Construction materials

Materials for construction

Stone

Cement

Production of cement

Mortar

Concrete

IndexPlaster

Ceramics (History)

Clay and products

Manufacturing

Use of bricks

Steps of construction

Materials for Construction

From ancient times to nowadays,builders used a wide variety of materials for construction:sand, stone, wood, hay...

For example stone, ceramiscs and concreteare good for making columns and walls.

Wood and metal are good for making beams.Ceramics are good for making roof tiles.

Stone is a natural material that we extract from quarries.

It's used for construction (marble, granite and slate). Each type of stone has different properties and it's used for different purpose.

Nowadays stone is used for foundations for railway lines and to cover walls.

Stone

It's a blinder like glue. It's a grey powder that binds other materials together.There are many types of cement, depending on wich materials and oxides we put in the mix and in what percentage.The stantard mixture of cement is called PORTLAND CEMENT and contains:clay, gypsum, tricalcium aluminate, metal oxides, chalk, limestone and calcium ferrites.

Cement

1- We grind chalk and limestone.2- Chalk and limestone are calcinated at 1450C in an oven called kiln. This process is called clinker.3- The clinker is ground with gypsum.4- All the other ingredients are mixed with the clinker and gypsum.

This process causes a lot of pollution because of the consumption of large amount of energy and the generation of Carbon dioxide when calcium is heated.

Production of Cement

Mortar is a mixture of cement, sand and water.I'ts best to mix sand and cement first because they mix better without water. Once that we add water the mixture becomes a paste.Setting is the chemical reaction between the chemical elements of the different minerals and the water. Hydrogen and oxygen from the water are part of the resulting material. The water doesn't evaporate, it's an essential ingredient.

Mortar

Concrete is mortar with pebbles wich are added to make the concrete stronger and harder than the mortar. Concrete is used to make structural elements such as foundations, columns...

-To Make Concrete: we pour concrete in a mould with the shape of the object we're going to make. We dismantle the mould we only have to unbolt it.

-Reinforced Concrete is concrete with steel bars inside it. It's used in elements that will suffer tension forces.

Concrete

Plaster is a liquid subtance that we use for aesthetic purposes, to cover bricks with a rough surface.Plaster comes from gypsum, and when we mix it with water it becomes plaster.Advantages

-It gives a smooth surface and nice finish.-Easy to work with.-Good thermal (resistant to fire) and sound insulator.

Disadvantages- Weak-Absorbs water.

Plaster

Ceramic is the oldest artificial material, used 10,000 years ago. It was only used as pottery.

Nowadays is used in bricks because they're cheap, durable and don't need any maintenance.

History of Ceramics

Ceramic is made from clay. Silicon is the most common mineral in clay. We normally use the best clay we can find in the same country of construction. Nowadays we use ceramics to make bricks and tiles. Only expensive and high quality clay is transported long distances, for example China clay and porcelain

Clay and Products

Manufacturing ceramics has different steps:

-Moulding: Give the clay a shape. Make a mould with the negative shape and fill the mould with clay.-Drying: Two kinds of water: absorbed and chemical. Absorbed water evaporates under the sun or fans-Firing: Chemically bound water is removed in a kiln at 1000C and clay becomes hard irreversibly.

Manifacturing Ceramics

Bricks are used to make walls.They are arranged in crossed patterns so that the construction is stronger.The crossed pattern means that no brick is directly on top or under any other brick.

Bricks are stronger than the mortar. When cracks appear in the mortar, the can't develop in astraigh line, so the crack stops at the next brick.

Use of Bricks

1-Foundation Laying: Once that we have the lot, the plan and the planning pernission we have to construct the foundations that will transfer loads to the earth.After that we start to construct until the first framework (ground floor). We construct as many frameworks as floors the building will have.A framework is a structural element that transmits the loads to other structural elements: beams, walls, columns...

Steps to Construct a Building

2-Once that we have all the structure we build the roof, when we build it we have to thing about the weather,if it rains the roof has to be waterproof, it's a hot weather, the roof must maintein a good interior temperature, etc...3-Facade: We start to build it when we finish the structure of the ground floor to close the house.4-After that, we close the first floor and we star to construct walls on the ground floor and to introduce systems such as plumbing.

6- Finally we put the beams with the neccesary measures and the plumbing and electrical circuits wich will go under each floor.

5-Then, we make the facade of the first floor and we build the walls and systems againg. We do it with all the floors that we have.

Vctor Manuel Prez MartnAndrea Parejo Olivera

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