Category: Uncategorized (Page 6 of 12)

Building Construction Illustrated: Francis Ching

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Wood: is a renewable building material that can be easily cut and dimensioned to support a wide range of structural loads. Lumber (wood cut into dimensioned sizes for specific uses) is used as boards, dimension lumber, structural lumber and timbers. Each has its own strength and load requirements. Although wood has its own natural defects (warping, moisture susceptibility and knots) it excels in tension and compression as a structural element. All wood elements such as beams, subflooring panels, joists and posts must be carefully laid out within proper spacing of other members for load bearings.

Wood beams must be spaced between 4’-8’ and be supported by timber, steel or concrete columns. Diagonal bracing and bridging must be used to avoid rotation at intervals in framing. All loads are evenly distributed with the use of a grid system that superimposes all supporting partition and load bearing elements. Wood planks are used as diaphragm reinforcement. Connections used with wood members involve steel plates, bolts, nails, metal straps, brackets and split rings (timber). Some wood elements can be left exposed for its beauty.

Masonry: Masonry brick and glazed tiles are used extensively in cladding on the building envelope. Structural clay tiles are glazed tiles used in areas of heavy wear, moisture problems, strict sanitary requirements, walls and partitions. Different wall thicknesses can be constructed, including cavity walls. Brick is also used for cavity walls, particularly using the running bond method. Standard brick walls can used Common, Flemish, Stack or Garden bonds for decorative patterns.

Steel: Steel is used in a manner like wood framing but with greater strength and no cutting. Steel beams are connected using angles, stiffer plates, bolts and welds. Each contribute to shear or moment resistance. The strength of a connection depends on the sizes of the members used.

Concrete: Concrete beams must be reinforced with steel “Re-Bars” embedded 2” from the surface of the concrete to avoid corrosion. Concrete beams must have reinforcement at the ends connected to the columns, at the bottom across the beam to deter sagging (tension moment) and at the middle top of the beam to prevent a negative bending moment. Concrete columns must also be reinforced with either rectangular or spiral steel inside running along its height to resist bucking. Splices can be used to extend the height of rebar within the columns. All reinforcement steel must start at foundation level and end at the top of column. Columns are laid out in a rectangular grid. Concrete columns can also support timber or steel beams. Precast Concrete slabs, beams and tees can also be used. Advantages of precast elements are less depth, reduced weight and longer spans. These units have a better quality finish and structural integrity.

CHAPTER 8: Among the best building materials is brick. Brick is fire resistant, comes in many colors and is modular (can fit on a human hand). Brick walls can be used along or as composite walls (brick veneer walls with CMU unit as a back up wall). Brick walls can also be reinforced with grout and steel re-bars. Bricks also are made with hollow cores to add grouting and reinforcing steel. Brick elements find uses as curtain walls, cavity walls and decorative walls. Many different patterns of courses can be used with brick walls. The most common, used for cavity walls for its shorter depth is the running bond method. The mortar joints in brick walls play a crucial function to bond the units together and keep water and wind out. Joints are usually 3/8” and Mortar comes in various colors to add to the appearance of the overall wall design. Mortar also comes in various types of strengths, from high strength to low, depending its use and location. Brink lintels can have steel angles, reinforced cement grout or precast reinforced concrete lintels. Brick lintels can span from 4’ to 6’. Brick arches can also be produced. Buildings normally have thicker walls at the bottom and thinner brick wall at the top for load support distribution.

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This reading is about materials, more specifically, stone, brick/CMU, wood, steel, concrete and reinforcement. Brick, stone, and CMU are all examples of masonry. Stone is a combination of different types of minerals and to be qualified as a construction material, it has to have strength, hardness, durability, workability, density, and appearance. Brick is a masonry unit of clay and has multiple ways it can be processed depending on the type of brick is expected. Wood is an easy to work with material and there are two major types, softwood and hardwood. Softwood is from any type of evergreen and hardwood is from a broad- leaved flowering tree. Steel reinforcement is used on concrete since concrete doesn’t handle tension that good. It can also tie vertical and horizontal elements together. When making concrete, it can be molded into various shapes. After 28 days it is placed, it gets tested to see if it is strong enough to be used.

In this weeks reading, Ching went in depth with many of the fundamental building materials we use today. Some of which are wood, masonry, concrete, steel, and stone. Each material has its own benefits when used and some or used instead of others because of there qualities. Concrete is made by mixing various aggregates with sufficient water and is very useful when combined with steel. Masonry is basically stonework and is very useful when stacked on top of each other. Steel has qualities of strength and hardness therefore why it’s used with concrete to make it more preferable. Wood is good for convenience where the material itself is strong, durable, light in weight making it easy to work with. Stone is a combination of many materials and in order to become stone, it needs to meet all these requirements: strength; hardness; durability; workability; density and appearance. As stated before each building material needs to meet certain criteria for selecting the use when building a structure.

According to ching reading, we know many materials in buildings, such as steel, stone, concrete wood.
Steel has many advantages, low cost, sturdiness and easy to change shape.
Stones are divided into many types, igneous rocks, metamorphic rocks, and sedimentary rocks. Used as a wall roof, etc.
Concrete is one of the most widely used materials, commonly known as cement, which needs to be used in conjunction with steel bars.
The wood is light and convenient to use, but it is necessary to prevent natural factors such as water and fire insects.

In this reading Ching talks about different types of building materials. These materials include stone, two types of masonry (brick and CMU), wood, steel, and concrete. Stone is an aggregate or combination of materials. Qualities that it nees to qualify in construction or strength, hardness, durability, workabilty, density, and appearance. They can be classified as three different types: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. In construction it is used as rubble, wall panels, cornices, copings, lintels, flooring, and horizontal surfacing.

The next material is masonry and two types are brick and CMU. Brick is made from clay. It has three different types for variation in size, color, chippage and distortion. The three types are FBX, FBS, and FBA. Brick also has different grades for durability when exposed to weathering. SW is for severe, MW for moderate, and NW for negligible. CMU stands for concrete masonry unit made out of precast Portland cement, fine aggregate and water, then molded into various shapes.

The next material is wood. It is very strong, durable, light in weight and easy to work with. The two major types are hardwood and softwood, each are used differently in construction. They way a piece of limber is cut determines its use. Wood needs special treatment against decay and insects. However, wood can have defects that can be natural and/or manufacturing effects.

Futhermore, ths next material is steel. It is the strongest and low cost material there is. When used in construction it needs to be coated, covered, and/or enclosed to become fire-resistant. Steel also comes in many diferent types of shapes for different uses.

Lastly, there is concrete. Concrete is cement, various mineral aggregates and sufficient water mixed together to make the cement set and bind. It is inherently strong, but needs steel reinforcements to handle tensile and shear stresses.

This thus shows how a building uses many materials in order to get its shape and use.

In this reading Ching talks about Materials and properties. Stone is made up of 6 things strength, hardness, durability, workability, density and appearance. Stone can also be used in different forms flagstone, crushed stone, and dimension stone. Ching also talks about masonry. Brick is masonry unit of clay formed into a rectangular prism. There are different type of brick like FBX, FBS, FBA, which vary in size and color for different occasions. There are also concrete masonry (CMU) there cement blocks are really strong. They have a compressive strength of 600 to 1500 psi. Theres also different weight for example normal weight block is more than 2000kg, medium weight block is from 1680 to 2000 kg and lightweight would be 1680 or less. Ching also talks about wood. Wood is strong durable and light in weight. there are soft wood and hard wood  which are the two major classes of wood. typically a piece of wood will with stand 1/3 more force then parallel to its grain. One major thing about would is that it has shrinkage if it has moisture it can expand unto 30 percent but ones is looses moisture it shrinks . this is vary important and must be taken into consideration once applying.  Wood also has things like knots, shakes, checks, pitch pockets, and wane which also play a big part once applying. In addition Ching discusses steel. steel is any iron based alloys there are different shapes they come in. There are W shape, S shapes, C shapes, L shapes, and WT shape. The S shapes and C shapes are American Standard use. Almost all the building around us are made up of steel its really strong and durable. Concrete is made of three important components cement want aggregate. aggregate is basically little peaces of rock, sand , minerals. These things mixed together can make you a solid peace of concrete.  The cement should also be in motion or else it would become a solid. This is why the trucks have the back part rotating as they go on to the site. The cement is always tested. Cement its take into a lab and poured onto a cone shaped container and flipped . They let it sit to see the reaction of the cement if its to much of a liquid it bad if it hardened to fast its also bad it should be just the right amount.

Materials and their properties are very important to know when constructing a building.  Ching explains the use of many materials, concrete is made of cement, water, and many mineral materials such as sand, gravel, etc. Concrete by itself is very good withstanding compression, but concrete is horrible against tension. Therefore concrete has to be reinforced with steel so that it can be resistant to tension, these steel bars inside the concrete can be as wide as 32 (mm) in diameter (1.26 inches). However, the more wide they are, the heavier they become, something to be aware of. Brick is another material used in construction. Brick is a rectangular prism made out of clay, sometimes mud to change the surface texture of the brick . Ching explains that there are two types of brick: Face brick is special clay to add color and other features to make it look “pretty”, common brick in the other hand is the opposite because it does no such thing.

In reading assignment 5 ( Material & Properties / Ching ; 12.04 ~ 12.12 ) We explore the strengths and weakness of five fundamental building materials. the materials discussed are Stone, Brick/CMU, wood, steel and concrete. Following the reading order, we start off with the properties of stone; stone can be comprised of different compact minerals and inorganic matter, its compressibility is fairly high compared to its shear strength, being only 1/10 of its strength. This is why stone works very well when using it as load bearing walls.  these stones can be broken down into five categories; Hardness, Durability, work-ability, density and appearance. these characteristics of the stone determines how it should be used in a particular project. There  are three types of rock formation – Igneous , Metamorphic rock and sedimentary with some familiar names such as granite, marble and limestone falling under one of those classifications respectively. Next comes Masonry, which refers to brick, stone or concrete block. Brick which is defined by Chang as “a masonry unit of clay, formed into a rectangular prism ~ hardened by firing in a kiln” has different classification, which are determined by its moisture content, two types of brick  are called “common brick” and “face brick”.  these bricks come in different grades according to its resilience against  weather; classifications are NW, MW, and SW , with higher weather tolerance going from left to  right. concrete masonry which are precast of Portland cement are broken down into two groups; Grade N – load bearing concrete 800 to 1500 psi and  Grade S load bearing concrete 600 to 1000 psi and no moisture. The next material to discuss is wood; Wood can be broken down into two classes, Soft wood and hard wood. some examples of soft wood is ever green, pine and hemlock which can be used in general construction. some exampled of hardwood would be cherry maple and oak which can be used as decorative floor paneling. wood generally has 1/3 more of its force if  cut parallel to its grain. but steel which is the following construction material is the best of all worlds, steel has a compression and shear strength of about 50,000 psi and is defined by having a carbon content less than that of cast iron,  more than raw iron and is heat treated. steel can become hard or soft depending on the carbon content within the alloy. steel becomes ductile at approximately 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, making it necessary to coat it with anti corrosion and heat material.  the last material concrete is made from various minerals but can primary be broken down by its clay to limestone mixture. The Law D.A Abrams states that  Comprehensive strength of concrete is inversely proportional to the ratio of water to cement. A cement mixture with a water ratio approximately 0.45 ~ 0.60 can fully cure and harden after 28 days, with the 7th day allowing for early strength concrete.

With the fifth reading, Ching explains how certain materials are made, along with how they are used in construction. He first goes in depth with concrete, where he says that concrete is made using a mixture of water, cement, and aggregates (which is small minerals, such as sand or gravel). Depending on what you use, it will change the strength, weight, and resistance to fire when the concrete hardens. You may also add an admixture, which changes some properties on the concrete when it hardens. Steel Reinforcement is used on concrete, because concrete doesn’t handle tension as well as its compression. It is also used to tie vertical and horizontal elements together, strengthen the edges for openings and more. Bricks come in two forms, a building brick, or a face brick. A building brick is used for general building, and a face brick is mad up of clay, making it face a wall and usually used for a color or surface texture. There are different type of face bricks, and using these types changes its size, color, and distortion. Bricks are made of clay molded into a rectangular prism, and hardened by drying in the sun or heating it up. Concrete Masonry is concrete blocks made into various shapes to give it a specific purpose. A couple of examples would be a jamb block, which has a design to fit a jamb of a door within it, a lintel block which have a U shaped block where reinforced steel could fit into it, and many more. Stone comes from three origins: as an igneous metamorphosis, or sedimentary rock. To use a stone as a construction material it must have strength, hardness, durability, work ability, density, appearance. Wood is light, durable and easy to work with.  There are two types of wood, soft and hard wood. Softwood comes from different trees than hardwood, and depending on how the tree grew, it affects the strength, expansion/contraction and how good it is as an  insulator.