CE 426 Structural Design of Buildings

Guiding Principles for Positioning of Beams

(1) Beam shall normally be provided under the walls or below a heavy concentrated load to
avoid these loads directly coming on slabs.
o The maximum practical thickness of slab for residential/office/public buildings is
200mm while the minimum is 100mm.

(2) Avoid larger spans of beams.

o Spacing of columns decides the span of the beam.
o As the span (and the length) of the beam increases, the required depth of the beam,
and hence its selfweight, and the total load on beam increases, thus, large spans of
beams should preferably be avoided for economy reasons.
o In the case of a column, the increase in total load (hence the increase in size) due to
the increase in length is negligible as long as the column is short, therefore, the cost
of the beam per unit length increases rapidly with the span as compared to that of
the column.
CE 426 Structural Design of Buildings
Layout of Stairs
Guidelines for fixing the dimensions of the parts of stairs are the following:

1) The rise should not be more than 200mm and the thread should not be less
than 200mm.
For residential buildings, the riser may be between 150-180mm and the thread
maybe between 220-250mm.
For public buildings, the riser may be kept between 120-150mm and the thread
maybe between 250-300mm.
2) The sum of the thread plus twice the rise (T + 2R) should be between 500-650mm.
3) The width of the stairs is dependent on its usage and shall be such as to avoid
overcrowding.
For residential buildings, the width of the stairs should be between 0.8-1m.
For public buildings, it should be between 1.8-2m.
CE 426 Structural Design of Buildings
Layout of Stairs (Cont.)
4) The width of the landing should not be less than the width of the stairs.

5) For comfortable ascend on the stairs, the number of steps in each flight should not be
greater than 12.
6) The pitch of the stairway should not be greater than 38o.
7) The headroom measured vertically above any step or below mid-landing shall not be
less than 2.1m.
8) Avoid winders as far as possible.
CE 426 Structural Design of Buildings
Choice of Footing Type
o The type of footing depends upon the load carried by the column and bearing
capacity of the supporting soil.

o It is necessary to conduct soil test in the area where the proposed structure is to be
constructed to determine the soil properties and the bearing capacity of the soil.
o For framed structures, isolated column footings are normally preferred except in
cases where the soil is with very low bearing capacities.
o For columns closely spaced and bearing capacity is low, raft foundation can be an
alternative solution.
o For columns on the boundary line, a combined footing or a strap footing may be
provided.
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Computation of Loads/Loadings

Structural Design of Buildings

CE 426