Category: FINISH CEILINGS AND FLOORS

Primary Functions of the Exterior Wall The major purpose of the exterior wall is to separate the indoor environment of a building from the outdoors in such a way that indoor environmental conditions can be maintained at levels suitable for the building’s intended use. This translates into a number of separate and diverse functional requirements.…

Thicknesses of floor finishes vary from ⅛ inch (3 mm) or less for resilient flooring to 3 inches (76 mm) or more for brick flooring. Frequently, several different types of flooring are used on different areas of the same floor level of a building. If the differences in thickness of the flooring materials are not…

Hard Flooring Materials Hard finish flooring materials (concrete, stone, brick, tile, and terrazzo) are often chosen for their resistance to wear and moisture. Being rigid and unyielding, they are not comfortable to stand on for extended periods of time, and they contribute to a live, noisy acoustic environment. Many of these materials, however, are so…

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…

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…

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…