LECTURE

LEARNING LEVEL-1,2

USE OF MATERIALS
For construction as well as finishing of surfaces e.g. stone, wood,
metal, concrete, synthetic polymers and ceramics.

Instr Said Ul Amin

BUILDING MATERIALS
The materials used for construction
purposes are called building
materials. These could be divided
into two basic categories:
1.Natural materials.
2.Man-made materials.
 Mud
Sand
NATURAL Wood
MATERIALS Stone or rock
Thatch
A bamboo house

A sea weed roof - Thatch structure

 Fired bricks
Clay blocks
Cement
Concrete
Fabric
MAN-MADE Foam
MATERIALS Glass
Metal
Polymers/plastics
Paper
Ceramics
 Composite materials are materials
made from two or more constituent
materials with significantly
different properties than those
combined.
COMPOSITE Composite building materials such
MATERIALS as cement and concrete.
Metal Composites.
Ceramic Composites.
 Wood is a product of trees, and
sometimes other fibrous plants.
Ready to use wooden planks are
usually termed as timber in
construction industry.
Wood can be very flexible under
loads, keeping strength while
bending, and is incredibly strong
WOOD when compressed vertically.
There are many differing qualities to
the different types of wood, even
among same tree species. This
means specific species are better
suited for various uses than others.
And growing conditions are
important for deciding quality.
 Materials change in size and volume
as the temperature changes. They
expand with increasing of the
temperature. This means linear and
volumetric expansion. The
expansion causes decrease in the
strength of materials. But wood does
not practically expand against heat.
On the contrary, by the effect of
WOOD AS A BUILDING heat, it dries out and gains strength.
MATERIAL Thermal conductivity of wood is
very low which makes it a
preferable material for ceilings and
wall coverings. Wood requires
almost twice the amount of heat
energy than stones and concrete to
warm-up.
 Veneer Plywood

Fiberboard (LDF) Fiberboard (MDF)

 Carefully harmonized finishing of exposed
concrete, plywood cladding and industrial
screed.
The treated plywood covering gives this
building a unique reflective look.
Support structural material is reinforced
concrete, steel/aluminum.

Copenhagen students residence-Denmark

Wood prevents echo and noise
by absorbing sound. For this
reason it is extensively used in
concert halls.
wood is used in wide-gap
constructions like health
centers, airports and sports
halls.
Each wood type has its own
color, design and smell, and is
used for aesthetics
accordingly.
Maintenance and repair in
case of damage is less costly
and easy.
 It is one of the examples of
largest span wooden roofed
buildings. Materials used are
wood, metal, glass and
concrete is used for finishing.
The terminal building has a
light wooden that gives a
simple construction.
The roof of the central building
has wooden beams each of 90
m span supported by solid
columns; the secondary
structure connecting the beams
consists of a perforated metal
grid above a semi-transparent
false ceiling. The grid allows
natural light to filter in from
above while also reflecting
artificial light from below the
false ceiling.

Oslo airport-Norway
Common threats to the wooden
portions of a building are from
fungi, moisture, cracks, insects,
termites, carpenter ants, carpenter
bees and fire etc.
Most of the commonly employed
strategies for protecting wood
involve selection of tested wood
type, drying, and coating .
 Stones suitable for constructing
retaining walls, abutments, dams,
barrages, roads etc are known as
building stones.
Its properties are hardness,
durability, strength to resist the
crushing forces and fire/frost
resistance.
Being a natural material, it normally
do not contain any toxic substance
STONE or chemical and can be put to use in
food areas specifically. Also it
requires much less safety coatings of
preservatives which makes it a
sustainable material to use.
used widely for wall skirting and
decorative claddings in interior
design and exterior finishes.
Dry-stone walls with carefully
selected interlocking stones have
been built for as long as humans
have put one stone on top of
another. Eventually, different forms
of binding mortars  are used to hold
the stones together, cement being
the most commonplace.
 Stone veneers are used as
protective and decorative covering
for exterior or interior vertical walls
and surfaces. These are typically 1
inch thick.
Natural stone veneers are made from
STONE VENEERS real stone.
Manufactured stone veneers are
decorative building materials made
from lightweight concrete mix to
replicate the look of natural stone.
These are much lighter and less
costly than the natural stone veneers.
 Stone veneers being used on
courtyard wall.
Floor made up of wooden
veneers.

Chimney house-Brazil
 The most widely used artificial stone
finishing materials are ceramics,
used widely for decorative and
protective purposes.
CERAMICS These are usually a combination of
clay with a variety of other materials
such as stone and fiberglass etc.
Ceramic tiles are used as wall coverings and
floors in wet spaces like kitchen and baths to
provide a quick and easy run-off for water.
These could be plain or hand-painted and are
also used in making furniture tops and
pottery.
Used inside water bodies for aesthetics and neat surface look
 Concrete is a composite building
material made from the combination
of aggregate and a binder such
as cement, along with water.
It is the most widely used man-made
material in the modern construction
industry.
It is durable and can be cast to any
CONCRETE desired shape. It makes a building
fire-safe due to its non-combustible
nature.
Maintenance cost of concrete is
almost negligible.
It is weak in tension therefore often
used with reinforcements.
Decorative concretes and mortars
are very effective finishing
materials.
The decorative effect of these
materials results from the use of
colored cements and fillers produced
by crushing various kinds of natural
stones and by texturing the front
surfaces of products (for example,
large blocks and panels) during
molding or after the concrete has
hardened.
Decorative concretes and mortars
are used extensively in the factory
finishing of structural members for
fully prefabricated buildings.
Asbestos cement is used for
finishing the guardrails of balconies
and staircases
 The strength and resilience of metals
has led to their frequent use in high-
rise building and bridge
construction, as well as pipes, non-
illuminated signs and railroad tracks.
Metal is used as structural
framework for larger buildings such
as skyscrapers, or as an external
METAL surface covering.
Steel is a metal alloy whose major
component is iron, and is the usual
choice for metal structural building
materials. It is strong in reinforcing,
flexible and if refined or  treated
well lasts a long time.
Other metals used commonly
include chrome, gold, silver,
aluminum and titanium. Titanium
can be used for structural purposes,
but it is much more expensive than
steel. Chrome, gold, and silver are
used as decoration, because these
materials are expensive and lack
structural qualities such as tensile
strength or hardness.
Sheets and shaped products made of
copper and its alloys, stainless steel,
and titanium are used as finishing
materials; aluminum alloys,
including those with a colored
surface, are particularly promising.
 A combination of
interconnecting shapes of
stone, glass and titanium, this
building is regarded as the
jewel of the 20th century.
The exterior is entirely of
titanium cladding with 33,000
tiny titanium sheets half mm
thick, being used over a metal
rods truss framework.
Titanium is a transition metal
with silver color originally and
changes color with changing
weather and light.
It is as strong as steel and
much lighter in weight.

Guggenheim museum Bilbao-Spain

 There are two types of polymers:
synthetic and natural. Synthetic
polymers are derived from
petroleum oil, and made by
scientists and engineers.
Examples of naturally occurring
polymers are silk, wool, cellulose
and proteins.
Examples of synthetic polymers
SYNTHETIC include plastics, nylon,
POLYMERS polyethylene, polyester, polystyrene,
Teflon, and epoxy.
Plastics are a promising type of
finishing material. They are
characterized by a broad range of
colors, a variety of product shapes,
excellent sanitary and hygienic
qualities, and good corrosion
resistance.
for example, ceramic or glass
finishing materials; therefore, they
are used infrequently for exterior
facings (mainly for small structures).
The use of finishing materials made
of plastics (synthetic tiles) for floor
coverings is particularly promising.
Other common uses are washable
wall papers, railings, and plinth
finishing.
 Synthetic polymers like foam have
been used in combination with
structural materials, such as
concrete. It is lightweight, easily
shaped, and an excellent insulator.
FOAM Foam is usually used as part of
a structural insulated panel, wherein
the foam is sandwiched between
wood or cement or insulating
concrete forms.
 Wall papers are a combination of
polymers and paper, used for
decorative purposes and to hide the
surface flaws of walls.
They are glued to walls using
wallpaper glue.
WALL PAPERS Wallpapers of various types are
widely used for interior finishing
(mainly in residences) they have the
advantages of low cost and labor
requirements.
 Paint and varnish finishing materials
are intended mainly for painting
operations. Synthetic paints and
varnishes have become widespread
in modern construction; they make
possible a in the substantial
PAINTS reduction bor-intensiveness of
finishing operations and an
improvement in the protective and
decorative properties of structures.
Thus to conclude from the above
examples, the main trend in the
development of the construction and
finishing-materials industry is
toward attaining strengths,
expansion in the variety of materials,
as well as toward improvement of
their quality and an increase in the
degree of factory preparation of
materials and products.
THANK YOU