Building Stones

Building Construction Material

 Definition
• Stones are naturally occurring compact,
solid and massive material .

• Technically, the stones are called as rocks.

• It follows that all building stones are rocks

in nature, all rocks may not be useful as
building stones.
Building Stones
 Introduction
• Stones have been used in all type of
construction since immemorial. The pyramids of
Egypt, The Eiffel tower, the Taj Mahal, the red
fort, the great wall of china and hundreds of
historical buildings in each big country are made of
stones. The greatest thing about stone is that they
are natural and do not require to be
manufactured.
• Stone, timber and clay had been the most
commonly construction used material right from
the beginning of the civilization till the advent of
Portland cement .
Historical Buildings
 Important uses of stones in civil
engineering works
 Construction of residential and public buildings

 Construction of dams, weirs and harbours

 Used for roads

 Used as railway ballast

 Used as aggregate for concrete

 Used for decoration of front and interior of buildings

 Classification of Rocks

Geological Chemical Physical/Structural

Igneous Siliceous Stratified

Sedimentary Argillaceous Unstratified

Metamorphic Calcareous
 Classification of Rocks
A) Geological Classification:
• This classification is based on mode of
formation of the rock from which building
stones are obtained. Three main group
recognized are:
• I) Igneous Rocks
• II) Sedimentary Rocks
• III) Metamorphic Rocks
 Classification of Rocks
Igneous Rocks ( ignis = fire)

• All those rocks of the earth that have been

formed by the natural process of cooling from
originally hot and molten magma or lava are
grouped as Igneous Rocks. They are the most
abundant rocks in the crust when considered
depth wise.
Igneous Rocks
 Sedimentary Rocks
• Sedimentary Rocks (sediment=particle)
They are the most widespread rocks
found covering a great part of the surface of
earth. The Sedimentary rock are formed
from any type of preexisting rocks by a
simple process of breakdown into smaller
particles under the influence of natural
agencies like wind, water and ice and
atmospheric gases.
Sedimentary Rocks
Sedimentary Rocks
 Metamorphic Rocks
• (meta= Change; morph= form) These are
originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.
The process for their change under the
influence of increased temperature, pressure,
and chemical environment is called
metamorphism. When an existing rock gets
subjected to increased temperature or changed
stresses and chemically active fluids it undergoes
a slow but definite change in its original structure
and chemical composition. The new rock so
formed is called metamorphic rock.
Metamorphic Rocks
Metamorphic Rocks
 Chemical Classification
On the basis of dominant chemical composition, following
three main groups of rocks are commonly recognized:

I) Siliceous Rocks
• These rocks have SILICA (SiO2) as the predominant component,
that is more than 50% of the bulk composition of the rock.

• Naturally they are classed among the strongest type of

building stones. Some other rocks like granites and sandstones
are also made up of Silica in combined form.
Siliceous Rocks
 Chemical Classification
2) Calcareous Rocks.
• In these rocks, the dominant component is a
carbonate ,generally of calcium but often
with magnesium. Most commonly they
belong to sedimentary and metamorphic group
of rocks. Limestone, dolomite and marbles
are entirely carbonate rocks and all form
good building stone.
Calcareous Rocks.
 Chemical Classification
3) Argillaceous Rocks.
• They are mostly sedimentary rocks having
clay (hydrous alumino silicates of K, Na, Ca,
Mg. etc.) as a dominant constituent. They are
invariably soft and untrustworthy as building
stone and untrustworthy as building stones.
Shales, Slates, and Schists are examples.
Argillaceous Rocks.
 Structural Classification
1) The Massive or Unstratified Rocks.
• These rocks occur in huge masses without
showing any layered structure in them.
Igneous and many metamorphic rocks and
some sedimentary rocks may be seen
occurring as big masses. Granite and
Quartzite often occur in massive form.
The Massive or Unstratified Rocks
 Structural Classification
2) Stratified Rocks.
• Most sedimentary rocks occur in distinct
layers of same and different color and
composition. Their different layers are also
called beds and are separated by planes of
weaknesses called bedding planes
The Stratified Rocks.
Characteristics of Good Building Stones

i. Appearance and Colour

Stones should have aesthetic appearance and
uniform colour.

ii. Strength
A good building stone should have sufficient
strength to withstand loads and stresses that
building may face.
iii. Durability
A good building stone should be durable and
able to decay and chemical actions.

iv. Density
Higher density stones tend to be stronger and
more durable.

v. Workability
Stones should be easy to cut and shape for
construction purposes.
vi. Porosity
Stones with low porosity are less prone to
damage from moisture.

vii. Water Absorption

A good building stone should absorb less than
5% of water as compared to its weight.
 Quarrying of Stones
• It is known that stones occur in nature in
the form of natural rock masses.
These have to be broken and extracted
from those natural outcrops for using in
the construction. The process of extraction
of suitable stones from their natural
place of occurrence for use in construction
is called quarrying.
Quarrying of Stones
 Quarrying of Stones

• The place from which the stone is obtained

is known as Quarry.
Quarrying of Stones
 Selection of Quarrying Site
• Engineers and Contractors have to keep in mind
following factors while deciding about the
location of quarry site

(i) Availability of Sound Rock.

• A quarry can be opened up where a sound rock

that can yield good quality of building stones
existing in sufficiently larger area. These is
essential because quarrying operation require
quite heavy initial investment in men and
machinery and these have to be economically
viable.
Availability of Sound Rock
 Selection of Quarrying Site
(ii) Distance from Area of Construction:
• The quarrying site must necessarily be close to
a main road so that stones extracted from it
can be transported to any outside place at
economic rate.
 Selection of Quarrying Site
(iii) Availability of Water
• In quarrying operations, large number
of equipments, men and machines are often
required. Sufficient safe distance from
quarrying must be available. Often lot of
water is also required for the workers and
even during cutting operations when
machines are to be used. This must be
available locally.
 Selection of Quarrying Site

(iv) Storage/Dumping Space

• Dumping space is required for storing the
broken stone and also for dumping
useless rock fragments obtained during
quarrying
Availability of Water and dumping space
 Selection of Quarrying Site
(v) Water drainage system
• Further, adequate drainage outlet for
removing any underground or surface waters
immediately after rain must be provided at the quarry.
 Methods of Quarrying
1. Manual Quarrying
• In this skilledpersons remove
methods,
blocks of rocks from the places
occurrence. They may use ofhand tools or even
light channeling machines called channellizers.
No explosive material is used for breaking
the stones.
Manual Quarrying
 Methods of Quarrying
2. Quarrying by Blasting

This method involves use of explosives

for breaking stones from very hard rock
like quartzite and sandstones, basalts,
traps, and non-ornamental granites.
It has been observed that quarrying of these
types of hard rock becomes very laborious
and costly by other methods.
• The basic principle employed in this method
is to explode a small quantity of an
explosive at a calculated depth within the
body of the rock.

• The force generated due to explosion is

sufficient to only create cracks and loosen
rock block of good size.
Quarrying by Blasting
 Dressing of Stones
• By dressing of stones is meant the process of
giving a proper size, shape and finish to the
roughly broken stone as obtained from
quarry. This done either manually
is
mechanically or in orsome case using both the
methods.
Dressing of Stones
 Dressing of Stones
• Stones as obtained from quarries are very
rough and irregular in shape. Besides,
they may be too bulky to be used in
construction, Hence various objectives of
dressing are:

i. To reduce the size of blocks to easily

portable units.
This is often done at the quarry itself because
transport of big rock may be costly.
ii. To give a proper shape to the stone
We can use stones in foundation as blocks,
in walls as small units, in floor as slabs
and in column as rounded or square pillars.
Each situation requires a proper shape that
has to be given under the process of dressing.

iii. To obtain an appealing finish

Stones always come in rough and rugged
forms. For use in building construction in
walls and exteriors, they have to be given an
aesthetic appealing finish.
Dressing of Stones
Dressing of Stones
Dressing of Stones
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