Building materials

Building materials

Rock materials

Binder materials

Concrete materials

Ceramic materials

Others materials:

Plastics

Woods

Metals

Rocks materials

There are two types of rocks:

Compact rocks: are stone blocks of granite, sandstone, marble, limestone. These are called ashlars, rubbles, cobbles & slabs.

Desintegrated rocks: are stones fragments of variable size, they are used to:

Clays or tiny rocks grains, that are known by they high capacity to absorb water.

Arids: They can be slim or gross

Binder materials

Binder materials are materials that get pasty when we mixed them and add stiffness when they solidified. The most important binders are:

Lime: A material obtained by the process of heating limestone rocks.

Plaster: It is a granulated mineral that mixed with water it is used to cover walls and upper parts of buildings. Three types of plaster are comercialised: black plaster, white plaster and stucco.

Cement: It is the most used binder material.There are several types of cement, but the most common is Portland cement, made by a mixture of limestone and clay, heated in rotational ovens.

Concrete

Concrete is a composite building material made from the combination of aggregate (composite) and a binder such as cement. The most common form of concrete is Portland cement concrete, which consists of mineral aggregate (generally gravel and sand), portland cement and water.

Concrete's most common types:

Mix Design: Modern concrete uses mix designs that may be very complex.

Regular concrete: This concrete can be produced to yield a varying strength.

Cellular concrete: Aerated concrete produced by the addition of an air entraining agent to the concrete.

High-strength concrete: High-strength concrete is made by lowering the water-cement (W/C) ratio to 0.35 or lower.

Ceramic materials

Ceramic materials are pieces made with moldeated and heated clay.

The elaboration process consits on two different phases:

Mixture and molding: In this phase, some machines mix the clay with wate, give form to mass obtained and cut it in several pieces according to the established measures.

Heat phase: In this second phase the cut material is heating in different temperatures to not get broken or even damaged.

Ceramic materials

The most used ceramic materials are:

BRICKS: Pieces of clay with prismatic or solid form. Basically there are two types: mud bricks and fly ash bricks.

TILES: Pieces of heated clay used in roofs.

BLUE ROLLERS: Rectangular and squared pieces made by clay and enamel.

SANDSTONE: A mixture of clay, quartz and feldspar used to make ceramic pieces.

PORCELAIN: Ceramic material recovered by enamel used to produce bathroom's objects.

Others materials

Metal is consider as structural fremework for larger buildings such as skyscrapers, or as an external surface covering.

-Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, and it is the usual choice for metal structural building materials.

-Aluminium is used to make doorframes, windows, railings or fences.

-Copper is used in many facilities of water, gas and heating.

Others materials

Woods: their presence is diminishing but nowadays it is an usual material on roofs, doors, windows and soils (parquet) .

Plastics: their use is increasing. We can find it on water constructions, electric materials (switch and plug), like insulating, recovering soils ect...

Glass is used in windows, doors, decoration, closings, etc. It is obtained from a mixture of silica, soda, lime....

Building construction

The construction of a building is a long and complex process that includes several phases:

Preparation of area

foundation

Elevation (increase) of the structure

water coverage

placement of pavements

elevation of walls

placement of facilities

works of ended

Building construction

Preparation of area: by means of operations of demolition, rubbles cleanning and leveling, which is realized by heavy machinery.

Foundation: it is the placement of the elements that make the base of the building. This part report under land, and its form and dimensions depend on the characteristics of the surrounding area.

Elevation of structure: it is constructed by the props and plates that have to form the floors of the building.

Water coverage: it consists of the placement of the cover of the building, which characteristics depend on the climate of the zone.

Building construction

Placement of pavements: on the plate of every plant of the building, materials are placed as marble, sandstone, wood...

Elevation of walls: in this phase are constructed the walls and the partitions that close and divide the plants of the building in order to insulate it from the exterior and to distribute the interior spaces.

Placement of facilities: every installation is carried out by a group of specializated professionals.

Final works: in this final phase the building is adapted to its definitive use.

Building tools

Spades, carts and hempen baskets are used in land movements and rubblis removals.

In demolitions the tools used are percussion tools such hammers and handles, and tools of cut such beaks, punches and burins.

In masonry works palettes and small palettes are used to construct walls.

The measures are made by meters and then the checks are made with set squares and compass.

Building machines

In the construction of buildings we use several machines:

In exacavations and land movements, excavators and hidraulic excavators are used.

To regulate land levels, bulldozers. And to get the soil ready and flat we use rammers which compress the soil by heavy metal rollers.

The materials are transported by trucks.

The materials are elevated with derricks; its structure is formed by three main elements:

The tower.

A metallic structure

The counterweight.

Preparation of concrete is made by cement mixers.

Building environmental impact

Buildings are important technological objects in our lifes.

They also play an important role in our cultural inheritance and each society is identified with a constructor design type, different materials and their own techniques.

Around the 40% of energy in Europe is used in the construction sector and the majority in the building's heating.

Building environmental impact (2)

The study of building environmental impact is very complex due to several factors:

A building life is quite long.

A building interferes with nature in all its life phases.

A building is a very complex product with lots of materials that interferes with others.

A lot of people take part in a construction process.

Green building

Green building is the practice of increasing the efficiency with which buildings use resources -energy, water, and materials- while reducing building impacts on human health and the environment during the building's lifecycle, through better siting, design, construction, operation, maintenance and removal.

Green building practices aim to reduce the environmental impact of buildings.

The end

A work made by: Cristina Blanco Iglesias

Carmen Corrales Corts