Parapet Walls – Types and Uses

Parapet wall is an assurance wall so as to forestall us tumbling from porch to ground. There are different sorts of parapet wall like block wall brickwork parapet wall, wooden handrail, iron flame broil and so forth. In this article, we will talk about block wall stone work.

In this article, we will talk about why we ought not utilize half block parapet walls and different factor influencing while at the same time developing half block parapet wall.

Size of parapet walls

1. Thickness of parapet wall must be least 9'' ( full block parapet wall)
2. Half block parapet walls ought not be considered
3. Tallness of the parapet wall must be least 3'0''

Why must stature be 3'0'' and thickness must be 9''?

After expulsion of centering and covering from rooftop section base, some diversion will happen at mid range of rooftop chunk (positive twisting moment). Same will happen at help as negative bowing moment.In request to capture negative bowing second at help, we need immense measure of burden as downwards.

Assume on the off chance that you construct the parapet wall as half block wall, you can not capture the rooftop from elevating. On the off chance that you manufacture the parapet wall at least 9'' thickness and stature at least 3'0'' tallness, we can keep the rooftop chunk from uplifting.so different kinds of splits at base of roof will be captured. In the wake of developing a full block parapet wall, expulsion of centering and covering will be a decent practice to stay away from the inspiration of rooftop.

In future extensions on the first floor, you need not wreck the current parapet wall in the event that it is built as 9'' thick. assume if effectively finished the parapet wall as half block wall, presently you have to destroy the current parapet wall up to the rooftop and make the as 9''.so you ought to go through additional cash up to ledge level of first floor.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How to Repair Damaged Brick Walls

Brick wall repair strategies for auxiliary brick walls and brick veneer walls fluctuate contingent upon the sort of harm that is being tended to. Fortification or even remaking are required in instances of extreme basic harm or dangerous structures while different sorts of brick wall repair, for example, re-pointing or split repair or lintel repair are regularly conceivable in-situ.

This article arrangement discloses sorts of harm to auxiliary brick walls. We disclose how to perceive, analyze, and assess development and breaks in brick walls and how to perceive brick wall bowing or protruding and splitting disappointments.

The article arrangement incorporates recognizable proof of sorts of foundation splits, break designs, contrasts in the significance of splits in brick basic walls or brick veneer walls and talks about breaks or development as proof of building development.

To balance out and secure basic brick walls against inclining and swelling outwards, basic for a considerable length of time has been the expansion of outside plates affixed through a brick wall and associated either to the structure's inside casing or to the contrary wall (by a steel bar or bar).

Fractional Re-Construction of Structural Brick Walls

At the point when the proprietors needed the rooftop raised to increase livable space over the back wing of their home, the creator [DF] expected to re-fabricate the brick peak end of this memorable structure, the Seneca Howland house situated in Pleasant Valley, New York.

At the point when improvement or repair to a current brick structure is restricted in scope it tends to be reasonable and prudent to re-fabricate that wall segment; had this wall re-development venture not been at the exceptionally top of the structure we'd have expected to include brief help for any overhead brick structure, and designing counsel may have been required.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Case Study: Vista Tower, Chicago

The construction business in Chicago has always been successful, to say the least. The city hosts major buildings and modern landmarks, as well as widespread infrastructure expansions and land developments in the outskirts of the prestigious city. By analyzing and understanding some of the biggest projects in the city, completed or ongoing, we can realize the technology and the efforts that went into developing them. This is called case studies, which are one of the best ways to understand the construction industry overall.

Today we will look into the construction of the Vista Tower in Chicago. Located at 363 East Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois, the construction of this megaproject is still going on and is scheduled to finish by 2020. This is going to be the third tallest building in Chicago after the Willis and Trump Towers.

The official name of the complex is Lakeshore East, and it will host a mixed-use building with both residential and hotel usage. The Vista Tower is supposed to be 101 stories tall at 1198 feet (365 meters), and it will be divided into three buildings respectively of 47, 71, and 93 stories. The building was designed to contain 406 condos and 210 hotel rooms under the Wanda Vista five-star hotel.

Designed by Jeanne Gang, the Vista Tower is being constructed by the Magellan Development Group and the Wanda Group, who are going to pump in nearly a billion dollars into the project. Point to note here that when completed, the Vista Tower will become the world's tallest structure designed by a female architect.

The Tower's proximity to the Chicago River and Lake Michigan's lakefront park system will allow the building to define the skyline with a high level of prominence. The brilliantly imagined vertically stacked frustums (pyramids with the tops cut off) made of reinforced concrete will be adorned with a flowing glass facade, colored in gradients. The building will have 19 such frustums (at most) with spandrel covered floor slab edges, which is expected to create a unique visual texture for the outer skin.

The tower being so tall, may fall victim to wind-induced swaying. To prevent this, seven water-filled tanks are placed atop the tower. When the building is pressed by the wind to sway is a certain direction, the water in the tanks will slosh in the opposite direction which in turn will offset the swaying effect. Also, since this is not enough to prevent high powerful winds exerting more power on the building sides, there will be a large "blow-through floor", the first of its kind in Chicago, near the top of the tower which will let these winds through.

Read more


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Basic differences among foundation & footing

Foundation: It is the portion of a building that is built up underneath the ground level and keeps direct contact with sub-strata. It transfers the complete load of the building to the subsoil in which it stands in such a manner that settlement of the soil is not collapsed in shear.

Footing: It is the bottom most part of a vertical structure (column, wall) that finally transmits the weight from walls and columns to the soil or bedrock.

Footing is mainly the segment of foundation of any modern structure.

Variation among footing and foundation

Given below, the basic variations among Footing and Foundation:

1
The footing is a formation that is in touch with the ground.

Foundation belongs to a structure that transfers its gravity loads to earth from superstructure.

2
Footing is analogized with the feet of the leg.
Foundation is compared with legs.

3
The footing refers to a type of shallow foundation.
Foundation is both shallow and deep.

4
Footing comprises of slab, rebar which are made of brickwork, masonry or concrete.
Foundation types comprise piles, caissons, footings, piers, the lateral supports, and anchors.

5
Footing reinforces support to a separate column.
Foundation stands for an extensive support since it provides support to a group of footings as a whole building.

6
A number of footings rest on a foundation.
Foundation is the support that sustains different types of loadings.

7
A footing remains under the foundation wall.
Foundations stand for the basement walls.

8
Footing directly transfers loads to the soil.
Foundation is directly related with the soil and passes it on the ground.

9
All footings are foundations.
Not all foundations are footings.

Read more

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Published By

Rajib Dey

www.constructioncost.co

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some useful tips to measure loads on column, beam and slab

In order to work out the total load on columns, Beam and Slab, there should be clear ideas on the types of loads enforcing on the column.

Different Loads operating on Column:

1) Column Self Weight X Number of floors
2) Beams Self Weight per running meter
3) Load of walls per running meter
4) Total load on Slab (Dead load + Live load + Self weight)

Apart from above loading, the columns are also susceptible to bending moments which should be taken into consideration in the final design.

For Colomn: The Self weight of Concrete remains approx 2400 kg/m3, that is similar to 240 kN and self weight of steel is approx 8000 kg/m3.

Therefore, if we consider a column size of 230 mm x 600 mm with 1% steel and 3 meters standard height, the self weight of column is approx 1000 kg per floor that is equivalent to 10 kN.

At the time of making calculation, self weight of columns is taken as 10 to 15 kN per floor.

For Beam: Similar method is also used for making calculations of beam. Suppose, each meter of beam contains dimensions of 230 mm x 450 mm without slab thickness. Therefore, the self weight should be approx 2.5 kN per running meter.

For Walls: The Density of bricks differs among 1500 to 2000 kg per cubic meter. For a brick wall with thickness 6 inch, height 3 meter a length 1 meter. The load / running meter should be equivalent to 0.150 x 1 x 3 x 2000 = 900 kg, that is identical to 9 kN/meter. This method is useful for working out the load of brick per running meter for any brick type.

For aerated concrete blocks and autoclaved concrete blocks similar to Aerocon or Siporex, the weight per cubic meter should remain 550 to 700 kg per cubic meter.

When these blocks are utilized for construction, the wall loads for each running meter should remain as low as 4 kN/meter, the cost of the project is decreased considerably with the use of this block.

For Slab: Suppose, the slab contains thickness of 125 mm.

Therefore, self weight of each square meter of slab should be = 0.125 x 1 x 2400 = 300 kg that is identical to 3 kN.

Now, If finishing load is taken to be 1 kN per meter and superimposed live load to be 2 kN per meter. Therefore, from above data, the load of slab can be calculated as 6 to 7 kN approximately per square meter.

Factor of Safety: At the end, once the total load on a column is computed, consider the factor of safety that is very crucial for any building design for safe and convenient performance of building during its design life cycle.

Read Continue

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.bimoutsourcing.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

Read more

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some useful tips to eliminate the deficiencies of the reinforced concrete shear walls

Reinforced concrete shear walls are considered as perfect structural systems for a long time which offer both lateral resistance and drift control in RC buildings.

However these aging shear walls were normally designed for combined actions against gravity loads and wind loading. Seismic loading and design were not taken into consideration for day to day mid-height building structures.

There are lots of shortcomings in design and detailing of these shear walls and because of these, the shear walls become susceptible to seismic hazard.

General shortcomings of Thin Reinforced Concrete Shear Walls :-

The following shortcomings are mostly found in several existing buildings:

• Deficient wall thickness containing only one curtain of distributed horizontal and vertical reinforcement;
• Deficient lap splice lengths of the longitudinal reinforcement;
• lap splices are situated in the zones of potential plastic hinging;
• Insufficient confinement of the end regions of the walls;
• Deficiency in controlling the buckling of the flexural reinforcement;
• Inadequate amounts and defectively detailed transverse (shear) reinforcement.

Points to be followed for improvements:

To improve the condition of these defective walls, various repair and retrofit schemes should be undertaken.

The details of these schemes are given below:

Carbon-Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) wraps:

Under this method, the shear wall is covered with a layer of CFRP sheet. This layer makes the confinement better around the boundary elements to some extent. As this confinement effect is nominal, it enhances the ductility of the section, and prevents brittle failure of lap splices.

Fibre-Reinforced Self Consolidating Concrete Jacketing

A combination of steel fibers and reinforcement are applied to enhance the flexural strength of concrete section, and the simultaneously, increases the ductility of the wall to the new plastic hinge location.



Read more
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reason for damaging & collapsing of concrete buildings

A reinforced concrete building gets damaged and collapses due to several reasons such as sliding of roofs, falling of walls, crushing of columns, short column effects, diagonal cracking, foundation sinking and tilting etc.

Types and Causes for Damage and Collapse of Concrete Buildings.

Given below, the details about the most common types of damages in reinforced concrete buildings:

1. Sliding of Roofs off the Supports: Where the beams are just supported on walls or columns, they are susceptible to slide if the severity of earthquake surpasses the frictional resistance and several times come out of the support and collapse, specifically when the bearing length is minor.

2. Collapsing of Infill Walls: The infill panel walls amid reinforced concrete columns overturn outer the framework when they are not firmly retained or secured with the frames.

3. Crushing of Column Ends and Virtual Hinging: When extreme shaking occurs, the column ends are susceptible to serious eccentric compressive stresses which compel the concrete to get crushed and broke down from the exterior surfaces. In frequent cycles, the damage proceeds interiors, consequently the effective section is shortened significantly. Both the column ends substantially function as pins and the entire framework falls down like a mechanism.

4. Short Column Effect: If infill walls having wide openings are joined to the columns, the sections of the columns to be deformed against lateral seismic loads turn out to be very short with reference to their normal height.

Such short columns develop into much harder as compared to other columns and pull greater shear forces under which they experience extreme diagonal tension which result in collapsing of the column.

5. Diagonal Cracking in the Columns: Columns are exposed to diagonal cracking resulting from large seismic shears occurred under extreme ground shaking. When the building also sustains the twisting action, the crack may change to a spiral form that decreases load bearing strength of the columns significantly.

6. Diagonal Cracking of Column Beam Joint: Several times, diagonal cracking happens through the intersection of the columns with the beams that considerably damages the strength of the frame.

7. Drawing Out of the Reinforcing Bars: Where the anchor length of the column bars or overlaps among the longitudinal bars are insufficient for producing full tensile strength of the bar, they are frequently drawn out because of tensions occurred in the column against reversal of stresses.

8. Collapse of Gable Frames: Reinforced concrete gable frames, frequently applied for school workshops, gymnasia and assembly halls, and cinema halls, may be expanded devoid of secondary resistance obtainable as soon as a joint fails. These are frequently found to fail and collapse if not properly designed and detailed.

9. Foundation Sinking and Tilting: Sinking or tilting of foundations of columns because of seismic shaking happens in loose soft soils and can result in extreme cracking of the superstructure and even fall down.



Read more
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How to calculate number of tiles for a floor

A tile is mainly a thin object usually square or rectangular in shape and it is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material like ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay or even glass which is generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls or other objects like tabletops. Tiles are often used to form wall and floor coverings and can range from simple square tiles to complex or mosaics.

Floor Tiles are mainly used in Residential buildings to make every possible thing beautiful; engineers used them almost everywhere like in stairs, lobby, apartment, roof etc. Though floor tiles are used everywhere but wall tiles are mainly used in bathroom and kitchen.

So, calculating tiles for bedroom and bathroom are not similar so there are some things required to keep in mind while calculating tiles. While calculating floor tiles three things need to consider which are:

• Sometimes a special tile design is used on a floor so there the design tiles need to calculate separately and deduct the tiles quantity from the floor tiles quantity.
• Skirting is a pillage of tiles which is laid in walls and adjacent to the floor.
• Any apartment different tiles may be used in an apartment, while calculating it is need to check.

The basic of calculating floor tiles is to get the area of tiling floor, for that just needed to get the dimension of two opposite direction and multiply them.

But depending on the situation there are two different methods that can be used while calculating tiles, those are: Average method and Counting method.

Source: www.acivilengineer.com



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some vital factors of building foundation system

The foundation stands for a supporting member of the structure. The purpose of the foundation is to deliver all loads from the walls or columns of the building to the Earth. A foundation is the part of the building that touches the ground directly.

The foundation mainly retains the structure up in order that it never goes down in the supporting ground. Foundation retains the structure so it is not swept away with strong winds like tornadoes. The foundation selection is based on the structural system and the nature of the structure.

The foundation of the structure should be secured from the following factors :

a. Sliding
b. Overturning
c. Sinking or settlement
d. Differential settlement

The foundation systems should satisfy the following vital requirements:-

1. The primary requirement for any structure concerning its load resisting strength is that the structure should be built up in such a manner that the combined dead loads, live loads, horizontal loads like earthquake and wind load are defended, passed and transferred to the ground securely in spite of providing any any structural damage, deflection and distortion.

2. Foundation should be pushed deep into the ground in order that the structure is not influenced with ground movement like swelling, shrinking, freezing. The landslide also should not impact the strength of the building. The structure should be secured from any damage and distress.

3. Foundation base should be inflexible with the purpose of reducing the differential settlement, specifically in a situation when superimposed loads are not consistently dispersed over the foundation.

4. Foundation should be situated in such a manner that its performance remains unchanged because of any unanticipated future forces like earthquake and overloading.

5. The design of the foundations is created to withstand the ultimate loading cases combination against overturning and sliding.

6. Foundation should protect from chemical attack in soil. Groundwater and soil may include several types of chemicals injurious to the foundation concrete, the most aggressive one is sulphates. Sulphate attack can normally be alleviated with sulphate resisting cement. Still proper precaution should be at the time of placing the concrete, by vibrating and curing.

7. Foundation should be taken deep enough to withstand the overturning, despite the fact that the bearing strength of the soil is good at adequate depth. Due to adequate depth, swelling can’t occur.



Read Continue
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Different components of super structure

Superstructure stands for segments of the structure that is situated over the surface of the ground. The superstructure is built with different sections of walls, roof, doors, and windows, flooring. The sections of the structure situated on the grounds and underneath the ground floor level are known as the plinth.

The objective of superstructure is to bear different types of loads operating on the structure which range from dead load, live, load, wind load etc. These loads are then transferred to the underlying soil through the substructure.

Each element of superstructure is applied as a specific purpose, but the prime function is to arrange privacy, safety to the inhabitants. Wall and roof safeguards from the surrounding, doors permit entry and give safety, windows arrange requisite sunlight and fresh air and floor provides a leveled surface to live and protection from beneath.

Building superstructure

Column: A column in structural engineering stands for a vertical structural component that disperses the weight of the structure over to other structural components underneath , through compression.

Floor: A floor normally comprises of a support structure known as a sub-floor on top on which a floor cover is placed to arrange a walking surface.

Roof wall :

Flat – Should contain a slight slope for drainage

Shed – A single slope

Gable – Two slopes intersect at a ridge. Two walls expand up to the ridge.

Hip – Two gables, a pyramid is treated as a hip roof.

Gambrel – Four slopes in one direction, the usual barn roof.

Mansard – A four-sided gambrel-style hip roof formed with two slopes on each of its sides with the lower slope, perforated by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper.

Beam: Beam stands for an inflexible structural member formed to bear and transmit transverse loads across space to supporting components.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How to design a gabion retaining wall with Tekla Tedds

In this construction video tutorial, you will learn how to use Tekla Tedds for making calculations of gabion retaining wall analysis and design with adherence to the Eurocode to verify the strength of a gabion retaining wall from sliding overturning. Besides, it is also possible to find out the maximum and minimum base pressure underneath the wall.

A gabion retaining wall is built up with stacked stone-filled gabions which are attached together with wire. Gabion walls are generally battered (angled back towards the slope), or stepped back with the slope, in spite of stacked vertically. Besides, galvanized steel wire, PVC-coated and stainless steel wire are also utilized. This type of retaining wall is very effective for erosion control applications.

Tekla Tedds is a robust software that can be used to automate your tedious structural calculations. The users can select from one or more of the extensive calculation libraries.

The users will also be able to write their own, and generate professional documentation every time. It is also possible to integrate the structural calculations with 2D frame analysis.

The users can get access to the following extensive library of design modules.

• Loading - Seismic and Wind
• Analysis - Continuous Beams and Rolling Load
• Steel Design - Beams, Torsion, Columns
• Connections - Base Plates and Bolts

Tekla Tedds offer the following benefits :-

a. Get access of an expansive library of structural and civil calculations.
b. Employ a single solution for all common components & materials.
c. Reap benefits from a simple and intuitive interface.
d. Generate apparent calculations which can be simply analyzed.
e. Make comparison among various design options and create modifications instantly.
f. Create consistent documentation.
g. Improve your Quality Assurance processes.
h. Obtain new and improved calculations and code updates regularly.

To get online demonstration of Tekla Tedds, go through the following video tutorial.


Video Source: Tekla Software

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Published By
Rajib Dey
www.constructioncost.co
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~