TYPES OF BUILDING MATERIALS

The various building materials available can be divided into two types and they are:

Traditional materials

These materials serve the basic needs of the majority of the population. These have very useful properties,
however, there is a scope to modify these through appropriate changes in the process of production as well as
in the techniques of application, so that these are made structurally and functionally acceptable.

Conventional materials

The conventional materials are those, which have been obtained by using the modern technologies and can be
mentioned as fruit of research and adopted to indigenous requirements.

Mud as a Low cost material :

Mud is the most readily and cheaply available material found almost everywhere.

Improvement of Mud

During post earthquake reconstruction, mud houses are most

effective since they are environmental friendly, cool in summer
and warm in winter. Mud is only a material available everywhere
in abundance free of cost and is being used as building material
from centuries. But such types of houses are temporary in nature,
prone to erosion by heavy rains. The disadvantages of mud can
be overcome by suitable improvement in design and construction
techniques.

Stabilization

The strength of mud is improved by adding cement, lime,

bitumen or fibers and it also becomes resistant to water, its main
enemy.
Cement stabilized mud blocks, using 3 to 10% cement by weight
molded in mechanical machines are better than adobe mud
bricks.
Techniques to use Mud
Non-erodable mud plaster

Central Building Research Institute, India has developed an economical but effective process to protect mud
walls by applying non-erodable mud plaster. Non-erodable mud is prepared by mixing bitumen cutback
(Bitumen & Kerosene oil mixture) with a specified mud plaster. Soil should consist of clay 20-25%, sand 40-
45% and remaining part may be silt, peat, loam etc, but it should be free from organic matter. Bitumen of 80/100
grade penetration and kerosene oil are mixed in the proportion of 5:1 (by weight) for preparing cutback. 64 kg of
cutback is required for one cubic metre of soil. Non-erodable mud plastered walls are resistant to water erosion.

Terra-cotta skin to mud walls

Center for Science for Villages, Wardha, India has developed technique of providing potter made tile lining to
mud-walls protecting them from rain and moisture. In place of potter made tiles, Kiln-fired brick or tiles may
also be used to protect mud walls from rains. These tiles/bricks can be fixed with mud mortar & pointed with
cement mortar.

Improved Thatch Roof

An effective treatment for rendering the thatch roof fire resistant and water repellent has been evolved by Central
Building Research Institute. It involves plastering of thatch layers by the specified mud plasters. Top & bottom
of the thatch roof is plastered with non-erodable mud plaster, which makes it durable & fire resistant too.
Brickwork
LINTELS

A lot of unnecessary steel and cement concrete is used for lintels.

Instead, place one row of bricks on the edge over the frame (or space) and then above the, one on each
side, a row of more bricks on edge.

The space between these upper two rows of bricks is then filled with concrete in which a small steel
rod is placed.

The only weight the lintel is eventually carrying is a small triangle of brickwork. all other weight of
walls, floors etc above are carried by the wall at the sides of the opening.

The usual round and segmental arches

need shuttering or support during
construction.
The corbel arch needs no support and
is extremely simple and easy to make.
one quarter of a brick is extended out
from the brick below it.
The writer successfully used such arches over openings up
to 5 meters wide.
 RAT TRAP BOND:

The RAT TRAP BOND is still mainly unknown in India, though used in England for the past several hundred
years.
It is as strong as the other bonds but uses 25% LESS bricks and
mortar.
Thermal insulation is very much better.

BRICK JALI:

Jali - formerly pierced stone panels is one of Indias oldest methods of letting into a building
Filtered light and ventilation but maintaining privacy and security.

BRICK JALI can function in the same way either as panels or as a complete load bearing wall.
The production of cement and steel:

Enormous amount of energy (fuel) and

Cause a lot of air pollution.

Also mountains of ugly useless waste material is dumped all round the factories.

Production is costly and India is short of energy.

MORTARS

Cement and Sand Lime and Sand Lime Cement

Sets quickly but cement is Set slowly but very strong, Takes Equal time to settle
expensive can be used with any type as cement.
of Brickwork
Form and Requirements of Material
 Furniture:

Other Materials:

Clay Fly ash Burnt Bricks:

These are produced from fly ash and clay

Are stronger than conventional clay bricks.
These consume less energy, provide better thermal insulation and
Solve the problem of disposal of waste material fly ash & thus are environmental
friendly.

Ferro-Cement

Ferro-cement is a thin walled versatile high strength cement

Based composite material made of cement mortar reinforced with one or more layers of
wire mesh closely bound together to create a stiff structure unit with high performance.
FOUNDATION COST:

Normally the foundation cost comes to about 10 to 15% of the total building.
It is recommended to adopt a foundation depth of 2 ft. (0.6m) for normal soil like gravely soil,
red soils etc.
It is suggested to adopt arch foundation in ordinary soils.
In case of black cotton and other soft soils, it is recommend to use under ream pile foundation
which saves about 20 to 25% in cost over the conventional method of construction.

A
RCH FOUNDATION:

This type of foundation was used in olden times where in spread foundation is replaced by
inverted arch.
It reduces the construction cost up to 40%
Advantage of this is-In soft soils that the depth of foundation can be greatly reduced;
disadvantage is that the end piers have to be specially strengthened by buttresses so as to avoid
the thrust to arch action tending to rapture the piers junction.

WALL:

Making use of Rat trap bond wall & Concrete block wall.
It is a cavity wall construction and leads to reduction in the quantity of bricks required for
masonry work.
By adopting this method of bonding of brick masonry compared to traditional English or
Flemish bond masonry, it is possible to reduce in the material cost of bricks by 25% and about
10to 15% in the masonry cost.
By adopting rat-trap bond method one can create aesthetically pleasing wall surface and
plastering can be avoided.
This technology has about 25% overall-saving on cost of a building of traditional 9"
construction. The structure has proven its strength to go up to three floors with the support of
brick columns. With this technique there is reduction in cost of the wall by 25% as with
conventional English bond (9thk wall) 350 bricks are required per cu. m whereas in Rat-
trap bond only 280 bricks are required and also the reduced number of joints reduces the
mortar consumption.
The common burnt brick is one of mans great inventions. all over the world, with only a few
exceptions, nearly all bricks are roughly the same shape and size - that is about 9 x 4.5 x 3
inches.
In many of these situations listed above a JALI is just as effective. Far from being a lot more
costly than the basic wall, if made of brick it can be less costly than the house wall.
 V V
LINTEL:

The traditional R.C.C. lintels which are costly can be replaced by brick arches for small spans
and save construction cost up to 30 to 40% over the traditional method of construction.
By adopting arches of different shapes a good architectural pleasing appearance can be given
to the external wall surfaces of the brick masonry.

SLAB:

Normally 5" thick R.C.C. slabs is used for roofing of residential buildings.
By adopting rationally designed construction practices like filler slab and precast elements the
construction cost of roofing can be reduced by about 20 to 25%.

FILLER SLABS:
They are normal RCC slabs where bottom half (tension) concrete portions are replaced by filler
materials such as bricks, tiles, cellular concrete blocks, etc
These filler materials are so placed as not to compromise structural strength, result in replacing
unwanted and nonfunctional tension concrete, thus resulting in economy.
These are safe, sound and provide aesthetically pleasing pattern ceilings and also need no
plaster.
The filler slab is based on the principle that for roofs which are simply supported, the upper part
of the slab is subjected to compressive forces and the lower part of the slab experience tensile
forces. Concrete is very good in withstanding compressive forces and steel bears the load due to
tensile forces. Thus the lower tensile region of the slab does not need any concrete except for
holding the steel reinforcements together.
 Therefore in a conventional RCC slab lot of concrete is wasted and it needs extra reinforcement
due to added load of the concrete which can otherwise be replaced by low-cost and light weight
filler materials, which will reduce the dead weight as well as the cost of the slab to 25% (as
40% less steel is used and 30% less concrete.
The filler slab is a mechanism to replace the concrete in the tension zone. The filler material,
thus, is not a structural part of the slab. By reducing the quantity and weight of material, the
roof become less expensive, yet retains the strength of the conventional slab. The most popular
filler material is the roofing tile. Mangalore tiles are placed between steel ribs and concrete is
poured into the gap to make a filler slab. The structure requires less steel and cement and it is
also a good heat insulator.
Conventional tests by different institutions and laboratories has proved the load bearing
capacity of filler slab and found it no less in performance from the conventional R.C.C. slab.
Since filler roof tiles are firmly bonded to and covered by concrete, it does not collapse under
the impact of say, a coconut falling on the roof.

BENEFITS OF FILLER SLAB:

Saving on cost
the savings on cost can be from 15 per cent to 25 per cent. But designing a filler slab requires a
structural engineer to determine the spacing between the reinforcement bars.
Thermal insulation
the air pocket formed by the contours of the tiles makes an excellent thermal insulation layer.
The design integrity of a filler slab involves careful planning taking into account the negative
zones and reinforcement areas.
Filler slabs provide aesthetically pleasing patterned ceilings. In most houses, the filler material
is left open without plastering to form aesthetic design symmetry but some residents prefer to
cover the space with Plaster of Paris coating.

JACK ROOF:
They are easy to construct, save on cement and steel, are more appropriate in hot climates.
These can be constructed using compressed earth blocks also as alternative to bricks for further
economy.
TECHNIQUES USING BY LAURE BAKER TO REDUCEING THE
COST OF THE BUILDING: