5 Green Building Tech That’s Available Now

As industry keeps on extending and the world’s gracefully of non-renewable assets gradually becomes more extraordinary and more costly, green construction becomes in excess of an environmentally friendly alternative: It becomes a vital advance by the way we carry on with our lives. Fortunately, clean energy technology is further developed than at any other time, and can be as useful for your wallet all things considered for the Earth. Green technology, as solar power, may look expensive into front contrasted with customary assets, yet over a lifetime of utilization, you’ll wind up saving money on energy costs.

However, what precisely is green construction technology? It’s a wide class, covering everything from energy-effective apparatuses to geothermal heating. The specialists in this rundown find some kind of harmony between eco-friendly structure materials everybody can utilize when fabricating another home and further developed green advances that acquire cool progressions science to the construction business. Think bio-degradable paint and glass that colors on order. These might be the materials and advancements everybody utilizes later on. However, indeed, they’re accessible at this moment.

Cool Roofs

Cool roofs are uncommonly intended to offer expanded solar reflectance and diminished warm emittance. As it were, they reflect a greater amount of the sun’s beams than your normal shingle roof, and forestall the warm or cool air inside from getting away through the head of a structure. Under the extreme warmth of the mid-year sun, dim shingle roofs can arrive at temperatures of 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65.5 degrees Celsius). The reflectance of a cool roof can chop that somewhere near in excess of 50 degrees.

Published By
Arka Roy
www.constructioncost.co

How to build Reinforced Retaining Wall using Geogrids

Today, there are many modern technologies used for advanced construction. In ground construction, the use of geogrids is getting more and more common. Today, we will talk about construction a retaining wall using geogrid.

What is geogrid

Geogrid is one type of geosynthetic material used for reinforcing soil and similar material. It is a basically a flexible wiry mesh made out of synthetic materials. A properly made geogrid is very well capable of soil retention and slope stabilization.

Geogrids are available in many shapes and sizes, and they can be made from a variety of materials as well. However, as the strength and other capabilities vary a lot depending upon those factors directly, it is mandatory to check your needs and test out the geogrid before you utilize it in your construction.

Why are geogrids needed

Compared to soils, geogrids are much stronger in tension. And that is the very reason why they are used in reinforcing retaining walls, sub bases or sub soils below ground construction such as highways or large structure footings. This allows the force coming from above to spread over a much wider area, and to hold the soil together as the downward force tried to expand the soil sideways.

A retaining wall cannot get very tall, but sometimes you need the height to get the job done. In fact, no retaining wall can be any taller than 4 feet. If you try to go above that, you will need to use a geogrid to reinforce the retaining wall. With proper design and good quality geogrid, you can build retaining walls as high as 30 to 40 feet!

To be clear, when the weight of the retaining wall alone isn’t good enough to hold the soil loads in, you need the help of a geogrid to reinforce the retaining wall. This will provide the additional soil reinforcement necessary to stabilize the wall. Not only that, the geogrid reinforcement will make sure your retaining wall is long-lasting as well as functional and attractive.

Published By
Arka Roy
www.constructioncost.co

How to Use Pile Load Test Data to Design Pile Foundations

An expensive but very dependable option to find out the load capacity of a pile is the Pile Load Test. It is not the cheapest option, yes, but if your pocket has that kind of load bearing capacity, we say you go for it ? because you can’t find a better solution to the issue of finding how much your pile can take.

This sort of load testing is performed on-site, live, on test piles you’ve built there. The design capacity of the pile is clearly indicated by this test. The test itself is straightforward ? put enough weight on the pile and see how much it flattens. Keep applying more load on the test pile incrementally and measure its settlement, seems simple enough.

You can jack up dead loads on the pile, or use beams to uplift anchor piles to supply reaction for the jack. You can either use the Constant Rate of Penetration (CRP) or Maintained Load (ML) test to gauge the settlement data.

When would you know that the pile has had enough and the load can’t be considered safe anymore for that pile? Well, the engineering community is still divided about it. Terzaghi (1942) said if the pile settles by 10% of its own diameter, the load causing that is the failure load. However, the German DIN 4026 says when the pile has undergone irreversible settlement of at least 2.5% of its own dia, then that’s the max load for that pile.

CP 2004 provides a very confusing but probably the most scientifically perfect definition of a failure load. It focuses more on the rate of settlement rather than the amount of it. According to CP 2004, the load which causes the rate of settlement continue undiminished without further increase increment of load (unless this rate is so slow as to indicate that this settlement may be due to consolidation of the soil) is the failure load. Needless to say, it’s a tiny bit difficult to conceive of, let alone apply in the field. Most people just go by the old standard.

Published By
Arka Roy
www.constructioncost.co

What is Mat Foundation and its Types

One of the most common types of shallow foundations is a mat foundation. Also called a raft foundation, a mat foundation or mat footing is used underneath buildings, bridges, towers etc. Essentially a large, thick slab under the columns, mat foundations are popular where the soil is weak. Today, we will talk about what is mat foundation and its types.

What is a Mat Foundation

When the ground is rather soft, or the soil has tendency of settling, the area of the footing needs to be increased so as to distribute the load evenly on a larger portion of the ground. Or, there may be an abnormal amount of heavy axial loads in the structure. While we can enlarge the area per-footing, it isn’t safe – one of the footing may settle causing strain in the whole structure. Also, at one point they will start to overlap.

In these types of cases, a mat foundation or a raft foundation is used. A mat foundation is a wide, large slab placed underneath all the columns of the building, effectively taking all the load of the building, and is at lease as large as the building’s full footprint.

The mat foundation is not always just a large flat slab – there are variations in the design.

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Arka Roy
www.constructioncost.co

Green Building and its Advantages

A ‘green’ building is a building that, in its design, construction or operation, reduces or eliminates negative impacts, and can create positive impacts, on our climate and natural environment. Green buildings preserve precious natural resources and improve our quality of life.

In this article we are going to discuss about the concept, key features and the advantages and cost incurred in making of Green Building.

Concept of Green Buidling

Green buildings are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and natural environment by:

a. Efficiently using energy, water and other resources.
b. Protecting occupant’s health and improving employee productivity.
c. Reducing waste, pollution and environment degradation.

The green building concept is gaining importance in various countries. These are buildings that ensure that waste is minimized at every stage during the construction and operation of the building, resulting in low costs according to the experts in the technology.

Key Features of Green Building

The key features of Green Building are mentioned below:

1. Minimal disturbance to landscapes and site condition
2. Use of non-toxic and recycled / recyclable material
3. Efficient use of water and water recycling
4. Use of energy efficient and eco-friendly equipment’s
5. Use of renewable energy
6. Quality of indoor air quality for human safety and comfort
7. Effective controls and building management systems.

Published By
Arka Roy
www.constructioncost.co

Bricks by Materials – What You Should Know

Brick is one of the most established of all structure materials. It is additionally apparently the most tough, since there are brick dividers, establishments, columns, and street surfaces built thousands of years back that are as yet unblemished. Today, bricks are regularly utilized for divider development, particularly as a fancy external divider surface.

Authoritatively, the term brick is utilized to signify a structure unit made of formed clay, yet in current occasions it is utilized to allude to any stone or clay based structure unit that is gotten together with cementitious mortar when utilized in development. Regularly, bricks are around 4 inches wide, 8 inches in length, with an assortment of thicknesses. Bigger stone or clay based structure units of the sort utilized in establishments are normally called blocks.

In present day development rehearses, basic bricks are arranged by their part materials and technique for produce. Under this order, there are five different types of bricks based on material:

  1. Burnt clay bricks
  2. Sand lime bricks
  3. Concrete bricks
  4. Fly ash bricks
  5. Firebrick
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Arka Roy
www.constructioncost.co

Designing and detailing of Reinforced Concrete Structures

What is Reinforced Concrete

Reinforced concrete (RC) is a versatile composite and one of the most widely used materials in modern construction. Concrete is a relatively brittle material that is strong under compression but less so in tension. Plain, unreinforced concrete is unsuitable for many structures as it is relatively poor at withstanding stresses induced by vibrations, wind loading, and so on.

Benefits in detailing in Concrete Structures

Detailing involves the communication of the engineer’s design to the contractors who build the structure. Good detailing ensures that reinforcement and concrete interact efficiently to provide satisfactory behaviour throughout complete range of loading.

There are many benefits if we apply good detailing to reinforced Concrete structures, some of them are mentioned below:

1. Detailing is very important not only for the proper execution of the structures but for the safety of the structures.
2. A design engineer’s responsibility should include assuring the structural safety of the design, details, checking shop drawing.
3. Detailing is necessary not only for the steel structures as well as reinforced concrete structures as it is the translation of all the mathematical expression’s and equation’s results.

Methods used in Designing Reinforced Concrete Structures

Design of reinforced concrete structures started in the beginning of last century following purely empirical approach. Thereafter came the so called rigorous elastic theory where the levels of stresses in concrete and steel are limited so that stress-deformations are taken to be linear. However, the limit state method, though semi-empirical approach, has been found to be the best for the design of reinforced concrete structures.

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Arka Roy
www.constructioncost.co

Things to Remember When Building Roads in Hilly Regions

A hill road might be characterized as the one which goes through a territory with a cross incline of 25% or more. There might be areas along hill roads with the cross incline under 25%, particularly when the road follows a stream course. And, after its all said and done these areas are likewise alluded to as hill roads. Subsequently, to build up a hill road in general territory must be considered.

The hilly locales by and large have boundaries of climatic conditions, troublesome and perilous territories, geology and huge high height zones. The area is scantily populated and fundamental infrastructural offices accessible in plain territory are missing. Thus, a solid steady and doable road must be available in hilly territories for generally improvement of different parts too.

Plan and Construction Problems

Plan and Construction of roads in hills and mountain are more mind boggling than in plain territory. It is because of a few variables related in the district. They are:

  • A hilly or precipitous region is described by profoundly broken alleviation with boundlessly varying rises and steep inclines, profound chasms and so forth which may pointlessly expand road length.
  • The topographical condition changes all around.
  • Hill inclines stable before development may not be as steady because of expanded human exercises.
  • There might be variety in hydro-topographical conditions which may handily be neglected during plan and development
  • Because of profoundly broken alleviation development of exceptional structures ought to be done at better places. This builds the expense of the development.
  • Variety in the climatic condition, for example, the adjustment in temperature because of elevation distinction, pressure variety, precipitation increments at more prominent tallness and so forth.
  • Rapid overflow happens because of the presence of high cross inclines.
  • Filling may over-burden the frail soil underneath which may trigger new slides.
  • The need of plan of fastener curves to achieve statures.
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Arka Roy
www.constructioncost.co

Plaster- it’s types and application in the Construction Industry

Plaster and its History

Plaster is a building material used for coating, protecting and decorating internal walls and ceilings. It can also be used to create architectural mouldings such as ceiling roses, cornices, corbels, and so on.

A form of plastering was used by primitive civilisations, creating durable and weather-resistant structures using mud. The Egyptian pyramids contain plasterwork comparable to that used today that remains hard and durable some 4,000 years later.

Greek artisans used plaster, mainly to cover the exterior of temples but sometimes also interiors. Through history, plaster ceilings became increasingly ornamental, with those during the Tudor period being particularly extravagant.

Why do we need to plaster?

Plastering is the process of covering rough walls and uneven surfaces in the construction of houses and other structures with a plastic material, called plaster.

Appearance

To improve the appearance of the surface by providing an even, smooth, regular, clean and finished surface.

Protection

In case of external plastering, the objective is to preserve and protect the surface from atmospheric influences by acting as a protective coating. In case of internal plastering, the basic object is to protect the surfaces against dust.

Cover up

To conceal the defective workmanship and to cover up the use of inferior quality and porous material and joints formed in masonry work.

Base preparation

To provide a satisfactory base or ground for decorating the surface by applying white washing, painting, colour washing or dis-tempering.

Maintenance

To fill up the cracks detected in the structure during maintenance process.

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Arka Roy
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Calculating the Bar Bending Schedule (BBS) of Columns

Welcome back to another BBS discussion. Today, we will examine the bar bending schedule (BBS) for standard columns. A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member.

The term column applies especially to a large round support – the shaft of the column – with a capital and a base or pedestal, which is made of stone, or appearing to be so. A small wooden or metal support is typically called a post, and supports with a rectangular or other non-round section are usually called piers.

The word BBS Plays a significant role in any construction of high-rise buildings. BBS refers to Bar Bending Schedule. Bar Bending Schedule is termed as the calculation of the total steel required for the construction of a building. We use steel to make concrete to be reinforced and for tension requirements. Bar is any type of rebar which is used as a reinforcement in RCC. The bar may be a Mild Steel bar or HYSD bar or TMT Bar.

In Bar bending schedule, the bars are sorted out for each auxiliary unit – beams or columns or sections or footings and so forth – and itemized list is readied which determines the bar area – in footings/pieces/ pillars/columns, bar marking – to recognize the bar as per the drawing, Bar Size – the length of the bar utilized, Quantity – the number of Bars utilized, cutting length, type of Bend and Shape of the bar in fortification drawings.

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Arka Roy
www.constructioncost.co