Building Materials II (AR 503)

Course Objectives:

 To provide knowledge of different building materials, develop

understanding of properties, quality and uses of materials and
their testing methods to determine their qualities
Building Materials II (AR 503)
 Chapter 1: Timber and Wood
 Chapter 2: Metals
 Chapter 3: Paints and Varnishes
 Chapter 4: Insulators
 Chapter 5: Miscellaneous Materials
 Chapter 6: Plasters
 Chapter 7: Wall and Floor Finishing
 Chapter 8: Trend & Creativeness in Finishing Materials
Timber and Wood: General Introduction
 Wood is a naturally occurring material obtained from trees – Oxford
Dictionary
 Wood is a hard and fibrous substance which forms a significant part of
the trunk and branches of a tree – Pocket Oxf.Dict.

 Timber is a wood, which is prepared for building and carpentry use.

 Derived from an old English word ‘Timbrian’ which means ‘to build’.

 A tree that yields good wood for construction is called ‘Standing

Timber.’
 Timber denotes structural wood
Timber and Wood: General Introduction

 When tree has been cut and its Planks

stem and branches are roughly
converted into pieces of
suitable lengths, it is known as
Rough Timber
Battens
 When roughly converted timber
is further sawn and converted
into commercial size the Rough Timber
Planks, Logs, Battens, Posts,
Beams, etc. it is called
Logs
Converted Timber

Posts
Timber and Wood: Difference
 Wood indicates all types of wood which may be
burning wood, structural wood, furniture wood
etc.

 Wood suitable for use as a structural material is

called timber
Timber: Advantages
 Timber can be easily shaped and modified.
 Remaining waste can be recycled.
 Timber generates very few pollutants compared to other building products.
 Timber can be easily connected using nails, screws, dowels, bolts and connectors.

 Also, under controlled conditions of temperature and humidity, adhesives may be used to
connect the timber element.
 Timber is light in weight and easy to handle in manufacture, transport and construction.

 Being light in wt, it is preferred for building works in earthquake prone regions
 Excellent material for decorative and general use furniture
 It can withstand shocks better than iron and concrete

 Good insulator of electricity and heat

 Good sound absorbing material
 Can be easily strengthened by attaching steel or other material with it
Timber: Use
 For heavy construction works like columns, trusses, piles.
 For light construction works like doors, windows, flooring
and roofing.

 For other permanent works like for railway sleepers, fencing

poles, electric poles and gates.
 For temporary works in construction like scaffolding,
centering, shoring and strutting, packing of materials.

 For decorative works like showcases and furnitures.

 For body works of buses, lorries, trains and boats

 For industrial uses like pulps (used in making papers), card

boards, wall papers
 For making sports goods and musical instruments.
Timber: Classification of Trees
Various bases are considered for the classification of timbers. The
following are the important basis:

(i) Mode of growth

(ii) Modulus of elasticity
(iii) Durability
(iv) Grading
(v) Availability.
Timber: Classification of Trees
Classification Based on Mode of Growth:
(a) Exogeneous and
(b) Endogeneous

Exogeneous Trees:
 These trees grow outward by adding distinct consecutive ring every
year.
 These rings are known as annual rings. Hence it is possible to find the
age of timber by counting these annual rings.
 Structural timber or timber mostly used for engineering purposes is
obtained from this category of trees

These trees may be further divided into:

(1) Coniferous or evergreen trees and

(2) Deciduous trees
Timber: Classification of Trees: Exogeneous
Coniferous trees:

 Coniferous trees are having

cone shaped (pointed needle)
leaves and fruits.
 Generally evergreen
 The leaves do not fall till new
ones are grown. They yield soft
wood.
 The timber of these trees is
light colored, light in weight,
low dense and poor against fire.
 Ex: Deodar, kail, chir, fir pine,
spruce, cedar, redwood and
cypress trees
Timber: Classification of Trees: Exogeneous
Deciduous trees:

 Deciduous trees are hard wood

producing trees.
 The leaves of this type of trees are
generally broad in size and they fall
in autumn and grow in spring.
 Most suitable for constructional
purposes.
 Timber of deciduous trees is dark
colored, dense, heaviest and good
against fire.
 Examples: Shisham, Maple,
Mahogany, Oak, teak, walnut, Ash,
Beach, babul etc.
Timber: Classification of Trees: Soft Wood & Hard Wood
Soft Wood
1 Obtained from ever-green group of trees
2 Cellular structure is simple Annual rings
are seen distinctly
3 Colour of soft wood is light
4 Soft woods are light
5 Uniform texture and straight grains
6 Fire resistance of soft wood is poor
7 The structure of soft wood is resinous
8 Relatively cheap, easily workable, and
sufficiently strong
Hard Wood
Obtained from broad-leaved group of exogeneous
trees
Cellular structure is complex Annual rings are
indistinct
Colour of hard wood is dark
Hard woods are heavy.
No uniform texture
Fire resistance is good
Structure of hard wood is close grained.
Mainly used for decorative purposes like
veneering, paneling, furniture making etc.
Timber: Classification of Trees: Endogenous
 Endogenous trees are inward growing
trees which contains fibrous mass in
their longitudinal section.
 The timber from these trees is useful in
some limited engineering purposes.
 Examples: bamboo, palm, cane etc.
Timber: Growth of Tree
 The tree sucks its food from soil through its roots in
forms of sap
 Sap is then raised by cells and fed to the branches
and leaves

 Sap consists of moisture and minerals like

phosphates and nitrates
 The sap losses moisture through leaves and absorbs
carbon dioxide from air and gets denser

 The thickened sap descends in autumn and gets

deposited under the bark in form of a thin layer
known as cambium layer

 Cambium layer hardens with time and thus adds a

new annual ring to the section of the tree stem
Timber: Tree Structure
1. Pith
 It is the inner most part of the tree and hence the
oldest part of exogeneous tree
 It is sometimes known as heart also
 when the plant becomes old, the pith dies and
becomes fibrous and dark.
 The sap is then transmitted by wooden fibres
deposited round the pith
 It varies in size and shape.

2. Heart Wood
 This is the portion surrounding pith.
 It is dark in colour and strong.
 This portion is useful for various engineering
purpose.
 This is the dead part of wood.
 It consists of several annular rings.
Timber: Tree Structure
3. Sap Wood
 It is the layer next to heart wood.
 It denotes recent growth and contains sap.
 It takes active part in the growth of trees by
allowing sap to move in upward direction.
 The annual rings of sap wood are less sharply
divided and are light in colour.
 The sap wood is also known as alburnum.
4. Cambium Layer
 It is a thin layer of fresh sap lying between sap
wood and the inner bark.
 It contains sap which is not yet converted into sap
wood.
 If the bark is removed and cambium layer is
exposed to atmosphere, cells cease to be active and
tree dies.
Timber: Tree Structure
5. Inner Bark
 It is a inner skin of tree protecting the cambium
layer.
 It gives protection to cambium layer.

6. Outer Bark
 It is the outer skin of the tree and consists of
wood fibres.
 Sometimes it contains fissures and cracks.
 Also called cortex

7. Modullary Rays
 These are thin radial fibres extending from pith
to cambium layer.
 They hold annular rings together.
 In some of trees they are broken and some other
they may not be prominent.
Timber: Classification Cont..
Classification Based on Modulus of Elasticity:
 Young’s modulus is determined by conducting bending test. On this basis timber is
classified as:

Group A: E = 12.5 kN/mm2

Group B: E = 9.8 kN/mm2 to 12.5 kN/mm2
Group C: E = 5.6 kN/mm2 to 9.8 kN/mm2.

Classification Based on Durability:

 Durability tests are conducted by the forest research establishment.
 They bury test specimen of size 600 × 50 × 50 mm in the ground to half their length
and observe their conditions regularly over several years. Then timbers are classified
as:

High durability: If average life is more than 10 years.

Moderate durability: Average life between 5 to 10 years.
Low durability: Average life less than 5 years.
Timber: Classification Cont..
Classification Based on Grading:
IS 883-1970 classifies the structural timber into three grades-
select grade
grade I
grade II

 The classification is based on permissible stresses, defects etc.

Classification Based on Availability:

 Forest departments classify timbers based on the availability as

X—Most common. 1415 m3 or more per year

Y—Common. 355 m3 to 1415 m3 per year
Z—Less common. Less than 355 m3 per year
Timber: Felling of Tree
Cutting of trees to get timber from them, is called felling of trees.
Considerations while cutting the trees are:
 Season of felling the trees
 Should be cut only when sap is not active
 Least active of sap is generally mid-summer
 Depends upon the climatic conditions of the locality and the type of
tree
 Felling of tree is avoided in autumn and spring due to presence of
sap in vigorous motion
 Proper season for felling of tree:
 For hilly areas: mid-summer and for plain areas: mid winter

 Age of trees
 Should be felled only when it has just attained maturity
 Under aged trees would yield more of sap wood
 Over matured trees develop certain defects in heart wood and thus
quality of timber is affected
Timber: Felling of Tree
 Method of felling trees
 Should be done by an experienced person
only

 Before felling, the slope of the tree is

accessed and cut is given to the stem on the
side of the slope of the tree, as near to the
ground as possible

 Now, cut is made on the opposite side of the

slope and trees is felled

 If tree is to be felled against the direction of

the slope, ropes are tied to the tree and pulled
to the direction of felling by giving suitable
cut to the stem
Timber: Conversion of Timber
 Conversion of timber is the process of cutting of timber into
required sections.
 This can be done by using power machines.
 Felling of Tree’s stem >> major branches into logs of suitable
length
 Skilled persons should be required for economic conversion
of timber.
 It is done at the saw mills
 Wastage should be kept minimum
 Suitable allowance should be kept for squaring, planing and
shrinkage. It may be vary from 3-6mm
 To obtain strong timber pieces, the sawing should be done
practically tangential to annual rings and parallel to the
modularly rays
 Wooden beams should not contain pith in their cross-section.
To achieve this, the timber is first sawn through pith into two
halves.
Timber: Conversion of Timber
 The conversion can be done by four types as follows:
 Ordinary sawing
 Tangential sawing
 Quarter awing
 Radial sawing
Timber: Conversion of Timber
Ordinary sawing
 It is the most used and easy method of sawing.
 The cutting is done through the section of timber
piece at perpendicular to the annual rings.
 Also known as flat, slab, or bastered sawing
 Wastage of timber is minimum in this case.
 The obtained planks are not of equal strength.
 The outer planks contain sap wood and shrinks
more while the inner portion planks contain
heart wood which shrinks less.
 This makes wooden planks thin at the edges and
thick in the middle
Timber: Conversion of Timber
Quarter sawing
 In quarter sawing, the cuts are made right angles
to each other.
 This is suitable when the timber have no distinct
medullary rays.
 Least wastage
Timber: Conversion of Timber
Tangential sawing
 In this type of sawing the
cuts are tangential to annual
rings and they meet each
other at right angles.

 This method is suitable

when the annual rings are
very distinct with each other.

 Due to the cutting of the

modullary rays, the timber
cut sections become weaker
Timber: Conversion of Timber
Radial sawing
 In this type of sawing, the
cuts are made parallel to the
medullary rays radially.
 In this method wastage of
timber is maximum.

 Shrink at a uniform rate and

hence warping tendency is
less

 Used for conversion of hard

timber

 This method is quite

difficult to adopt
 Have a good day.