Standard Staircase Dimensions in Buildings

Functioning as a system of steps leading people from one level of the building to another, a staircase is a pretty complex building element. This is because staircases have particular geometry and function. Everything about this building element needs to be carefully planned because of that.

The dimensions of the steps and regulations of the heights and widths of the steps need to be carefully maintained. Not only that, you need to pay attention to the material being used as well.

In this article we will discuss the standard staircase dimensions today.

In staircase design, concrete offers great reliability in terms of load-bearing and production benefits. Geometry requirements, heat resistance and tensile strength, all can be fulfilled by using concrete. The staircases that are made of in-situ concrete can be adapted to any building plans on site.

On the other hand, precast staircases are not as flexible and can only be fitted into predefined design dimensions specific for that staircase design.

However, one advantage of using precast staircases is that they can be produced efficiently, faster and more cleanly than in-situ staircases.

It goes without saying that special attention must be paid to the basic dimensions of the stair breadth and rises. You should also need to take care of dividing the staircase with proper landings in order to enable resting places in a long climb. The number of steps without an intermediate landing should be counted in this matter.

Staircase dimensions are an important part of staircase safety. This page covers all of the important staircase measurements and a mistake to watch out for.

Staircase design has to account for the human step sizes and the comfortable distance a human foot can travel vertically.

The tread size is dictated by the average adult foot size. Though it is not necessary to fit your entire foot on the stairs, it should be kept as close as possible in order to keep it as safe as possible. The standard tread size is 10 inches minimum, or 25.4 centimeters.

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Different types of tiles joints and their benefits

There are two types of tiles joints:

1. Paper Joint
2. Spacer Joint

Paper Joint – Paper joint is defined as arranging tiles devoid of any space in between.

Spacer Joint – Spacer joint is defined as arranging tiles with spacers for keeping equivalent tile joint.

Benefit of Paper joint:

a. Supply of tile masons for paper joint is easily available as most of the tile masons gather sound experience in this system.
b. Supplimentary tools like tile spacers are not essential

Drawbacks of Paper joint:

a. As nominal dimensional variation is occurred in tiles, paper joints frequently create irregular spacing among the tiles. Because of these spacing accurate grouting is not possible. Therefore, it produces dust collection.
b. Substitution of the damaged tile can’t be done since adjoining tiles are also damaged throughout the modification works.
c. Because of the manufacturing deviations, it becomes difficult to retain line & level in the tile joints.

Benefits or Drawbacks of Paper Joint of Tiles.

Advantage of Spacer joint:

a. As nominal dimensional deviation occurs in tiles, spacer joint facilitates in hiding those deviations.
b. Spacer joints are filled with the appropriate grout.
c. Substitution of damaged tile can be done simply as specific tile can be detached devoid of damaging the adjoining tiles.
d. Spacer joint is suitable for the purpose of maintaining consistency in tile joints and for superior finish; Aesthetic look also gets better.

Drawbacks of Spacer joint:

a. Currently trained or experienced tile masons are rarely available who can deal with spacer joint
b. Different types of supplementary tools like Spacers & additional material – grouts are required as compared to Paper joint.
c. Grouting is an extra activity associated with this system and mastering this activity is a great concern; it requires one or two days of extra work.

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Details about Composite Slabs & Columns and their benefits

Composite slabs:

1. It comprises of profiled steel decking with an in-situ reinforced concrete topping.
2. The decking(profiled steel sheeting) perform as permanent formwork to the concrete as well as offers adequate shear bond with the concrete in order that when the concrete has attained strength, the two materials function mutually & compositely.

3. Distance among 3 m and 4.5 m onto supporting beams or walls.
4. When the slab is unpropped throughout construction, the decking single-handedly withstands the self-weight of the wet concrete and construction loads. Subsequent loads are delivered to the composite section.
5. When the slab is propped, all of the loads should be combated by the composite section.
6. These are normally designed as simply supported members in the normal condition.

Profiled steel sheeting:

1. Depths vary from 45 mm to over 200 mm.
2. Yield strengths vary from 235 N/mm2 to minimum 460 N/mm2.
3. The thickness vary from 0.8 mm to 1.5 mm.
4. The different shapes offer Interlock among the steel and concrete.
5. Decking is also applied to make the beams stable against lateral torsional buckling throughout construction.
6. Improve the stability of the building entirely by behaving as a diaphragm to transmits the wind loads to the walls and columns.
7. Temporary construction load normally manages the choice of decking profile.

Composite Columns:

A steel-concrete composite column stands for a compression member that contains either a concrete encased hot-rolled steel section or a concrete filled tubular section of hot-rolled steel. The existence of the concrete is granted for two ways.

1. Safeguard from fire.
2. It may also withstand a small axial load.
3. To minimize the effective slenderness of the steel member, that raises its resistance capacity against axial load.

The bending stiffness of steel columns of H-or I-section is superior in the plane of the web (‘major-axis bending’) as compared to a plane parallel to the flanges (‘minor-axis bending’).

The ductility performance of circular type of columns is considerably superior as compared to rectangular types. There is no need to offer extra reinforcing steel for composite concrete filled tubular sections.

Protection from erosion is arranged by concrete to steel sections in encased columns.

When the local buckling of the steel sections is removed, the reduction in the compression resistance of the composite column caused by overall buckling should definitely be permitted. The plastic compression resistance of a composite cross-section shows the maximum load that can be employed to a short composite column.

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Benefits of rock reinforcement

Rock reinforcements provide extra supports to the rock structures so that the stability and load bearing strength of the rock is enhanced. Rock reinforcements are arranged in the type of rock bolts, rock anchors or rock dowels.

Types of Rock Reinforcement: The support given with rock reinforcements ranges from active type or passive type.

For active support, a predefined load is enforced on the rock surface while being set up. Under passive type, a load is formed when the rock mass deforms or dislocates.

The following types of rock reinforcements are commonly found :

1. Rock Bolts: This type of rock reinforcement is frequently used at the end of the borehole. These belong to steel rods which are grouted into the rock. These comprise of a grout anchor or friction on the rock. As soon as the anchorage is obtained, it is tensioned and a compressive force is produced into the adjacent ground.

The axial force produced operates on the rock-mass discontinuities which enhance the shear strength of the mass. This shear strength is produced through the pre-tensioning of the bolt.

2. Rock Dowels: This is a passive type of rock reinforcement for which a ground displacement is required for its activation. When the discontinuities in the rock mass are susceptible to displacement, the dowel undergoes both shear and tensile stresses.

3. Rock Anchors: This method of rock reinforcement employs compressive or uplift force to make any structure or rock mass stable which exist in the ground or underground. These belong to high tensile strength bars. These are pre-tensioned by fixing at the end of the borehole.

Rock anchors belong to either un-tensioned anchors or tensioned anchors. To combat failure of the rock mass caused by shear, rock anchors are used.

Usages of Rock Reinforcement:

The purpose of rock reinforcement is to give safety and temporary supports for several underground construction works. Given below, the different uses of rock reinforcement :-

1. Rock reinforcement is mainly applied to pre-load the foundation.
2. It is applied for the purpose of producing a reaction throughout the pile load test.
3. Rock reinforcements (Rock Anchors) can fasten the suspension cables and guy wires for the bridges.
4. It facilitates to bind the wire cables with the foundation under the sea.
5. Rock reinforcement combat uplift occurred in transmission towers, foundation and hydraulic structures caused by lateral forces.
6. Rock anchors are provided to support sheet piles.

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Benefits of I-beams in construction

Hot-rolled steel beam having I-shaped cross section, and tapered flanges closer than wide flanged beam is known as I-beam.

I Beam contains one vertical plane and two horizontal planes or flanges which develop 'I' or 'H' structure. The vertical plane withstands the shear stress , whereas horizontal planes withstand the bending movement. I Beam is majorly utilized in construction industry like construction of manufacturing plants, multi-story buildings etc.

I-beam is frequently applied as important support trusses, or the primary framework, in buildings. Steel I beams retain structure’s integrity with persistent strength and support. The extreme power of I beams minimizes the requirement for several support structures and as a result huge time and money is saved. The stability of the structure is improved considerably.

Some vital jargons of I-Beam:

1. Flange thickness: Top and bottom horizontal plate-like segments of an I-beam are known as flange. The density of the flanges is defined as the flange thickness.

2. Flange width: The width of the flanges is known as flange width.
3. Beam depth: The height among the top and bottom surface of the steel I beam is termed as beam depth.
4. Web thickness: The vertical segment of steel I beam is known as web, and the thickness of the web is termed as web thickness.
5. Fillet radius: The curved section, where the changeover among the web and flange occurs is known as a fillet. The radius of the fillet is defined as the fillet radius.

A properly sized I Beam can be chosen on the basis of the following criterion :-

The entire method of choosing the proper size of the I beam is dependent on the basic mechanical design calculations as given below:

1. The first input necessary belongs to the steel I beam load specifications or loading details on the steel I beam.
2. Draw bending moment diagram for the specified loads and get the value of maximum bending moments (suppose M) that the steel I beam is likely to experience.
3. Select an exact size of steel I beam from a standard I beam table.
4. Determine the area moment of inertia (suppose I) of the selected steel I beam.
5. Obtain the beam depth (suppose d) of the selected steel I beam.
6. The stress developed (f) in the beam can be measured with the formula given below :

f/(d/2)=M/ I

f denotes the bending stress.
M denotes the moment at the neutral axis.
y denotes the perpendicular distance to the neutral axis.
I denotes the area moment of inertia about the neutral axis x.

7. Compare the calculated value of the bending stress with the yield stress of the steel with the purpose of verifying the safety factor of your design.

The structural design will be perfect when the size of the I-beam is accurate. The method described above is dependent on static I beam load specifications. In case where dynamic loads are concerned, it is necessary to apply FEA tools like ANSYS, Pro Mechanica, etc.

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Benefits and drawbacks of concrete driveway construction

Concrete driveway construction is more beneficial as compared to conventional driveway construction methods. The concrete driveway is long-lasting.

Given below, the pros and cons of concrete driveway construction.

Benefits of Concrete Driveway Construction - The prime benefits of concrete driveway construction are as follow:

1. Quality Construction
2. Stability
3. Extreme Flexibility
4. Less Maintenance
5. Costs
6. Diverse range of options

1. Quality Construction: The concrete as a driveway material improves the quality of appearance. It offers a clean and professional view.

2. Stability: A concrete driveway that is efficiently constructed and properly preserved can endure for prolonged times. As a robust structural material, concrete can bear heavy traffic loads, corrosion and even other atmospheric vulnerabilities. To ensure long-lasting integrity, the perfect plan should be made for the formation of concrete in terms of mix design and construction joints that is based on the conditions of the site.

3. Offers Extreme Flexibility: The concrete driveways are suitable for different types of landscaping designs, or building layouts. It is recognized for both residential and traffic use.

The use of concrete driveway only improves the beauty of the property. The flexibility is sustained in respect of concrete driveway installation and the design variety it provides.

4. Less Maintenance: Due to extreme stability of concrete driveway, the maintenance work is minimized significantly. Like other pavement options, various problems like weeds, paver shifting etc are not found in concrete driveways. There is little or zero maintenance for concrete driveway.

If any stain is found over the concrete, it can be easily eliminated. It is just necessary to cleanse the surface annually with the use of proper stain cleaner.

The sealants can also be applied in concrete driveway construction to safeguard the surface from stains and other damages.

5. Costs: Here the cost is associated with construction cost and maintenance cost. The initial cost of concrete driveway construction is cheap but it is adjusted with the zero-maintenance cost it offers.

A good concrete driveway constructed can sustain for 20 to 25 years with zero maintenance that yields huge savings in cost in due course of time.

6. Variety of Options: The concrete driveway construction comes with various types of design options. Either a slab look, or paver look (stamped concrete), or polished look (Polished concrete) can be arranged on the basis of the requirement.

Drawbacks of Concrete Driveway Construction - The following drawbacks are found in concrete driveway construction:

1. The application of polished or stamped concrete driveway construction is little bit expensive with regard to the normal concrete driveway construction. To maintain the longevity, special maintenance are essential for these types.

2. It is required to appoint professionals and skilled labors for pouring concrete to driveway construction. The process becomes very complicated when executed as a DIY project.

3. It is suggested to utilize sealants for annual Maintenance so that the concrete driveway slabs last for a long time.



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Benefits of floating column

Floating Column or Hanging Columns: The floating column belongs to a vertical member that is laid on a beam and it doesn’t deliver the load directly to the foundation. The floating column operates as a point load on the beam and this beam transmits the load to the columns situated under it.

The column may set out on the first or second or any other midmost floor as resting on a beam. Generally, columns are laid the foundation to deliver load from slabs and beams. But the floating column is laid on the beam.

It signifies that the beam providing support to the column performs as a foundation. That beam is known as a transfer beam. This is extensively applied in high storied buildings for both commercial and residential purpose. It facilitates to customize and rectify the plan of the top floors. The transfer beam that provides support to the floating column, reassigns the loads up to foundation. For this reason, it should have been designed with more reinforcement.

Floating Column in Buildings: In recent times, multi-storey buildings are developed for the purpose of residential, commercial, industrial etc., containing an open ground storey. To provide space for parking, the ground storey is reserved free devoid of any constructions, exclusive of the columns which move the building weight to the ground.

For a hotel or commercial building, usually, there are banquet halls, conference rooms, lobbies, show rooms or parking areas in lower floor, hence large alternate space is necessary for the transition of people or vehicles. The columns which are narrowly placed in the upper floors, should not be located in the lower floors. Hence, to get rid of this issue, floating column concept becomes vital.

In urban areas, multi storey buildings are developed supported with floating columns at the ground floor for the different objectives. These buildings with floating columns are treated as secured under gravity loads and therefore are designed only for those loads. But these buildings are not suitable for earthquake loads and hence, these buildings are treated as insecure in seismic prone areas.

When the floating columns are arranged in buildings in seismic prone areas, the whole earthquake of the system is allocated with the column or the shear walls devoid of assessing any contribution from the floating columns.

Floating Column & Earthquake: The floating columns are useful for various projects specifically over the ground floor, where transfer girders are used with the purpose of providing more open space in the Ground Floor.

In the earthquake prone zones, the transfer girders which are applied should be designed and detailed correctly. If no lateral loads exist, the design and detailing work will not be complicated.

Concept of floating column primarily includes disrupting flow of transfer of EQ force.

• Floating columns must be designed as a normal compression member.
• At the time of designing transfer beam, it is designed as beam bearing all that load of column as a single point load.
• It should be remembered that EQ force developed should be reduced along the shortest path. It means load is dispersed between two intermediate columns which provide support to that beam.

High shear capacity beams/deep beams are utilized to provide support to the floating column. In some areas, the floating columns are inevitable. So, it is essential to alter code provisions for deep beams.

Article Source: engineeringcivil.org



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The benefits of steel buildings in construction industries

Steel buildings are mostly recognized since they are inexpensive as well as they can be mass produced and adapted from prevailing standards to fulfill various purposes.

The uses of steel building are found in different sectors like agricultural to commercial.

ADVANTAGES OF STEEL BUILDINGS

1. They are cost effective as compared to other building materials since you don’t have to appoint the engineers and architects for constructing the building. The steel buildings can be easily sustained and can be mass produced. They are one of the affordable types of building obtainable at this level.

2. Steel buildings are perfect for almost any space, specifically as they fulfil the needs for various types of single story buildings. They are also greatly ecological, specifically when provided with thermal accessories – of which several types are well-suited – for increased energy efficiency.

3. They can be sustained efficiently. In wooden buildings, or any type of structure which are built with organic material, there is chance for mould and mildew infestations and steel buildings are 100% eco-friendly so can either be easily reprocessed.

4. Steel buildings are utilized for different purposes: agricultural, storage, offices, temporary venues etc. They can be built up easily secure, both from damage and outside access, since steel (not like wood) will not distort and fastenings will persist protected in due course of time.

5. Steel buildings can be constructed easily and maintainable by their users, and be associated with a variety of supplementary features which can be acquired at little additional cost from the manufacturer. These extra features contain mezzanine options, green energy solutions, additional access doors and colors.

6. Steel buildings are designed for both permanence and impermanence that means they can be utilized for stockpile throughout project accomplishment or for long term stockpile of machinery or goods. Besides, the steel building are environment friendly as they can be easily set up with solar panels.



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Use and benefits of self compacting concrete

Self-consolidating concrete alias self-compacting concrete (SCC) is a concrete mixture that can flow into very complex forms with various reinforcing bars (rebar congestion) and leaves no voids.

It can be arranged with its own weight devoid of any mechanical vibration. SCC retains all the conventional mechanical and durability characteristics of concrete.

With extremely fluid nature of SCC, it becomes possible to arrange it in complicated conditions and in sections with congested reinforcement. It can also reduce hearing-related damages on the worksite due to vibration of concrete. In SSC, the required time is curtailed significantly for arranging bigger sections.

In some cases, the superplasticizers and viscosity modifier are provided to the mix to minimize bleeding and segregation.

A well designed SCC mix never segregates because it contains extreme deformability and outstanding stability characteristics.

Self-Compacting Concrete Properties: Self-compacting concrete has good resistance capacity against segregation as it applies mineral fillers or fines as well as special admixtures. Self-consolidating concrete is essential to flow and fill special forms under its own weight. It is flown adequately to travel over extremely reinforced areas, and should have capability to circumvent segregation of aggregate.

Self-compacting concrete contains an equivalent water cement or cement binder ratio that provides normally a slightly higher strength with regards to conventional vibrated concrete and because of non-existence of vibration, a better interface among the aggregate and hardened paste is created.

The concrete mix of SCC should be arranged at a comparatively greater velocity as compared to regular concrete. Self-compacting concrete is placed from heights longer than 5 meters exclusive of aggregate segregation. It is also useful for areas having normal and congested reinforcement, with aggregates as large as 2 inches.

Self-Compacting Concrete Uses - Self-compacting concrete is mostly utilized in bridges and even on pre-cast sections. This type of concrete is suitable for the following:

• Drilled shafts
• Columns
• Earth retaining systems
• Areas with high concentration of rebar and pipes/conduits

To know about the benefits of self consolidating concrete, go through the following link thebalance.com



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Benefits and drawbacks of steel members

Steel is formed by mixing iron, carbon and other components. Due to its extreme tensile strength and low cost, it is considered as a most vital component that is extensively utilized in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, appliances, and weapons.

The steel provides lots of benefits as follows:

1. The steel members contain high strength. So, the steel members have the ability to withstand extreme loads with relatively light weight and small size of members.
Due to their small size, it becomes easier to deal with and transport steel members.
2. The steel members have strong resistance capacity against gas and water due to their high density power (the unit weight of steel is 7.85kN/m3).
3. The steel members last for prolonged periods due to great and standardized strength and density properties of steel.
4. The steel members are utilized as pre-fabricated members as they can be easily managed, fabricated and constructed.
5. The steel members can be easily disassembled or substituted.
6. The supplementary sections or plates can be added with the existing steel structure and structural components to improve the strength significantly.
7. The steel structures can be examined rapidly and smoothly.
8. It may be reprocessed / recycled in furnaces.
9. This material contains high ductility and it is very effective for earthquake resistance structures.

The drawbacks of steel members are as follows:

1. The steel members are vulnerable to corrosion. To get rid of corrosion, apply painting or other methods.
2. The steel members are expensive.

Source: civilsnapshot.com



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Post Tension Slab and its benefits

Generally, post-tensioned (PT) slabs belong to flat slabs, band beam and slabs or ribbed slabs. PT slabs provide the leaner slab type, as concrete functions to its strengths, mostly being maintained in compression. Longer spans are obtained because of pre-stress, which are also utilized to resist deflections.

Post-tensioned slabs employ high-strength tensioned steel strands to compress the slabs to retain most of the concrete in compression. Reinforcement is arranged to control the compression.

In Post tension slab, the cables/steel tendons are applied to replace the reinforcement. It develops a very well-organized structure to reduce material usages as well as economic span range with regard to reinforced concrete.

Post-tensioning is very useful to defeat the natural weakness of concrete in tension and to optimize its strength in compression. In concrete structures, high-tensile steel tendons/cables are placed in the element prior to casting.

If the concrete attains the preferred strength the special hydraulic jacks are used to drag tendons and retain them in tension with specially designed anchorages fixed at each end of the tendon. It offers compression at the edge of the structural member that enhances the strength of the concrete for withstanding tension stresses.

If tendons are properly curved to a specific profile, they will employ, besides compression at the perimeter, a beneficial upward set of forces (load balancing forces) that will resist applied loads, alleviating the structure from a portion of gravity effects.

In this type of slab, cables are attached in spite of reinforcement. In Steel reinforcement the gapping among bars is 4 inch to 6 inch while in Post tension slab the gapping is over 2m.

Benefits:

• It facilitates slabs and other structural members to be slimmer
• It facilitates us to develop slabs on expansive or soft soils
• The produced Cracks are retained firmly mutually
• Post tension slabs are useful for building up stronger structures economically.
• It minimizes or removes shrinkage cracking. So, no joints, or fewer joints, are essential
• It allows us to design longer spans in elevated members, like floors or beams

Drawbacks:
• Only experienced professionals can construct post tension slabs.
• If precaution is not undertaken at the time of making it, it can cause future mishaps. In various situations, untaught workers become unable fill the gaps of the tendons and wiring entirely. These gaps lead to decay of the wires which become breakable quickly and unexpected collapsing may occur.

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