Curtain Walling is a method of cladding a building using prefabricated materials that are brought to site and simply hung off the main structure. Often these skins are either profile steel sheeting, such as is seen on light industrial buildings, or glazed panels, such as on tall office buildings.
The process is very simple to do, [...]
When using cement mortar on a waterproof brick cladding, the main types of pointing used are…
Concave (also known as ‘bucket handle’
V-shaped – a more sophisticated method which is not commonly used due to a higher degree of difficultly and increased time needed.
Neat Struck Weathered joint – used to prevent water penetration as water gets to [...]
Brick walls, bonded together using mortar, come in a wide range of different styles and formats.
An all stretcher wall is very common and is made up of entirely stretcher face bricks facing outwards. Occasionally headers may be seen where adjoining walls enter at right angles and the headers bond the walls together.
Usually stretcher walls are [...]
Anywhere with a damp climate suffers problems from water penetration into buildings. Here are some of the ways water enters buildings….
Capillary Action: when water runs down the face of a building, if there are mortar (or bed) joints such as in brickwork, water is absorbed like a sponge. Eventually it will get to a point [...]
Advantages
Good compressive strength
Familiar material to workforce
Ethnic – of the locality
Disadvantages
Poor tensile strength
Some stones decay
Need for skilled workforce
Maintenance cost – discolouration/cleaning
Sedimentary stone is not formed under pressure but in layers and can split off if vertically loaded. This can, however, be useful – eg slate
Some stone, such as marble, is too expensive for construction although may [...]
