What are the different types of raw construction materials?

A building construction firm’s most essential feature is that it is made up of various structural parts such as slabs, beams, columns, and footings. Each of these structural members plays a certain role in a structure of a building.

Raw materials

Slabs are common structural elements that are used to create flat and useful surfaces such as floors, roofs, and ceilings. It is a horizontal structural component, with top and bottom surfaces parallel or near so.

Beam 

A beam is a horizontal structural element that withstands vertical loads, shear forces, and bending moments. The loads applied to the beam result in reaction forces at the support points of the beam. The total effect of all the forces acting on the beam is to produce shear forces and bending moments within the beam, that in turn induce internal stresses, strains, and deflections of the beam.

Column

A column is a vertical structural member that carries loads mainly in compression. It is assumed to be the most crucial structural member of a building. The safety of a building rest on the column strength is a major factor. This is because the failure of the column would cause a progressive collapse in buildings whereas such an event would not occur when other members fail. Columns transfer vertical loads from a ceiling, floor, or roof slab or from a beam, to a floor or foundation. They also carry bending moments about one or both of the cross-section axes.

Footings

Footings are structural elements that transmit the load of the entire superstructure to the underlying soil below the structure. They are designed to transmit these loads to the soil without exceeding its safe bearing capacity. Thus, prevent excessive settlement of the structure to a tolerable limit, minimize differential settlement, and to prevent sliding and overturning.

The next most important is the ingredients to make building constructions such as concrete, cement, sand, stone, water, bricks, etc.

People who are building houses are concerned about the contractor’s quality of supplies brought to the job site. However, there are numerous Civil Contractors in Coimbatore who employ high-quality raw materials to construct your home or commercial buildings.

Cement

Cement is the binder that holds concrete and mortars together and hence it plays the most critical role in giving strength and durability to your home. It is used to make concrete for slabs, beams, columns, etc.

Features of good quality cement:

• Reduced water requirement.
• Improved workability.
• Less permeable to moisture.
• Improved resistance to acids and chlorides.
• Reduced heat of hydration.
• Easier to finish.
• Reduced shrinkage.
• Reduced leaching problems because it is low on free lime.
   
  The color of cement has no relation to the strength characteristics. There is a wrong impression that darker color cement gives better strength. In fact, darker color cement causes the workers to add more sand than allowed in cement-sand mortar for plastering, which can then cause problems.
   

  Selecting the right cement for your house

  It is very important that you use only a reputed brand of cement. Good brands of cement may cost 2 to 5% more but offer quality, consistency, and reliability as well as 10 to 20% greater strength characteristics. Cement accounts for a mere 12 to 18% of the total expenditure on your home. So, using cheaper cement gives you little overall savings but a greater risk to the strength of your building!

  The right way of using cement in construction

  Concrete and mortar must be mixed with cement in a precise, consistent manner. Too little or too much cement in concrete and improper water-cement ratios cause lower strengths, shorter design life and lower durability. Never try to save on cement use by diluting the concrete mix. Remember, that by using 30 to 40 bags less of cement, you would save no more than Rs 3000 to Rs 4000.

Types of Cement used

• Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC): A combination of clinker and gypsum.
• Portland Slag Cement (PSC): A combination of good quality blast furnace slag (from the iron and steel industry) with clinker (which makes OPC) and gypsum.

Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC): A combination of fly-ash (from thermal power plants) with clinker and gypsum.

Sand

Along with cement, sand is a very important ingredient in mortars and concrete. Therefore the proper selection of sand is critical to the durability and performance of the concrete/mortar mixture.

Features of good quality sand:

• Must be clear, angular, and hard.
• Must be free from clay, mica, and soft, flaky material
• It should be graded, with a mixture of fine, medium, and coarse sand
• Must be free from contaminants like sea salt
• Moisture (water) content must be consistent and should not exceed 7%. 

Advantages of manufactured sand:

• For manufactured sand, the necessary quality of construction rock can be utilized
• There is no clay content in M-sand;
• M-sand is scientifically graded to comply with BIS specifications
• Customizing the different grades depending upon the need of construction ensures consistent quality throughout the construction cycle.
• M-sand is half the price of natural sand. 

Water

Tips for using water

• You must use only potable water in quality concrete production.
• It’s not a good idea to utilize brackish or salty water.
• Contaminated water will produce concrete and mortars with a lower durability, erratic set characteristics, and inconsistent color.

Conclusion

The Raw material used for the building Construction is leading the building for years. It is a major need for quality construction. Construction is a science that has been performed for thousands of years. It’s one of the aspects that aren’t widely documented. You can find many Turnkey construction companies in Coimbatore that can build your dream house into reality. They are well aware of the job’s complexity and do it professionally. An experienced and skilled civil contractor should know traditional techniques, have good problem-solving skills, and have an urge to learn new techniques in their work.