadway series by allowing for a thinner joint line. The Architextures Fire Pit is a sleek, contemporary centerpiece prepackaged with Architextures corner units, keystone cap units, steel liner, and 23-inch square spark arrestor. The ping pong table is available in three cast colours and is a striking minimalist version of the classic structure. As for Barkman's Merritt facility, the 40,000-square-foot building will reinforce the company's commit- ment to Western Canadian customers in the form of expanded capacity, high quality products, and broadened distribution. Finally, South Africa-based Terraforce is known internationally for pioneer- ing the hollow, reversible interlocking concrete block (no cement required), and the product is licensed for manufacturing and distribution across Canada (one manufacturing plant is operational in Abbotsford, B.C., the other on Vancouver Island). The benefit of this license is that due to being regionally made, transportation costs of the Terraforce blocks are slashed and developers get a superior product at a 25 to 30 percent discount. The L13, L17, and L36 block sizes available in Canada are ideally suited for residential and commercial usage, encompassing do-it-yourself backyard projects and more intricate embankment stabilization work. Terraforce owner Holger Rust points to recent projects in Spain to illustrate his product's remarkable esthetic appeal and endurance. "Our blocks were used by a skilled engineering company to build a huge, curved retaining wall at the Salamanca Hospital in the city of Salamanca, and the outcome is stunning. It's a great example that demonstrates to developers in other countries – including Canada – what our blocks are capable of." Orbe Tecnicas Y Medioambiente ultimately built four Terraforce rock face finish retaining walls (the main one supporting a new access road to the hospi- tal) that cover a 2,300-square-metre surface area with a maximum height of 7.86 metres. The walls were designed and installed using the Terraforce Maxiwall Pro software, and the many technical challenges of the project included adapt- ing the slope of one wall to meet another vertical wall. Also, in some sections special consideration had to be given to the placement of geogrids due to the presence of a large (2.5-metre diameter) drainage pipe near the visible face of the wall. Plus, part of one wall was set in a floodplain area of a river, so perme- able soil was used as a reinforcing soil, with better geotechnical characteristics. Rust concludes, "The landscaping industry across Canada is robust, and Terraforce provides developers in the residential, commercial, and institutional realms another opportunity to advance their sustainable, environmental, and esthetic projects create retaining walls with a block that has almost unlimited applications." A Fjord pavers from Barkman Concrete. Terraforce rock face finish retaining wall. 2:13 PM Solus Decor.indd 1 2019-05-15 7:52 AM