Floors and Walls

Construction Technology & Materials 1

BRE 261 Lecture

Dr. Hung-Lin CHI

 Expected Learning Outcomes
• Possess a knowledge of functional requirements of floor structure
and give preliminary appraisal to the performances
• Get to know basic elements made of a floor structure with various
materials and different designs
• Understand functional requirements of wall structure and related
design considerations
 Primary Functions of Floor
• Provides support to occupants of the building, along with any
furniture and equipment
• Provides leveled surfaces for holding activities and functions
• Acts as structural elements to stabilize the building structures
• Ground floor or basement floor serves the additional function of
enclosing the building (as part of the building envelope)
 Functional Requirement of Floor
• Strength and Stability
• Fire Resistance
• Sound Insulation
• Thermal Insulation
• Damp Penetration
• These requirements relate to all floors, both ground floors and
upper floors. However there are some distinct differences related
to the location of the floor
 Strength and Stability
• The loads being carried by the floor need to be supported without
causing excessive deflection (bending) of the floor
• The floor to be able to carry the loads to suitable supports, e.g.
wall and beam
• Ground floor normally bears the loads directly onto the ground
beneath, whereas upper floor needs to bear their loads onto
supporting walls or beams
 Strength and Stability
• Where floors are fully supported by the ground beneath, deflection
will be minimal and well within acceptable limits
• However when the floor is spanning freely between two supporting
walls, the tendency for the floor to bend under the load will be
increased. This deflection will be maximum at mid-span, the point
furthest away from the supports. The depth of the supporting
members of the floor (joist or beam) will need to be sufficient to
reduce the deflection to within acceptable limits
 Fire Resistance
• Floor acts as horizontal barrier to curb the spread of fire vertically
throughout the building
• This is normally only a requirement for upper floors
ex:
 Sound Insulation
• Floor needs to reduce sound transmission between storeys
• Again this is normally only a requirement for upper floor
• It may be necessary to incorporate sound insulation materials
within the construction of the upper floor
 Thermal Insulation
• Heat loss through the floor construction is normally only a problem
with ground floors where heat from the building may escape to the
cooler area of the ground beneath
• It will therefore be necessary to incorporate thermal insulation
materials within the construction of the ground floor
 Damp Penetration
• Dampness may penetrate from the moist ground beneath the floor
into the building by capillary action through the porous materials of
the floor construction
• Ground floors will therefore normally require a damp proof barrier
to be incorporated within their construction to resist this rising
damp

Typical causes of damp

to walls and floors
 Hardcore
• The floor is constructed on a bed of well-compacted hard material
called hardcore
• Hardcore consists of broken bricks, stones, concrete or rubble. It
must not contain materials that are soft or can crumble easily and
must not contain deleterious material that will either rot or
corrode, leaving voids or react with the concrete
 Hardcore
• The lumps of hardcore should be relatively large, but generally not
larger than 75 mm in diameter
• Hardcore should be laid to a minimum thickness of 100 mm, be
well compacted and have its surface ‘blinded’ with a layer of ash or
sand (blinding)
• The layer of ash or sand helps to fill in the large voids between the
pieces of hardcore on the surface and prevents loss of concrete
into these voids and also covers the sharp arrises on the surface
pieces of hardcore that could puncture a damp proof membrane
(dpm) placed above
 Hardcore
• Hardcore provides the following benefits:
– a level, horizontal surface on which to place the floor slab
– a firm, dry working surface on which to place the concrete for the floor slab
– it reduces the rise of ground moisture by virtue of the large voids between the
pieces of hardcore which eliminate capillary paths
– it provides additional support to the floor above should the ground beneath
suffer settlement or subsidence
 Damp Proof Membrane (DPM)
• DPM prevents the rise of ground moisture through the floor
construction
• In order for DPM to be functional it must be continuous,
impervious and join up with the DPC in the walls
• There are three positions in which the DPM may be located within
the floor construction:
ex:
– sandwiched between the
blinding and the concrete slab
– sandwiched between the
concrete slab and the sand screed
– sandwiched between the
sand screen and the floor finish
 Damp Proof Membrane
• If the DPM is to be placed between the blinding and the concrete
slab it will normally comprise a 1200 gauge (0.3mm) low-density
polyethylene sheet. This sheet, being of finite width must be lapped
or sealed effectively at its edge joints
• Alternatively bitumen sheet may be used as a DPM in this position
 Damp Proof Membrane
• If the DPM is to be placed above the concrete slab
then it may comprise a 1200 gauge polyethylene sheet
or bitumen sheet as previously considered, or three
coats of a cold applied bituminous solution that can
be applied by brush, or two coats of hot applied
mastic asphalt. In these cases the screed will need to
be thicker and reinforced with chicken wire to
prevent cracking as it will not be bonded to the slab
beneath
• Where the DPM is applied to the surface of the floor
slab it should comprise three coats of a cold applied
bituminous solution that can be applied by brush, or
two coats of hot applied mastic asphalt as considered
previously
 Concrete Slab
• The concrete slab should be a minimum of 100 mm
in thickness and the surface either finished with a
float or tamped to receive a screed for an applied
finish
• Tamping involves bouncing a timber beam over the
surface of the concrete slab. The beam is normally
operated by an operative at each end and it
produces a ripple effect to the surface of the
concrete slab
• The slab may also contain a layer of fabric mesh
reinforcement, which helps to provide some
structural strength to the slab over areas of potential
weakness
 Thermal Insulation Layer
• Thermal insulation is incorporated into the
ground floor construction to prevent loss of heat
from the building to the ground beneath
• The insulation should be laid above the DPM and
should also be placed at the side of the slab where
the slab abuts the walls, so that heat will not be
lost from the building through this path
• The insulation will normally be a board material
to prevent compression by the weight of the floor
slab or the occupants, furniture and equipment
above
 Ground Floor Design
• Ground floors may be of either solid or suspended design
• Solid design is generally the easiest and cheapest to construct

Solid ground floor design

 Suspended Ground Floor Design
• Suspended floors do not bear directly onto the ground but bear
onto supports that will themselves indirectly bear onto the ground
• They are often utilized on sloping sites to reduce the amount of fill
materials
• Fill will be required beneath the ground floor on sloping sites in
order to provide a level, horizontal surface on which to lay the
floor. It will normally comprise hardcore not greater than 600 mm
in thickness
Suspended Timber Ground Floor
Suspended Timber Ground Floor
Suspended Timber Ground Floor
 Suspended Timber Ground Floor
• As timber is warmer to the touch than concrete, this floor may be
considered to provide increased thermal comfort to the user
• The floor comprises small timber beams or joists which span
between points of support called sleeper walls and carry floor
decking of timber boards or chipboard or plywood sheets
• The joists are sized according to the loads that are to be carried and
the distances that are to be spanned
 Suspended Timber Ground Floor
• The floor is constructed on a 100 mm thick concrete oversite slab,
laid on a minimum 100 mm thick layer of compacted hardcore
• The top of the slab must not be below ground level. This is to
prevent water seeping from the surrounding ground and collecting
on the top of the slab
• The joists are supported on half brick sleeper walls, spaced at 1–2
m centres and topped by a 100 x 75 mm wall plate, laid over a DPC
• The wall plate is used to provide a suitable fixing for the floor joists
as it is difficult to fix the joists directly to the sleeper walls. The wall
plate itself is fixed to the sleeper walls by means of galvanized steel
straps
 Suspended Timber Ground Floor
• Ventilation is provided by air bricks within the external walls. This
ventilation helps to remove the damp air beneath the floor
construction and replace it with drier air from outside
• Unfortunately this replacement air is not only drier but also colder.
In order to ensure that this air flow does not detrimentally affect
the thermal insulation value of the floor it is recommended that the
amount of openings in the external wall should be sufficient to
encourage cross flow ventilation, but not so much that the thermal
insulation value of the floor will be detrimentally affected
 Suspended Timber Ground Floor
• The cross flow of air within the void beneath the timber floor is
maintained by building the sleeper walls in a honeycomb bond,
which consists of a stretcher bond with voids of half brick width
being left between the stretcher bricks
 Suspended Timber Ground Floor
• Thermal insulation can be in the form of quilt or board draped over
the top of the joists or a slab spanning between the joists and
supported by timber battens nailed to the side of the joists
 Suspended Concrete Ground Floor
• Where the depth of fill will exceed 600 mm on steeply sloping sites
or where the load bearing capacity or nature of the ground beneath
the floor varies, a floor bearing directly onto the ground may not be
considered suitable. In such cases the floor will need to span
between load bearing walls
• The floor may be constructed from in situ concrete, similar to a
solid floor or from precast concrete components
Precast Concrete Suspended Ground Floor
Precast Concrete Suspended Ground Floor
Precast Concrete Suspended Ground Floor
• The precast concrete suspended ground floor utilizes precast
concrete joists, infilled with concrete blocks and topped with a
screed
• The joists and blocks are light enough to be lifted and positioned by
two men, thus eliminating the need for lifting plant. The joists are
generally an inverted T shape. They span between external walls and
as the precast concrete components
do not require support during the
construction of the floor, the need for
fill beneath the floor is eliminated
Precast Concrete Suspended Ground Floor
• Thus all that will be required is for the topsoil to be removed from
the ground beneath the floor and for the subsoil to be treated with
a weed killer prior to the installation of the floor components
• Thermal insulation is generally placed above the precast concrete
beam and block components and beneath the screed
 Upper Floor Design
• Upper floor construction in houses is based on similar principles to
that of suspended timber ground floor construction, the difference
being that the spans between load bearing supports are generally
greater with upper floor construction
• In many part of the world, although in situ concrete floors and
precast beam and block floors could be used for upper floor
construction they are not popular and suspended timber
construction is still the most widely used method
• However, in Hong Kong the most common type is in situ concrete
floor
 Timber Upper Floor
• The basic principle of timber floor slab is similar to that of the
suspended timber ground floor slab, i.e. it is built on a joist and
strutting system with timber boardings as the floor surface
• The floor joists either penetrate into the vertical structural
elements or rest on specific joist hangers fixed onto the structure
• This system is rarely adopted in Hong Kong
Timber Upper Floor
 Reinforced Concrete Upper Floor
• In Hong Kong, upper floor slabs are usually subject to tremendous
tensile stress, therefore most of the solid upper floor slab are made
of reinforcement concrete and supplemented with sophisticated
beams systems and strong structural connection to the vertical
structural elements (columns and walls)
• The construction of reinforced concrete upper floor slab requires
extensive use of falsework for supporting the purpose-made
formwork for receiving concrete
 Reinforced Concrete Upper Floor
• In general practice, the beams and the floor slab are cast in the
same pour (concrete pouring)
• Apart from normal curing to cover the floor slab and keep them
moist, the formwork and falsework should be kept in position for a
prescribed time
• Normally, for soffit formwork it can be dismantled after seven days.
For the beams, it can be up to 28 days
 Reinforced Concrete Upper Floor
• For simple one way or two ways spanning column (wall) and beams
system, the most economical span is around 5 to 7m. If the span has
to be beyond the economic span, the beams may be very deep
which in turn affect the headroom of the interior, otherwise special
beam systems have to be adopted, (e.g., primary and secondary
beam (rib) system, waffle slab system, etc.)
Reinforced Concrete Upper Floor
Reinforced Concrete Upper Floor
 Reinforced Concrete Upper Floor
• For building using structural steelwork as major structural
elements, the formwork system for the floor slab can be replaced
by a metal decking system
• The metal decking, usually with specific profile for increasing the
strength, acts as permanent formwork for the floor slabs. In this
case, less supports as well as reinforcements are needed for
acquiring the required structural performances
Reinforced Concrete Upper Floor
 Reinforced Concrete Upper Floor
• Similar to suspended concrete ground floor, reinforced concrete
upper floor may also be erected by precast components
• Precast component can be in the form of blocks, T-beam or in half-
thick precast slab
• In public housing estate construction, the half thick precast slab
system has been adopted. The precast
elements serve as both formwork and
part of the slab, additional reinforcements
are to be added and concrete is poured
on top to achieve the required thickness
Reinforced Concrete Upper Floor
 Reinforced Concrete Upper Floor
• The use of precast components for slab construction eliminates
substantial amount of works on temporary structures (formwork
and falsework) and hence improve overall productivity
• However, when considering using precast components, the factor of
economic of scales has to be taken into serious consideration
 Walls
• The primary function of a wall is to provide an enclosed
environment and to divide space. Walls can be classified by its load
bearing capacity or by its location in the building:

• By load bearing capacity:

– Load bearing wall
– Non-load bearing wall

• By location in the building:

– External wall
– Internal wall
 Load Bearing Walls
• Load bearing wall is structural building element responsible for
taking up loads of the building. For low-rise buildings, such as one to
two storey houses, bricks or blocks may be sufficient for
constructing load bearing walls
• However, for high-rise building commonly found in Hong Kong,
thick reinforced concrete (can be up to 350mm in thickness at
certain location) is necessary as some of the load bearing walls are
designed to take up the wind load which act in all directions to the
buildings and the walls must be strong and thick enough to take up
the forces which are not acting vertically downward like dead load
and imposed load
Load Bearing Walls for Commercial Blocks
• In Hong Kong, load bearing walls for high-rise buildings are usually
not located at the external envelope in order to provide more
windows opening. Instead, for commercial
buildings, most of the load bearing walls are
located at the central services core and is
known as Central Core Wall or
Services Core Wall
• Together with sophisticated beams and
columns systems, large open spaces are
produced which provide maximum flexibility
to the tenants to design their office layout
Load Bearing Walls for Commercial Blocks
Load Bearing Walls for Commercial Blocks
 Load Bearing Walls for Residential Blocks
• For residential blocks, similar approach is adopted. However, some
of the load bearing walls may be located inside residential units to
act as a partition wall
Load Bearing Walls for Residential Blocks
Load Bearing Walls for Residential Blocks
Load Bearing Walls for Residential Blocks
 Functional Requirement of External Wall
• Strength and Stability
• Weather Resistance
• Sound Insulation
• Thermal Insulation
• Fire Resistance
 Strength and Stability
• For load bearing external walls, they are used to carry the loads
from the upper floors and roof to the foundations. They need to be
strong enough to resist the stresses applied by the dead, live and
superimposed loads being carried
• The strength of the wall is determined by its thickness and also the
compressive strength of the materials used in its construction
• The wall also needs to be strong enough to
resist overturning due to the application of
lateral forces or buckling due to the
excessive slenderness of the wall
 Strength and Stability
• If a wall is built excessively tall in relation to its thickness there will
be a tendency for it to buckle under load. To resist this tendency
the proportions of the effective height of the wall in relation to its
effective thickness needs to be kept within acceptable limits. This is
called the slenderness ratio

𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙

𝑆𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 =
𝐸𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑙
 Strength and Stability
• The effective height is taken as the distance between points of
support or stiffening of the wall. In domestic construction this is
normally the storey height of the building
• The effective thickness of the wall is taken as the thickness of the
structural materials and ignores the thickness of internal plasters
and external rendering where these are used. It also ignores the
thickness of the cavity
• The maximum slenderness ratio for a wall should be 16
 Strength and Stability
• Ideally the centre of gravity of any load carried by a wall should
coincide with the centroid of the area of the wall. However this is
not always possible
 Strength and Stability
• The disparity between the position of the centre of gravity of the
load and the centroid of area of the wall is called eccentricity of the
loading
• Stresses set up by eccentric loading on walls are higher on the
loaded side of the wall and lower on the unloaded side
• This stress distribution presents a tendency for the wall to
overturn
 Weather Resistance
• Dampness may penetrate through the external walls into the
building in three main ways:
– rain penetrating horizontally through the fabric of the wall
– the capillary rise of ground water
– rain penetrating vertically down from the head of the wall
 Resistance to Horizontal Rain Penetration
• The horizontal penetration of rain through the fabric of the wall
may be resisted in one of three ways:
– by building the wall thick enough to prevent complete penetration
– an impermeable barrier is provided to the external face of the wall so that rain
is prevented from penetrating into the fabric of the wall
– an air cavity can be created between the moist external face of the wall and
the dry internal face of the wall
 Resistance to Rising Damp
• Ground water may enter the wall at or near its base and creep up
the wall by capillary action to enter the building above ground level.
This rising damp could affect the wall for a height of up to 1m
above ground level. The problem may be overcome by the use of a
damp proof course (DPC)
 Resistance to Rising Damp
• The DPC must be:
– impermeable to moisture
– continuous throughout the wall
– durable
– strong enough to support the loads carried by the wall without extruding
– unobtrusive when placed in position
– flexible enough to allow movement within the wall without being damaged
– comparatively simple to install
 Resistance to Penetration Downwards
from the Head of the Wall
• External walls to houses may be protected at their head by the roof
positioned on top of them
• However most external walls in Hong Kong are continued above
the level of the edge of the roof to form a parapet. Where this
occurs there is the probability that rainwater will soak down
through the head of this parapet wall and cause dampness to occur
in the building below
• To prevent this, a DPC needs to be installed immediately beneath
the coping that tops the parapet wall
Resistance to Penetration Downwards
from the Head of the Wall
 Resistance to Penetration Downwards
from the Head of the Wall
• In cavity walls, where rainwater has soaked through the external
leaf of the wall, there needs to be provision at the foot of the cavity
wall for this water to be able to drain from the cavity back to the
exterior. This can be attained by providing weep holes in the vertical
joints between bricks at ground level
 Sound Insulation
• Sound is transmitted through a wall in two ways:
– airborne sound: sound waves impinge on the surface of the wall and cause
the wall to vibrate like a diaphragm and so transfer the sound energy to the air
on the other side of the wall
– structure borne or impact sound: sound waves create vibration of the
molecules within the structural materials of the wall. These vibrations can then
be passed on to the molecules in other materials in contact with the wall. Thus
impact sound can be passed from the external wall to the upper floor and roof
structure and be transmitted throughout the building
 Sound Insulation
• For airborne transmission, the best method of insulation is to
provide mass to the structure. The idea here is that the heavier the
structure is the less likely it is to vibrate as a diaphragm in sympathy
with the sound waves impinging on its surface
• For structure borne or impact sound transmission, the best
mechanism for insulation is discontinuity or separation between the
different parts of the structure so that the sound energy cannot
easily be passed from molecules in one material to the molecules in
a neighbouring material
 Thermal Insulation
• The thermal insulation of a building is measured by the air to air
transmission coefficient (U value). This is made up from the thermal
resistivity values (the resistance to the passage of heat) of all the
materials and air spaces that make up the building element being
considered
 Thermal Insulation
• The U value of an external wall is also influenced by its degree of
exposure, the amount of solar radiation it receives, the wind and
moisture conditions of the climate (a damp material is less efficient
as a thermal insulator than it is when it is dry)
• Because the U value is a reciprocal value of the
sum of all the thermal resistivity values of the
various materials contained in the element, a
lower U value represents a higher degree of
resistance to the passage of thermal energy
 Thermal Insulation
• In cavity walls the air contained in the cavity is a good insulator
provided it is still, and will offer good resistance to heat flow
through the wall. It follows that the wider this cavity is the better
will be the thermal insulation provided by the cavity
• The use of lightweight concrete blocks for the construction of the
inner leaf of a cavity wall can improve the thermal insulation value
of the wall as the blocks have a higher thermal resistivity value than
that of clay bricks
 Thermal Insulation
• Further improvements to the thermal insulation value of an
external wall can be made by adding extra insulation material into
the construction to the following:
– the external face of the wall
– the cavity, either by fully or partially filling it
– the internal face of the wall
 Thermal Insulation
• Thermal insulation materials will contain large amounts of air and
are therefore particularly porous; they must therefore be protected
from becoming damp through the absorption of large amounts of
moisture. Typical materials may be expanded plastics supplied as
solid blocks, beads or injected foams, glass fiber quilts or mineral
wool supplied as quilts or blown fibers
Thermal Insulation
 Fire Resistance
• The main concern with regard to the fire resistance of an external
wall is its ability to withstand the action of fire encroaching onto
the property from outside or to withstand the spread of fire from
one property to another and to provide sufficient stability to the
floors and roofs it is supporting to allow fire fighting services to
tackle the fire as effectively as possible
 Fire Resistance
• Fire resistance of a wall generally increases in direct proportion to
its thickness. A typical one-brick thick wall or a cavity wall having a
half brick external leaf, a 50 mm cavity and a 100 mm lightweight
concrete block internal leaf can normally achieve 6 hours fire
protection
• This figure can be further improved if the internal surface of the
wall is plastered, particularly if lightweight plaster is used
 Summary
• Functional requirement of floor and external wall
• Elements made the floor
✓ hardcore, DPM, slab, thermal insulation layer

• Floor design
✓ Ground floor: solid and suspended
✓ Upper floor

• Wall
✓ Load bearing wall
✓ Functions: Strength and stability, weather resistance, sound insulation,…
Thank you for your attention!

Hung-Lin CHI, PhD

ZS706
[email protected]