Building construction techniques

Building Construction: Means & Methods

Building construction is the process of adding structure to real property. The vast majority of building construction projects are small renovations, such as addition of a room, or renovation of a bathroom. Often, the owner of the property acts as laborer, paymaster, and design team for the entire project. However, all building construction projects include some elements in common - design, financial, and legal considerations. Many projects of varying sizes reach undesirable end results, such as structure collapse, cost overruns, and/or litigation. For this reason, those with experience in the field make detailed plans and maintain careful oversight during the project to ensure a positive outcome.

Building construction is procured privately or publicly utilizing various delivery methodologies, including hard bid, negotiated price, traditional, management contracting, construction management-at-risk, design & build and design-build bridging.

Residential construction practices, technologies, and resources must conform to local building authority regulations and codes of practice. Materials readily available in the area generally dictate the construction materials used (e.g. brick versus stone, versus timber). Cost of construction on a per square metre (or per square foot) basis for houses can vary dramatically based on site conditions, local regulations, economies of scale (custom designed homes are always more expensive to build) and the availability of skilled tradespeople. As residential (as well as all other types of construction and manufactured homes) can generate a lot of waste, careful planning again is needed here.

The most popular method of residential construction in the United States is wood framed construction. As efficiency codes have come into effect in recent years, new construction technologies and methods have emerged. University Construction Management departments are on the cutting edge of the newest methods of construction intended to improve efficiency, performance and reduce construction waste.

Construction of Buildings Foundation

There are several foundation types we are using in constructions such as pile foundation, raft foundation, pad foundation, combined footing, rubble foundation and spread footing. The selection of foundation type depends on the soil condition and the load about to apply on it. We commonly use pile foundations where apply heavy load such as several stories building and where the soil bearing capacity is very poor like backfill areas, marshy land areas and in sandy areas. For normal houses we use rubble works with pad foundation type. A column foundations we use spread footing type.In any building industry,foundation details is an essential factor in consideration.

Wood Construction

Timber framing
Wood furniture restoration
Wood Coating
Wood Layering
Wood Tiles
Wood Floor Boards

Concrete & Reinforced Concrete

Wikipedia: Reinforced concrete

This concrete is termed as RCC since along with the concrete reinforcement is also present. There are various grade of concrete used based on the building load. The grades of concrete start from M15 to M40 and special grade can be of M60,M80. The mix grade can be of proportion of coarse sand/M-sand+cement & slag/fly ash + 10mm down aggregate+ 20mm aggregate + water + admixtures.These trial mixes are designed & tested in labs for 07 days and 28 days to check the strength to be achieved based on the grade of the concrete. Once the trial mix design gets approved the same design can be used at sites. The common equipments used for mixing of above said ingredients are:

weigh batcher+concrete drum mixer operated electrically or by diesel
batching plants of capacity 0.5 cum, 1.0 cum, 2.0 cum or 3.0cum

As we are discussing about RCC, we should discuss about Formwork also. Regarding formwork there are two types:

Conventional formwork
Modern day formwork

1. Conventional Formwork:

In this system

shuttering plates
planks/plywood(commercial or marine)(8mm,10mm,12mm,20mm,25mm thick)for sides,bottoms are used
to erect and support this formwork- timber, adjustable props, side alignment props,cup-lock system, table form system,etc.are used.
Before the formwork is ready for receiving the reinforcement the surface of the formwork will be oiled which will act as stripping agent while stripping.
Once all the reinforcement placing and tying works are completed, the alignment and level check is done.
After obtaining the checking clearance, concrete is placed.

2. System Formwork:

Following are the systems in the modern day:

self climbing or slip formwork
Mivan/Pascal formwork
Proper preparatory works are to be carried out since once the erection of formwork starts, the same will be moving up and up and will be difficult to rectify if any defects observed and also it is a continuous process.To erect and support this formwork-adjustable props, side alignment props,etc.are used.
Before the formwork is ready for receiving the reinforcement the surface of the formwork will be oiled which will act as stripping agent while stripping.
Once all the reinforcement placing and tying works are completed, the alignment and level check is done.
After obtaining the checking clearance, concrete is placed.
The concrete used in these type of formwork, a highly flowable concrete is used keeping the grade of concrete similar to the normal concrete.

The mix concrete produced by the above methods can be transported by wheel barrows, transit mixers(of capacities 1.0cum,3.0cum,6.0cum,7.0cum)and placed in the confined conventional formwork either by manual or pumping means. For pumping of concrete to various depths,heights and distances the most common equipments used are concrete pumps,boom placers,tower cranes and concrete buckets.

After placing of concrete in the confined formwork, the concrete should be vibrated either by manual or vibrators with vibrator needles and tamping the sides with the help of wooden tampers for concrete to flow to all corners and also to remove the entrapped air bubbles. With this process the entire concrete placed will become dense and no honey-combing are seen once the formwork is stripped down.

While placing the concrete, a set of cubes for 07 days/28 days are casted, which will be tested in the lab for checking the strength of concrete and comparing to the design mix strength. Based on the achieved strength for 07 days, the time period for de-stripping of formwork is fixed and proper supporting to be kept till the curing period and 28 days.

Steel and Composite Structures

Wikipedia: Steel building

Steel Buildings: These are one type of buildings out of other type like RCC, masonry buildings etc. These are mostly predominant in the industrial and commercial industry like industrial sheds. The common components are mainly like foundations with foundation bolts, Vertical columns, trusses, purlins, side sheeting, roof sheeting etc. In the modern day technology, usage of PEB(Pre-engineered building) structures is on the rise. These structures can be erected and completed very fastly, as they are fabricated at ground and erected. Round the clock work can be carried out by taking proper safety measures. These structures can be used for storages, manufacturing units, logistics, etc. These structures are more safer than concrete buildings from earthquakes as damages are very minimal. Nowadays more and more residential buildings are being constructed as steel buildings as there structural life span is comparatively more. Even with these structures, the environment is protected as the generation of construction debris is less and can be recycled.

Finishing Materials

Exterior finishing materials

The common exterior finishing materials used are:

Paints
Natural stones-granite,marble,etc.ceramics tiles
Textures
Glass
Aluminium sheeting,ACP
Glass Fibre sheets
Roof tiles
Wood/timber

These materials are used as per the availability within the locality unless these are to be specially procured.

Interior finishing materials

The common interior finishing materials used are:

Paints
Natural stones - granite, marble, etc.
Textures
Glass
Aluminium sheeting
Glass Fibre sheets
Ceramic/vitrified/mosaic tiles
Wood/timber
Gypboards

These materials are used as per the availability within the locality unless these are to be specially procured.

Waterproofing, Thermal & Moisture Control

Wikipedia: Insulation

Openings

Door and window openings are part of a finishing aspect of a building element. In a door opening, the standard dimension of a door is usually 2100mm by 900mm. In this regard, the opening will share same dimension with the door and the lintel thickness allowance by the both sides, usually 225mm.

Window is a part of a building element which allows the passage of light and ventilation in to a building. It is usually dimensioned 600mm by 600mm,900mm by 600mm 1200mm by 1200mm,1200mm by 1800mm, 1200mm by 2100mm etc.

Fixtures & Furnitures

Building Systems

Most of the construction systems become from the material that can be obtained in the job areas.

When these resources were exhausted, new industrialized materials was brought in and also to permit bigger and heavier construction.

Landscaping

Real examples of building process

Work in progress. Building materials will be analyzed.

This is a real example for a planned structure that is going to be built, that is going to be used for storage with the flexibility of being turned into a workshop(type:unspecified) in the future.

Potential building materials:

roof

corrugated galvanised iron (Q1432769) - forms "waves"

walls

gypsum drywall (Q372852) - for a temporary building material that is planned to be covered by something to prevent it from interacting with the humidity of the environment.

The type of construction:

The roof may be a sloping roof