Building material

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For other kinds of building materials, see Hardware, Biology, and Star formation.

Concrete and metal rebar used to build a floor

Building material is any material which is used for a construction purpose. Many naturally
occurring substances, such as clay, sand, wood and rocks, even twigs and leaves have been used
to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-made products are in
use, some more and some less synthetic. The manufacture of building materials is an established
industry in many countries and the use of these materials is typically segmented into specific
specialty trades, such as carpentry, plumbing, roofing and insulation work. They provide the
make-up of habitats and structures including homes.

Contents
 1 Fabric
 2 Mud and clay
 3 Wood
 4 Rock
 5 Thatch
 6 Brush
 7 Gypcrete
 8 Ice
 9 Sand
 10 Concrete
 11 Metal
 12 Glass
  13 Plastic
 14 Foam
 15 Cement composites
 16 Modern industry
 17 Building products
 18 See also
 19 References

 20 External links

Fabric
The tent is the home of choice among nomadic groups all over the world. Two well known types
include the conical teepee and the circular yurt. It has been revived as a major construction
technique with the development of tensile architecture and synthetic fabrics. Modern buildings
can be made of flexible material such as fabric membranes, and supported by a system of steel
cables, rigid or internal (air pressure.)

Mud and clay

Sod buildings in Iceland

The amount of each material used leads to different styles of buildings. The deciding factor is
usually connected with the quality of the soil being used. Larger amounts of clay usually mean
using the cob/adobe style, while low clay soil is usually associated with sod building. The other
main ingredients include more or less sand/gravel and straw/grasses. Rammed earth is both an
old and newer take on creating walls, once made by compacting clay soils between planks by
hand, now forms and mechanical pneumatic compressors are used.:)

Soil and especially clay is good thermal mass; it is very good at keeping temperatures at a
constant level. Homes built with earth tend to be naturally cool in the summer heat and warm in
cold weather. Clay holds heat or cold, releasing it over a period of time like stone. Earthen walls
change temperature slowly, so artificially raising or lowering the temperature can use more
resources than in say a wood built house, but the heat/coolness stays longer.

Peoples building with mostly dirt and clay, such as cob, sod, and adobe, resulted in homes that
have been built for centuries in western and northern Europe as well as the rest of the world, and
continue to be built, though on a smaller scale. Some of these buildings have remained habitable
for hundreds of years.

Wood
A natural material for building dwellings for thousands of years, wood was also used to make
Churches in the past. The main problems with wood structures are fire risk and moisture-related
problems. Wood is an aesthetically pleasing material that never goes out of trend completely,
though the current popularity of composite and engineered materials are taking its place in many
construction sites.[citation needed]

Rock

Mont Saint Michel

Rock structures have existed for as long as history can recall. It is the longest lasting building
material available, and is usually readily available. There are many types of rock throughout the
world all with differing attributes that make them better or worse for particular uses. Rock is a
very dense material so it gives a lot of protection too, its main draw-back as a material is its
weight and awkwardness. Its energy density is also considered a big draw-back, as stone is hard
to keep warm without using large amounts of heating resources.
Dry-stone walls have been built for as long as humans have put one stone on top of another.
Eventually different forms of mortar were used to hold the stones together, cement being the
most commonplace now.

The granite-strewn uplands of Dartmoor National Park, United Kingdom, for example, provided
ample resources for early settlers. Circular huts were constructed from loose granite rocks
throughout the Neolithic and early Bronze Age, and the remains of an estimated 5,000 can still
be seen today. Granite continued to be used throughout the Medieval period (see Dartmoor
longhouse) and into modern times. Slate is another stone type, commonly used as roofing
material in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world where it is found.

Mostly stone buildings can be seen in most major cities, some civilizations built entirely with
stone such as the Pyramids in Egypt, the Aztec pyramids and the remains of the Inca civilization.

Thatch
Thatch is one of the oldest of building materials known; grass is a good insulator and easily
harvested. Many African tribes have lived in homes made completely of grasses year round. In
Europe, thatch roofs on homes were once prevalent but the material fell out of favor as
industrialization and improved transport increased the availability of other materials. Today,
though, the practice is undergoing a revival. In the Netherlands, for instance, many new
buildings have thatched roofs with special ridge tiles on top

Brush

Toda tribe hut

Brush structures are built entirely from plant parts and are generally found in tropical and sub-
tropical areas, such as rainforests, where very large leaves can be used in the building. Native
Americanes for resting and living in, too. These are built mostly with branches, twigs and leaves,
and bark, similar to a beaver's lodge. These were variously named wikiups, lean-tos, and so
forth.

Gypcrete
Gypcrete is a mixture of gypsum plaster and fibreglass rovings. Although plaster and fibres
fiborous plaster have been used for many years especially for ceilings, it was not until the early
1990s that serious studies of the strength and qualities of a walling system [[Rapidwall], using a
mixture of gypsum plaster and 300mm plus fibreglass rovings were investigated. It was
discovered, through testing at the University of Adelaide that these walls had significant, load
bearing, shear and lateral resistance together with earthquake, fire resistance and thermal
properties. With an abundance of gypsum (naturally occuring and by-product chemical FGD and
phospho gypsums) available worldwide gypcrete based building products, which are fully
recyclable offer significant environmental benefits.

Ice
Ice was used by the Inuit for igloos, but has also been used for ice hotels as a tourist attraction in
northern areas that might not otherwise see many winter tourists.

Sand
Used with cement and sometimes lime, to make mortar for masonry work and plaster. Sand is
used as a part of the concrete mix.

Concrete

Falkirk Wheel

Concrete is a composite building material made from the combination of aggregate and a binder
such as cement. The most common form of concrete is Portland cement concrete, which consists
of mineral aggregate (generally gravel and sand), portland cement and water. After mixing, the
cement hydrates and eventually hardens into a stone-like material. When used in the generic
sense, this is the material referred to by the term concrete.

For a concrete construction of any size, as concrete has a rather low tensile strength, it is
generally strengthened using steel rods or bars (known as rebars). This strengthened concrete is
then referred to as reinforced concrete. In order to minimise any air bubbles, that would weaken
the structure, a vibrator is used to eliminate any air that has been entrained when the liquid
concrete mix is poured around the ironwork. Concrete has been the predominant building
material in this modern age due to its longevity, formability, and ease of transport. Recent
advancements, such as Insulating concrete forms, combine the concrete forming and other
construction steps (installation of insulation). All materials must be taken in required proportions
as described in standards.

Metal

MIT Stata Center

Metal is used as structural framework for larger buildings such as skyscrapers, or as an external
surface covering. There are many types of metals used for building. Steel is a metal alloy whose
major component is iron, and is the usual choice for metal structural building materials. It is
strong, flexible, and if refined well and/or treated lasts a long time. Corrosion is metal's prime
enemy when it comes to longevity.

The lower density and better corrosion resistance of aluminium alloys and tin sometimes
overcome their greater cost. Brass was more common in the past, but is usually restricted to
specific uses or specialty items today.

Metal figures quite prominently in prefabricated structures such as the Quonset hut, and can be
seen used in most cosmopolitan cities. It requires a great deal of human labor to produce metal,
especially in the large amounts needed for the building industries.

Other metals used include titanium, chrome, gold, silver. 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.

Glass
British Museum Great Court

Glassmaking is considered an art form as well as an industrial process or material.

Clear windows have been used since the invention of glass to cover small openings in a building.
They provided humans with the ability to both let light into rooms while at the same time
keeping inclement weather outside. Glass is generally made from mixtures of sand and silicates,
in a very hot fire stove called a kiln and is very brittle. Very often additives are added to the
mixture when making to produce glass with shades of colors or various characteristics (such as
bulletproof glass, or light emittance).

The use of glass in architectural buildings has become very popular in the modern culture. Glass
"curtain walls" can be used to cover the entire facade of a building, or it can be used to span over
a wide roof structure in a "space frame". These uses though require some sort of frame to hold
sections of glass together, as glass by itself is too brittle and would require an overly large kiln to
be used to span such large areas by itself.

Plastic
Plastic pipes penetrating a concrete floor in a Canadian highrise apartment building

The term plastics covers a range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic condensation or

polymerization products that can be molded or extruded into objects or films or fibers. Their
name is derived from the fact that in their semi-liquid state they are malleable, or have the
property of plasticity. Plastics vary immensely in heat tolerance, hardness, and resiliency.
Combined with this adaptability, the general uniformity of composition and lightness of plastics
ensures their use in almost all industrial applications today.

Foam

Foamed plastic sheet to be used as backing for firestop mortar at CIBC bank in Toronto.

More recently synthetic polystyrene or polyurethane foam has been used in combination with
structural materials, such as concrete. It is light weight, easily shaped and an excellent insulator.
It is usually used as part of a structural insulated panel where the foam is sandwiched between
wood or cement or insulating concrete forms, where concrete is sandwiched between two layers
of foam.

Cement composites
Cement bonded composites are made of hydrated cement paste that binds wood or alike particles
or fibers to make pre-cast building components. Various fiberous materials including paper and
fiberglass have been used as binders.
Wood and natural fibres are composed of various soluble organic compounds like carbohydrates,
glycosides and phenolics. These compounds are known to retard cement setting. Therefore,
before using a wood in making cement boned composites, its compatibility with cement is
assessed.

Wood-cement compatibility is the ratio of a parameter related to the property of a wood-cement

composite to that of a neat cement paste. The compatibility is often expressed as a percentage
value. To determine wood-cement compatibility, methods based on different properties are used,
such as, hydration characteristics, strength, interfacial bond and morphology. Various methods
are used by researchers such as the measurement of hydration characteristics of a cement-
aggregate mix;[1][2][3] the comparison of the mechanical properties of cement-aggregate mixes[4][5]
and the visual assessment of microstructural properties of the wood-cement mixes.[6] It has been
found that the hydration test by measuring the change in hydration temperature with time is the
most convenient method. Recently, Karade et al.[7] have reviewed these methods of compatibility
assessment and suggested a method based on the ‘maturity concept’ i.e. taking in consideration
both time and temperature of cement hydration reaction.

Modern industry
Modern building is a multibillion dollar industry, and the production and harvesting of raw
materials for building purposes is on a world wide scale. Often being a primary governmental
and trade keypoint between nations. Environmental concerns are also becoming a major world
topic concerning the availability and sustainability of certain materials, and the extraction of such
large quantities needed for the human habitat.

Building products
In the market place the term building products often refers to the ready-made particles/sections,
made from various materials, that are fitted in architectural hardware and decorative hardware
parts of a building. The list of building products exclusively exclude the building materials,
which are used to construct the building architecture and supporting fixtures like windows,
doors, cabinets, etc. Building products do not make any part of a bajingo rather they support and
make them working in a modular fashion.

It also can refer to items used to put such hardware together such as glues, caulking, paint, and
anything else bought for the purpose of constructing a building.