Structures and Construction Technology

4/30/2017

‘’Investigation into property you live in’’

Coursework 1
 Structures and Construction Technology

Contents
 Abstract............................................................................................................................... 2
 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 2
 Results................................................................................................................................. 2
 Description of the property ............................................................................................ 2
 External walls .................................................................................................................. 3
 Internal walls ................................................................................................................... 5
 Floors............................................................................................................................... 5
 Roof ................................................................................................................................. 6
 Interior defects ............................................................................................................... 7
 Exterior defects ............................................................................................................... 8
 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 8
 References .......................................................................................................................... 9

This work is complete and cover all the topics proposed in

the coursework guide.
In general, the template used is OK but could be improved
using a more appropriate font.
Figures could be improved and aligned one to each other.
The text could be improved with better description of the
pictures and making a relation with the slides provided.

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Structures and Construction Technology

 Abstract

This report investigates the house which I live in and conducts the structure, type of the
house and the issues that it has. The basis of this report was to gain knowledge about how
houses are constructed and what faults will occur with the time. There were explored lots
various parts of the house such as cavity brick walls, gypsum board, flat roof, pitched roof,
gable roof, scupper drains, terrace house, porcelain floor and engineered wood floor. The
overall approach to this house was to find the faults around the building and to provide a
way how to prevent from further damages. Aims of this investigation is to be able to
understand types of the buildings, to be able to recognise the faults and how they are
occurred and immediately to be able to appreciate how to avoid any longer these issues.
The report was successfully conducted and the aims were achieved.

unnecessary space

 Introduction
In this report will cover an investigation of the property which I live in. External and
internal walls, roof and floors will be explored to understand the way of the construction
and materials were used to build the house. The house that I live in is a council building and
is recognised as a terrace house. A terrace house is a house that is situated in a long row of
houses, which they look the same and have identical structure. Both sides of each house in
the row share same walls with the next-door house. Aims and objectives of this report is to
gain the knowledge of the materials used to build it and what are they effects and how
either positive or negative efficiencies it has. As well researches will be carried on exploring
more about the houses in UK and the reasons why they do use pretty the same materials
such as bricks walls etc.

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 Results
 Description of the property
The property is used in this report is recognised as a terrace house (fig.1) and is the local
council which built them between 1945-1959. This terrace house has ground floor, first floor
and a gable roof which starts at this building and ends in the end of building rows. Ground
floor was designed as a retailer store but with the time they had converted to 3 bedrooms
flat. First floor was designed as a flat with 3 bedrooms and is still used in the same manner.

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Figure 1. The full view of the front house from outside.

 External walls

Figure 2. External wall of the house.

Figures should be aligned

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Figure 3. External walls of the house.

As it shown in the fig. 2&3 the external wall of the house is built around 60 years ago. The
conditions of the walls are hard to tell because most of the brick wall was cement rendered
to cover the look or the damaged parts of the brick wall. As it shown above wall was newly
rendered and the mixture was made by water, soft sand, hard sand and cement. It is also
painted into plastic white colour to prevent the render from the wet and heavy rains. Parts
of the wall which aren’t cement rendered are in good condition as it shown in fig.4.
This type of wall is known as brick cavity
walls and are most commonly used in
UK houses. A cavity wall is made by two
masonry wythes tied together but
separated by a non-stop air space. The
outer wythe acts as a defensive against
the elements, mainly heavy rains. It
works in combination with the inner
wythe which serves as a dry
construction to carry the interior
finishes. The two wythes are tied up
together with metal for structural
stability and to help carry the loads
imposed on them by first floor and the
roof.
Figure 4. A close look of the external wall.

The idea of having embedded figures in the text is nice 4

but figures and text has to be aligned. Check a book to
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 Structures and Construction Technology

 Internal walls

Figure 5. Interior walls of the house.

All the interior walls in this building are the same in the ground and first floor and the
purpose of it is to define the inside area, to give a better finish of the interior and it is not
used to carry loads. It was rebuilt just a year ago and the type of interior wall is known as
gypsum board. It is mostly common used in this days in houses, stores and big buildings. It
has lots of advantages such as, ease of installation, fire resistance, sound isolation,
durability, economy and versatility. The disadvantages of gypsum wall are, moisture is
extreme and cannot be installed close to oven or the other places where temperatures can
exceed 90C. Gypsum board can be applied over wood or metal framing. It can be applied to
masonry and concrete surfaces, either directly or to wood or metal furring strips. The
conditions of the internal walls in this house are good and just some minor defects are
found.

 Floors
Kitchen and bathrooms have same floors constructed with
porcelain tiles. Porcelain tiles are widely used nowadays and have
significant positive role when it comes to durability, moisture and
cleaning. Places such as kitchen and bathroom which they mainly
have water in use all time and for the moisture is very easy to get
around, so by using the porcelain tiles can be ignored this effect.
They are very easy to clean, low maintenance and have a high
breaking strength than the other floors. But, the porcelain floor has
a high density which makes hard to construct and it has a heavy Figure 6. Kitchen and Bathrooms floors.

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weight and it needs to ensure that the sub-floor is strong enough to support the weight of
the porcelain tiles. Also, it is very important that porcelain tiles have a high thermal
conductivity when it comes to the heating system and cannot used to cover all the floors.
The rest of the interior floor in the house are covered by engineered wood flooring. It
is known as it has a very low thermal conductivity which helps the heat to last longer and it
is commonly used in all the buildings nowadays. Engineered wood flooring is made up of
layers of plywood that are bonded
together before being topped off with
a solid wood lamella. Also, it is easy to
work and quick to lay, as engineered
wood flooring gives itself perfectly to
both DIY and professional installation
and it comes in an entire range of
species, grades and finishes. Therefore,
engineered wood flooring has its
disadvantages such as not resistant to
deep scratches, lifespan around 15-20
years and appearance which makes to
look a bit fake.
Both porcelain tiles and engineered
wood flooring in this house are in very
good condition and there isn’t any
Figure 7. Engineered wood flooring covers most of the interior floor of the house.
failure so far.

 Roof

Figure 8. An overview of the roof from the front of the building.

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The roof of this house is recognised as gable roof as it made up of two right triangles on
both sides, it was recently restored (1 year ago) and is made by clay tiles (which are one of
the cheapest in market). It is a cold roof as the insulation is above the ceilings to keep the
house warmer. The pitch of the roof isn’t steeper which lays between 15֯-20֯ as it is used
only to prevent the house from the rains, ice and snow. This type of the roof is widely used
in UK, because it is easy to construct, gives a good appearance to the house and the
installation is cheap. Construction of the gable roof involves timber beams which are fixed
to the top of the wall and after placing the timber beams in the order we like to create the
shape of the roof, a truss type is created. When truss is designed, clay tiles are put close to
each other to cover all the area of the roof and isolated well that water can’t go through.
There are some disadvantages with the gable roofs such as, ventilation issues and aesthetic
consideration.

 Interior defects

Patent defects can be notice at the interior

walls around the ground floor of the house.
Sentiment cracks above the frame door and on
the side of the door are caused by some
serious movements, as property starts to sag
or the foundation of the building is damaged
by earthquakes, moisture change of clay or
trees and is known as latent defects. When all
the internal of the foundation are pulled, and
stretched, the walls especially interior walls Figures 9-11. Defects occurred inside the house.
begin to crack, as it shown in figure above a
big crack has happen.
In this case to prevent further cracks around the walls which leads to further damages
of the house, it should be referred to as mud jacking or mortar pumping. This process
involves pumping concrete into any voids below sunken foundations or ground slabs. When
the pumped substance plugs and expands into any void areas and it then effectually lifts the
lower area back to its right level.

All the figures have to be named, use a) b) and c) when 7

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Structures and Construction Technology

 Exterior defects

Figure 12. Process of erosion at the little flat roof of the house.

As it was mention in the beginning, first floor of the house was projected as a retail shop
and it has an extension in the front which has a flat roof. It is an asphalt roof and can be
seen clearly in the picture above that erosion was caused and parts of the roof edges are
damaged. This damaged are caused by heavy rains, ice, snow and wind, but if the erosion
will be carried on during the time the exterior wall will be affected to erosion and cracks
around the wall will appear. As the exterior walls support this building and the gable roof is
fixed to the wall, action must be taken to sort the issues with the erosion and must be
quickly fixed as it can lead to major faults.
To prevent further upcoming issues from the erosion, around the lower roof edge must
be installed scupper drains. The scupper is an open-air structure, for purposes of draining
water. This structure will flow the water to the ground and will slow erosion by 75%,
therefore the strong wind can still direct the water to the wall and erosion will still occur but
it will be weaker than before.

 Conclusion

This report proposes a common approach to an ordinary house and allows to

understand the constructing method used in this building. After the investigation took place
many faults were found around the house. Cracks which appeared around the internal walls
were signs of the foundation issues and the erosion caused by rains at the lower edges of
the flat roof. All these faults can be seen as a minor issue but in fact they do have a
significant weight into the property of the building and can lead to further danger.
Therefore, to prevent this building from further problems an alternative way was discovered
to protect the house.
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 References

(www.adtrak.co.uk), A. (2017). 28 Types of Roof Designs & Styles (with Pictures) | JTC
Roofing. [online] Jtcroofing.co.uk. Available at: http://www.jtcroofing.co.uk/roof-types
[Accessed 1 May 2017].
Improvement, H. (2017). Flooring Types. [online] Better Homes and Gardens. Available at:
http://www.bhg.com/home-improvement/flooring/types/ [Accessed 1 May 2017].
Mishra, G. (2017). WALLS- TYPES, FEATURES AND DESIGN CONCEPT. [online] The
Constructor. Available at: https://theconstructor.org/building/walls-types-features-and-
design-concept/819/ [Accessed 1 May 2017].
Designingbuildings.co.uk. (2017). Wall types - Designing Buildings Wiki. [online] Available at:
https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Wall_types [Accessed 1 May 2017].
Healthed.govt.nz. (2017). Water Collection Tanks and Safe Household Water | HealthEd.
[online] Available at: https://www.healthed.govt.nz/resource/water-collection-tanks-and-
safe-household-water [Accessed 1 May 2017].

the conclusion could be improved.