Different Types of Building Materials

What are Building Materials? 

Building materials are materials that are used in the construction of buildings, houses and other structures. This includes traditional materials such as wood and newer materials that are designed to meet a variety of modern construction requirements. The following are common types of building material.

Different Types of Building Materials

The following are the most common building materials types used in construction,

• 1. Mud and Clay
  Mud is defined as the mixture of soil, loam, silt, or clay with water. It generally naturally forms after the rainfall near the river or water sources. After some time the mud hardens and makes a mudstone.

• 
  As a building material mud is a semi-fluid material that can be used to coat, seal, and adhere materials. Mud is referred to by many different names for its different components like slurry, mortar, plaster, stucco, and concrete.

• 
  

• Generally, a mixture of subsoil and water with the addition of stone, gravel, straw, lime, and bitumen is usually used to build walls, floors, and even roofs.

• 
  In the past, mud was usually used to plaster the building wall, construct building walls, and used to make mud bricks.

• 
  

• 
  A mud mixture with some binder like bitumen or cement is called stabilized mud. It is also known as the mud create, concrete, and soil cement. 

• 

• Applications

• Mud bricks

• Mud plaster

• Mud mortar

• Mud concrete

• 
  

• 2. Clay Bricks and Blocks Types of Building Materials

• 
  The mud bricks are known as Clay bricks. It is also called adobe.

• 

• 
  

• Clay Bricks

• The mud or clay is a mixture of water placed into the molds and then allowed dry in the open air. As a binder straw is sometimes within the bricks, it makes them a composite, if the straw does not use the bricks is easy to break, due to the straw the bricks have redistributed the force throughout the bricks and reduced the chances of breakage.

• 
  The building that used this type of brick is generally protected from groundwater.

• 
  

• Applications

• Mud or clay bricks are commonly used to build homes or other necessary structures.

• 3. Sand

• 
  

• Sand is a generally granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles. It is also defined based on its size, being finer than gravel and coarser than silt. It is one of the essential types of building materials.

• 

• Sand is a NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCE, usually, and is used to make concrete in demand nowadays.
  Sources

• River sand

• Desert sand

• Beach sand

• Marine or ocean sand

• Applications

• Bricks

• Concrete

• Mortar

• Paint

• To protect against floods sandbags are used.

• It is also used as an abrasive in cleaning, preparing, and polishing.

• 4. Aggregates
  Aggregate is the main component of composite materials such as concrete and asphalt concrete. It gives strength to the overall composite material.

• 
  

• Aggregates are the most commonly used material in construction. Also, aggregates are the most mining material in the world.
  The aggregates have a high hydraulic conductivity value compared to the soil. So it is widely used in drainage applications such as foundations, septic drain fields, retaining wall drains, and roadside drainage.

• 
  The aggregates are commonly used for a stable foundation or a road/rail base because they have uniform properties or a low-cost extender that binds with more expensive cement or asphalt to form concrete.

• 
  Generally, aggregates are classified into 2 types:-
  Coarse aggregates:- >4.75 mm
  Fine aggregates:- <4.75 mm

• 
  Sources

• Stone Quarry

• Application

• Concrete:-

Asphalt concrete

Cement Concrete

Road and Rail base foundation

Retaining wall drainage

Roadside drainage

5. Stone or Rock
Rock is a naturally available material. It is used in construction at different places. The stone or rock which has been used in construction is hard, durable, tough, and free from the weathered soft patches of materials, cracks, and other defects which reduce the strength and durability of a rock.

6. Wood and Timber

• Timber is the one type of wood that is been used for construction or carpentry purpose.

• Timber is a material which is been used for the thousand of the year.

• Wood has unique characteristics in that it builds a variety of structures.

• Wood is a naturally available material.

• Wood is a good isolation material.

• Wood is fabricated in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

• 30% of the total construction work timber is used.

• Timber provided good strength, toughness, durability

Application of Timber

• Formwork

• Door/windows frame and shutters

• Cabinets

• Cupboard

• Tables and railings

• Furniture of house

• On-wall as isolation material

• Flooring

7. Fired Brick and Clay Blocks

• Generally, Fired bricks are made from fire clay and are used for high-temperature construction like kilns, and lining furnaces.

• Fired bricks are manufactured similarly to normal bricks but in a burning process fired bricks are exposed to very high temperatures.

• Fired bricks weigh about 30 to 35 N.

• The compressive strength of 200 to 220 kg/cm2.

• Water absorption varies from 5 to 10%

• Fires bricks have good chemical resistance properties

8. Cement
Cement is a fine powder material, which has been used as a binder for the substance and set and hardens or binds the other and adheres to other materials together. It is old and extensively used and the oldest type of building material.
Generally, cement is used to bind sand and aggregates together.
In construction, cement is used for many purposes:-

• Cement + sand = Mortar (used for the plastering or brickwork)

• Cement + sand + aggregates = Concrete (used for slab, columns, footing, beam)

• Cement slurry (for tile works)

• Cement paste (for repairing purposes)

Good cement has the following physical properties

• Fineness

• Soundness

• Consistency

• Strength

• Setting time

• Heat of hydration

• Loss of ignition

• Bulk density

• Specific gravity

Cement is in form of powder when it is mixed with water it is set to a hard mass. The setting and the hardening result are based on hydration, which is a chemical combination of cement and water.

There are many types of cement are available in the market. All cement has its own properties and own uses. Generally for building construction, Portland cement is used.

Following are the types of the cement

Repair hardening cement

• Low heat cement

• Sulfate resisting cement

• High alumina cement

• Blast furnace slag cement

• Colored cement

• Pozzolana cement

• Air entraining cement

• Expansive cement

• White cement

Application:-

• Cement concrete for the footing, beams, columns, slab, lintels, etc.

• Cement mortar for brickwork and plastering.

• Cement is used for making joints of drains and pipes.

• For watertight structures

• Cement is used for precast structures like pipes, and piles.

• Cement is used for important structures like bridges, pipe culverts, dams, and tunnels.

• Cement is used for RCC roads.

Read More: Which Is Best Cement For House Construction.

• Mainly are 3 types of fired bricks:-

• Acidic fire bricks

• Basic fire bricks

• Neutral fire bricks

• Applications

• The inner surface of kilns, furnaces, and chimneys.

• Fire resistance structure

• The lining of wood-fired ovens.

• Construction of earthquake-proof buildings