STONES

Stone is a ‘naturally available building material’ which has been used from the early age of
civilization. It is available in the form of rocks, which is cut to required size and shape and
used as building block. It has been used to construct small residential buildings to large
palaces and temples all over the world. Red Fort, Taj_Mahal, Vidhan Sabha at Bangalore and
several palaces of medieval age all over India are the famous stone buildings.

BRICKS
Brick is obtained by molding good clay into a block, which is dried and then burnt. This is
the oldest building block to replace stone. Manufacture of brick started with hand molding,
sun drying and burning in clamps. A considerable amount of technological development has
taken place with better knowledge about to properties of raw materials, better machineries
and improved techniques of molding drying and burning.
The size of the bricks are of 90 mm × 90 mm × 90 mm and 190 mm × 90 mm × 40 mm.
With mortar joints, the size of these bricks is taken as 200 mm × 100 mm × 100 mm and 200
mm × 100 mm × 50 mm.

LIME
It is an important binding material used in building construction. Lime has been used as the
material of construction from ancient time. When it is mixed with sand it provides lime
mortar and when mixed with sand and coarse aggregate, it forms lime concrete.

CEMENT
Cement is a commonly used binding material in the construction. The cement is obtained by
burning a mixture of calcareous (calcium) and argillaceous (clay) material at a very high
temperature and then grinding the clinker so produced to a fine powder. It was first produced
by a mason Joseph Aspdin in England in 1924. He patented it as Portland cement.

TIMBER
Timber refers to wood used for construction works. In fact the word timber is derived from
an old English word ‘Timbrian’ which means ‘to build’. A tree that yields good wood for
construction is called ‘Standing Timber.’ After felling a tree, its branches are cut and its stem
is roughly converted into pieces of suitable length, so that it can be transported to timber
yard. This form of timber is known as rough timber. By sawing, rough timber is converted
into various commercial sizes like planks, battens, posts, beams etc. Such form of timber is
known as converted timber.

SAND
Sand is a natural product which is obtained as river sand, nalla sand and pit sand. However
sea sand
should not be used for the following reasons:
 1. It contains salt and hence structure will remain damp. The mortar is affected by
efflorescence and blisters appear.
2. It contains shells and other organic matter, which decompose after some time,
reducing the life of the mortar.
Sand may be obtained artificially by crushing hard stones. Usually artificial sand is obtained
as a by-product while crushing stones to get jelly (coarse aggregate).
Sand is used in mortar and concrete for the following purpose:
1. It sub-divides the paste of binding material into thin films and allows it to adhere and
spread.
2. It fills up the gap between the building blocks and spreads the binding material.
3. It adds to the density of the mortar.
4. It prevents the shrinkage of the cementing material.
5. It allows carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to reach some depth and thereby
improve setting power.
6. The cost of cementing material per unit volume is reduced as this low cost material
increases the volume of mortar.
7. Silica of sand contributes to formation of silicates resulting into the hardened mass.
The properties of good sand are:
1. It should be chemically inert.
2. It should be free from organic or vegetable matter.
3. It should be free from salt.
4. It should contain sharp, angular and coarse grains.
5. It should be well graded.
6. It should be hard.

CEMENT MORTAR
For preparing mortar, first a mixture of cement and sand is made thoroughly mixing them in
dry condition. Water is gradually added and mixed with shovels. The cement to sand
proportion recommended for various works is as shown is Table 2.1
MUD MORTAR
Clay lumps are collected and are wetted with water and allowed to mature for 1 or 2 days. It
is kneaded well until it attains required consistency. A sometimes fibrous material like
gobber is added in the mix. It prevents cracks in the plaster. If plaster is to be used for outer
walls, it is sprayed or painted with bitumen.
It is cheap mortar. Its durability is less. It is normally used for the construction of temporary
sheds and cheap houses in rural areas.

SPECIAL MORTAR
The following are some of the special mortars:
1. Cement clay mortar
2. Gauged mortar
3. Decorative mortar.
1. Cement Clay Mortar: Quality of clay mortar can be improved by adding cement to the
mix. Normal proportion of clay to cement is 1:1. It maintains the economy to some extent
and there is sufficient provements in the durability of mud-mortar.
2. Gauged Mortar: It is the mortar obtained by adding cement to lime mortar. The usual
proportion of cement, lime and sand are 1:1:6, 1:2:9 and 1:3:12. This mortar is to be used
within half an hour after mixing cement. Obviously, it is cheaper than cement mortar and its
quality is between that of cement mortar and lime mortar.
3. Decorative Mortar: These mortars are obtained by using coloured cement. They are used
to give pleasant appearance to outer walls.
Concrete:
Plain concrete, commonly known as concrete, is an intimate mixture of binding material, fine
aggregate, coarse aggregate and water. This can be easily molded to desired shape and size
before it loses plasticity and hardens. Plain concrete is strong in compression but very weak
in tension. The tensile property is introduced in concrete by inducting different materials and
this attempt has given rise to RCC, RBC, PSC, FRC, cellular concrete and Ferro cement. In
this chapter proportioning, mixing, curing, properties, tests and uses of plain concrete is dealt
in detail. The other improved versions of concrete are explained and their special properties
and uses are pointed out.

PLAIN CONCRETE
Major ingredients of concrete are:
1. Binding material (like cement, lime, polymer)
2. Fine aggregate (sand)
3. Coarse aggregates (crushed stone, jelly)
4. Water.
A small quantity of admixtures like air entraining agents, water proofing agents, workability
agents etc. may also be added to impart special properties to the plain concrete mixture.
In proportioning of concrete it is kept in mind that voids in coarse aggregates are filled with
sand and the voids in sand are filled with cement paste. Proportion of ingredients usually
adopted for various works are shown in Table 3.1.
REINFORCED CEMENT CONCRETE (R.C.C.)
Concrete is good in resisting compression but is very weak in resisting tension. Hence
reinforcement is provided in the concrete wherever tensile stress is expected. The best
reinforcement is steel, since tensile strength of steel is quite high and the bond between steel
and concrete is good. As the elastic modulus of steel is high, for the same extension the force
resisted by steel is high compared to concrete. However in tensile zone, hair cracks in
concrete are unavoidable. Reinforcements are usually in the form of mild steel or ribbed steel
bars of 6 mm to 32 mm diameter. A cage of reinforcements is prepared as per the design
requirements, kept in a form work and then green concrete is poured. After the concrete
hardens, the form work is removed. The composite material of steel and concrete now called
R.C.C. acts as a structural member and can resist tensile as well as compressive stresses very
well.

PRESTRESSED CONCRETE (PSC)

Strength of concrete in tension is very low and hence it is ignored in R.C.C. design. Concrete
in tension is acting as a cover to steel and helping to keep steel at desired distance. Thus in
R.C.C. lot of concrete is not properly utilized. Prestressing the concrete is one of the method
of utilizing entire concrete. The principle of prestressed concrete is to introduce calculated
compressive stresses in the zones wherever tensile stresses are expected in the concrete
structural elements. When such structural element is used stresses developed due to loading
has to first nullify these compressive stresses before introducing tensile stress in concrete.
Thus in prestressed concrete entire concrete is utilized to resist the load. Another important
advantage of PSC is hair cracks are avoided in the concrete and hence durability is high. The
fatigue strength of PSC is also more. The deflections of PSC beam is much less and hence
can be used for longer spans also.
PSC is commonly used in the construction of bridges, large column free slabs and roofs. PSC
sleepers and electric piles are commonly used. The material used in PSC is high tensile steel
and high strength steel. The tensioning of wires may be by pretensioning or by post
tensioning. Pretensioning consists in stretching the wires before concreting and then
releasing the wires. In case of post tensioning, the ducts are made in concrete elements. After
concrete of hardens, prestressing wires are passed through ducts. After stretching wires, they
are anchored to concrete elements by special anchors.

FIBRE-REINFORCED CONCRETE (FRC)

Plain concrete possesses deficiencies like low tensile strength, limited ductility and low
resistance to cracking. The cracks develop even before loading. After loading micro cracks
widen and propagate, exposing concrete to atmospheric actions. If closely spaced and
uniformly dispersed fibers are provided while mixing concrete, cracks are arrested and static
and dynamic properties are improved. Fiber reinforced concrete can be defined as a
composite material of concrete or mortar with discontinuous and uniformly distributed
fibers. Commonly used fibers are of steel, nylon, asbestos, coir, glass, carbon and
polypropylene. The length to lateral dimension of fibers range from 30 to 150. The diameters
of fibres vary from 0.25 to 0.75 mm.
Fiber reinforced concrete is having better tensile strength, ductility and resistance to
cracking.

CELLULAR CONCRETE
It is a light weight concrete produced by introducing large voids in the concrete or mortar. Its
density varies from 3 kN/m3 to 8 kN/m3 whereas plain concrete density is 24 kN/m 3. It is
also known as aerated, foamed or gas concrete.
Properties of cellular concrete: It has the following properties:
1. It has low weight.
2. It has good fire resistance.
3. It has good thermal insulation property.
4. Thermal expansion is negligible.
5. Freezing and thawing problems are absent.
6. Sound absorption is good.
7. It has less tendency to spall.
Uses of Cellular Concrete
1. It is used for the construction of partition walls.
2. It is used for partitions for heat insulation purposes.
3. It is used for the construction of hollow filled floors.

FERRO-CEMENT
The term Ferro-cement implies the combination of ferrous product with cement. Generally
this combination is in the form of steel wires meshes embedded in a Portland cement mortar.
Wire mesh is usually of 0.8 to 1.00 m diameter steel wires at 5 mm to 50 mm spacing and the
cement mortar is of cement sand ratio of 1:2 or 1:3. 6 mm diameter bars are also used at
large spacing, preferably in the corners. Sand may be replaced by baby jelly. The water
cement ratio used is between 0.4 to 0.45.