Cold floors make winters uncomfortable in many homes built on concrete slabs, and relatively complex systems often are recommended to improve the floors. Homasote Co., with fiberboard construction ...

Builders find flat-slab construction easier and quicker because the floors connect directly to the building’s columns and walls, and they don’t include beams, Figueroa-Vallines said.

Currently, most building floors use thick flat slabs of solid concrete, which rely on lots of steel reinforcement to allow them to resist tension. Shepherd said the new technique did not require ...