Author: workhouse123
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FINISH FLOORING
Functions of Finish Flooring Floors have a lot to do with our visual and tactile appreciation of a building. We sense their colors, patterns, and textures, their “feel” underfoot, and the noises they make in response to footsteps. Floors affect the acoustics of a room, contributing to a noisy quality or a hushed quality, depending…
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TYPES OF CEILINGS
Exposed Structural and Mechanical Components In many buildings, it makes sense to omit finished ceiling surfaces altogether and simply expose the structural and mechanical components of the floor or roof above (Figure 24.1). In industrial and agricultural buildings, where appearance is not of prime importance, this approach offers the advantages of economy and ease of…
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Functions of Finish Ceilings
The ceiling surface is an important functional component of a room. It helps control the diffusion of light and sound about the room. It may play a role in preventing the passage of sound vertically between the rooms above and below, and horizontally between rooms on either side of a partition. It is often designed…
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UNIQUENESS OF SITECAST CONCRETE
Concrete is a shapeless material that must be given form by the designer. For economy, the designer can adopt a standard system of concrete framing. For excitement, one can invent new shapes and textures, a route taken by many of the leading architects. Some have pursued its sculptural possibilities, others its surface patterns and textures,…
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DESIGNING ECONOMICAL SITECAST CONCRETE BUILDINGS
The cost of a concrete building frame can be broken down into the costs of the concrete, the reinforcing steel, and the formwork. Of the three, the cost of concrete is usually the least significant in North America and the cost of formwork is the most significant. Accordingly, simplification and standardization of formwork are the…
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LONGER SPANS IN SITECAST CONCRETE
The ancient Romans built unreinforced concrete vaults and domes as roofs for temples, baths, palaces, and basilicas (Figure 13.2). Impressive spans were constructed, including a dome over the Pantheon in Rome, still standing, that approaches 150 feet (45 m) in diameter. Today, the arch, dome, and vault remain favorite devices for spanning long distances in…
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ARCHITECTURAL CONCRETE
Concrete that is intended as finished interior or exterior surfaces, and is specified with highly prescribed finish characteristics, is known as architectural concrete. Most formed concrete surfaces, although structurally sound, have too many blemishes and irregularities to be visually attractive. A vast amount of thought and effort has been expended to develop handsome surface finishes for…
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INNOVATIONS IN SITECAST CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION
The development of sitecast concrete construction continues along several lines. The basic materials, concrete and steel, continue to undergo innovations, as described in Chapter 13. The continuing evolution of high-strength, high-stiffness concrete, along with improvements in concrete forming systems and concrete pumping technology, have enabled sitecast concrete construction to remain economically competitive with structural steel for…
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SELECTING A SITECAST CONCRETE FRAMING SYSTEM
Preliminary factors to be considered in the selection of a sitecast concrete framing system for a building include the following (Figures 14.43 and 14.44): 1. Are the bays of the building square or nearly square? If so, a two-way system will probably be more economical than a one-way system. 2. How long are the spans? Spans up…
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SITECAST POSTTENSIONED FRAMING SYSTEMS
Posttensioning can be applied to any of the sitecast concrete framing systems. It is used in beams, girders, and slabs, both one-way and two-way, to reduce member sizes, reduce deflection, and extend spanning capability. Two-way flat plate structures are very commonly posttensioned, especially when spans are long or zoning restrictions on the height of the…