Transform Your Outdoor Spaces: An In-Depth Guide to Utilising Wallbarn’s Mega-Balance Pedestals

In the post-pandemic era, we witnessed a surge in the appreciation of outdoor spaces for activities such as dining, socialising, taking breaks, holding meetings, and even exercising. As we maximise the utility of these spaces, the underlying structures that support the decked or paved surfaces become vital. They need to be robust enough to bear the loads placed upon them and offer flexibility to accommodate different surface finishes. One such innovative solution on the market is the Mega Balance pedestal from Wallbarn, one of the UK’s leading pedestal manufacturers.

Unravelling the Mega Balance Pedestal

Designed for heavy-duty use, the Mega Balance is a self-levelling pedestal ideal for paved, tiled, or decked areas that are exposed to heavy loads. Each pedestal can bear up to 2 tonnes, making it a safe and secure choice for public spaces.

Features that Stand Out

The Mega Balance comes with a number of key features to facilitate quick installation and ensure a completely flat finished surface.

Self-levelling Headpiece

The headpiece is designed to automatically accommodate variations in the deck surface, allowing up to a 5% or 2.86° slope correction in all directions. The headpiece can be locked using a specially designed grey nut tool to create a rigid headpiece, catering to different project requirements. The fins on the headpiece precisely position paving slabs, ensuring uniform paving lines and efficient rainwater drainage.

Height Adjustment

The telescopic stem allows for a height range from 25mm to 1025mm, accommodating projects with wide-ranging height variations. The height can be adjusted by hand by twisting the stem while the tile/decking joists are in-situ. The ‘yellow key’ system allows pedestal height adjustment post-installation without the need to lift tiles or paving.

Additional Features

Other features include rubber anti-shock pads for better grip and mitigation of vibration and noise, a robust and durable structure that can withstand a wide temperature range, and a 200mm diameter base plate for effective weight distribution when paving/decking onto surfaces like waterproofing membranes and insulation.

Enhanced Compatibility

The Mega Balance also offers various headpiece fittings for different jobs:

• A special joist holder fitting for timber/composite joists for decking applications
• The Mega Balance Clip Head for Wallbarn’s special profiled aluminium joist creates a secure connection without the need for mechanical fixings
• The upcoming ‘cross rail’, an improved comprehensive substructure system for decking and tile applications

Design Tools

Wallbarn’s free Mega Pro software design tool provides a colour-coded laying pattern detailing the correct height and position for each pedestal. Based on this, Wallbarn can provide a cost estimation and quantity schedule with ordering codes.

The Rail System

The Mega Balance pads are compatible with Wallbarn’s cross-rail system, offering extra stability for paving and decking. The rail system provides a raft-like structure for heavy weight support, significantly increasing lateral stability and weight distribution across the deck.

The Aluminium Rails

Extruded from high-quality aluminium grade 6063T6 to BS EN 755-9, the rails connect to the pedestals seamlessly without the need for mechanical fixings. The rails help to ‘tie together’ the pedestals, providing more stability across the upper surface.

Modular System

The rail system comes in three different rail heights for a variety of build-ups:

• 20mm high x 2 metres long
  
• 25mm high x 2.5 metres long
  
• 50mm high x 2.5 metres long
  

The Future of Suspended Deck Design

Mega Balance brings together an ultra heavy-duty pedestal with a self-levelling or rigid headpiece. Future-proofed for retrospective adjustments and offering a range of different connection headpieces for different applications, it truly is the future of suspended deck design.

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