It is always amazing seeing very big and beautiful architectural buikding design everywhere. But we often concentrate on asthetic aspect in term of building designs mostly in our discussion with little attention to what actually make the building construction possible.
It is just like talking about well-prepared soup with good taste and aroma without taking congnizance of the ingredients mixed together in certain proportion to make the soup possible.
In this article,I will like to discuss not all materials used in building construction, but most commonly used building Materials such as cement,sand,gravel,steel,sandcrete block,concrete, water wood,glass and ceramics.
Cement is a building material made from mixtures of calcium, limestone and clay. It is used with sand,gravel and water to make or produced mortar and concrete. Cement is a binder that bind the sand and gravel together. It is the mostly used building materials in many construction industries.
Its usefulness cut accross all aspects of building in areas like blocks making when mixed with sand and as well bonding. Cements are also require for rendering or plastering of both external and interior of buildings.
Another material used extensively in construction is sand. Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided rock and minerals particles. It has a varrious compositions but defines by its grain size which are smaller than gravel. Just like cement,its uses in building construction are in dispensable. Sand is mixed with cement to make concrete,mortal and blocks. It generally provides bulk, strength and stability to others material.
Concrete is a mixture in correct ratio of cement,sand and gravel,and usually reinforced with steel to support the building loads. It is used mostly to make beam,columns and during lintel formation. While mortar is made from addition of sand, cement and water. Mortar is used for plastering and rendering the faces walls in order to obtained a smooth face.
This is one of building materials used to erect building wall, others been bricks or mansory. Sandcrete blocks are produced by mixture of cement,sand and water but the water in block making will not be much unlike that of mortar. The mixtures can be moulded using either a moulding machine or moulder. Sizes may be 230 by 150mm,or 460 by 230mm.
Steel is another material used in building. Steel is an alloy of carbon and iron. An alloy is addition of two or more metals to produced a better quality metal. Steel is available in there different grades, low carbon steel,medium carbon steel and high carbon steel. Beacause of its high tensile strength,steel is used to reinforced concrete which is weak in tension load.
Wood is a material obtained from tree. Wood can be processed through conversion by splitting it into commercial marketable sizes called planks.These planks of varrious sizes are used in building to make doors and windows, frames, roofing members like roof trusses, ceiling and others part of building where it uses are required.
Glass is another material used extensively in building especially for walls and openings. In the time past, building openings are made with wood but nowadays glasses are mostly used for windows and doors especially in places like eateries,banks and malls.
There are still many others materials used in building construction like water which is used in mixing concrete,mortal and in sandcrete blocks because of hydraulic nature of cement used which set in water. Ceramics is used in making tiles which is used in floor finishes and also in plumbing services such as water closet used in building toilet and on.
In conclusion,no matter how beautiful architectural designs of buildings are on paper, it is just an abstract and the only means of translating it to reality or real building is through these materials highlighted in write up. Stay blessed as you read and like my post.
https://structuralengineeringbasics.com/what-types-of-construction-building-materials/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_material
https://www.procrewschedule.com/building-materials-types-and-uses-in-construction/
