Floor: Definition

Buildings Primary horizontal planes Support live & dead loads Transfer loads laterally to beams/column/bearing walls Also provide lateral support to adjacent walls

Floor: Functional Requirement

Floor must have: Strength and stability

Esp. suspended/raised floor Lateral restraint Critical for upper floor: as fire barrier between levels Sound: Critical for acoustic building Thermal: Esp. for ground & basement floor Critical for ground floor: waterproofing Services between or under floor

Fire resistance

Insulation: Sound & Thermal

Damp Resistance

Incorporation of services:

Floor: Type

Solid Ground Floor:

The lowest floor that stay in contact with the ground Plain or reinforced concrete Raised floor from the ground May be constructed from timber, reinforced concrete or steel.

Suspended floor:

Material For Floor

Timber Floors

Light self weight, dry construction Simple to construct Suitable for building less than 4 levels Low fire resistance and sound insulation Strong & good fire resistance Normal form of construction for multi storey buildings Better sound insulation Various type of floor construction available Common in industrial building Rarely used alone; coupled with the use of concrete

Concrete Floor

Steel floor

Ground Floor: Design Consideration

In designing ground floor, consideration of the level at which the floors shall be placed relative to the surrounding ground is important factors that govern the floor level,

the nature of the site and the form of construction Ground- solid construction (concrete) Suspended timber ground floors are common or domestic scale buildings.

In most buildings,

SKIRTING FLOOR FINISHES

150mm

REINFORCEMENT BAR

PAD FOOTING

Ground floor: Components

Component

Hardcore Sand blinding / lean concrete Damp proof membrane Concrete Floor screed Floor finish Skirting

Ground floor: Construction Process

1. COMPACTION -Soil compacted before hardcore is laid with compactor -Prevent structure failure when soil settlements occurs 2. HARDCORE -Stones & rocks are laid -Prevent water from soil to sip up to the structure

FLOOR SLAB

3. SANDBLINDING -To even off rough surface of hardcore -Damp proof membrane (DPM) is to be laid -To prevent DPM from getting punctured 4. DAMP PROOF MEMBRANE -Moisture barrier- polyethylene vapor barrier

Ground floor: Construction Process

5. REINFORCEMENT BAR -Spacer (concrete block) is tied to reinforcement bar -Avoid puncturing of DPM & to even off placement of the bars

FLOOR SLAB

6. CONCRETING - Concrete is poured & compacted with vibrator

7. UNIFORM WORK & FINISHES - Use of screed a wooden straightedge - Drawn over to a newly poured concrete slab - To bring concrete to proper level

Ground floor: Site study

Site preparation Clear the top soil

approx. 150-300mm To prevent any growth under concrete & rupturing the site concrete. Reduce moisture content of the ground

Ground floor: Site study

1. COMPACTION
-

Soil compacted before hardcore is laid with compactor Prevent structure failure when soil settlements occurs

Ground floor: Site study

2. Hardcore Consist of brick/concrete rubble, broken stone, etc. Hardcore is to fill in any small pockets, to provide a firm and dry base on which to place a concrete bed and to help spread any point loads over a greater area. It also acts against capillary action of moisture within the soil. Normally the thickness of hardcore required is 100- 150mm.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Ground floor: Site study

3. Sand blinding It is used to even off the surface of hardcore as damp-proof membrane is placed under the concrete bed. Firstly, it will prevent the dampproof membrane from being punctured by the rough hardcore and, secondly, it will provide a true surface from which the reinforcement can be positioned. Usually the sand blinding is of 50mm thick to cover up the hardcore.
Concreting Reinforcement bars

Damp proof membrane Sand blinding Hardcore

Soil

Photo 3

Floor slab

Ground floor: Site study

Common mistake practiced: the sand blinding did not cover the hardcore and also failed to create an even surface for the concrete bed.

Photo 4

4. Damp-proof membrane
According to Section 84, Prevention of dampness, Part VI of UNIFORM BUILDING BY-LAWS 1984, Suitable measures shall be taken to prevent the penetration of dampness and moisture into a building. Provision of damp-proof membrane within the floor, which turned up at the edges to blend with the damp-proof course in the walls to prevent any penetration of moisture by capillary action at edges of the concrete bed, will fulfill that regulation. Position: 1. Above concrete slab 2. Below concrete slab

Ground floor: Site study

Photo 5

Ground floor: Site study

5. REINFORCEMENT BAR
-Spacer (concrete block) is tied to reinforcement bar -Avoid puncturing of DPM & to even off placement of the bars
Reinforcement bars

Damp proof membrane

Sand blinding

Photo 6

Ground floor: Site study

Photo 8 6. CONCRETING - Concrete is poured & compacted with vibrator Photo 7

Concreting

Concrete bed Concrete bed is a layer of mass concrete and it can be made of reinforced or unreinforced concrete.

Ground floor: Site study

7. UNIFORM WORK & FINISHES - Use of screed a wooden straightedge - Drawn over to a newly poured concrete slab - To bring concrete to proper level Photo 9

Ground floor: Finishes

FLOOR FINISHES TYPE: Joint less- terrazzo, Granolithic paving, mastic asphalt paving.

terrazzo Mastic asphalt

Ground floor: Finishes

Tiles - Clay tiles, marble, Slate, Granite, Concrete tiles, Terrazzo, Mosaic, Ceramic.

marble

limestone

Slate

Ground floor: Finishes

Wood/ timber-Timber strips, Parquet

Thin tile and sheet materialsThermoplastic tiles, PVC tiles, Linoleum

Suspended Ground Floor: timber

Suspended Timber Floors Suspended timber floors are raised 300mm or more above over site concrete by sleeper walls. Sleeper walls are half brick thick and generally built at least three courses of bricks high. The sleepers are advisable to be built in honeycomb to allow free circulation of air below the floor.

Suspended Ground Floor: timber

Suspended Ground Floor: timber

Component of Suspended floor 1. Damp-proof membrane (DPM) 2. Wall Plate

This is a continuous length of timber which placed on top of DPM The size of 100 x 50 mm The function is to take and distribute load from joist evenly to the wall below and provide a surface so that floor joist can be nailed to.

Suspended Ground Floor: timber

3. Floor joist This is rectangular section timbers They are spaced at a distance of 400-600mm apart. The size is 38-50thick x 75-125 deep 4. Floor Board/ finishes The size is 100-180mm wide x up to 5 000mm length x 16, 19, 28 mm thickness. 5. Skirting

Suspended Ground Floor: timber

Photo 10
Cengal wood, which is used for flooring in the photo, contains pesticides in the form of insecticides and fungicides. This conforms to Section 103, Timber Floor, Part VI of UNIFORM BUILDING BY-LAWS 1984,the structural timber floors shall be designed of hardwood or of species of timber treated with a suitable wood preservative.

Suspended Ground Floor: timber

To allow good circulation of air, air bricks are necessary to be built at the end of the wall of a suspended timber floor system. The purpose is to provide good circulation of air underneath the timber floor and to avoid stagnant damp air, which is likely to induce the dry rot fungus to grow. According to rule 105, Space Below Floors To Be Ventilated, Part VI of UNIFORM BUILDING BY-LAWS 1984, where the ground floor of any building is constructed with timber joists and flooring boards, the space below the floor shall be adequately ventilated.

TYPE OF FLOOR FINISHES

BITUMEN-EPOXY A waterproofing, self-leveling floor screed, approximately 2-5mm thick, used as a damp resistant layer for old floors. This will require a latex screed before the finishing layer is applied. CUSHION FLOOR A vinyl floor finish with integral foam. FELT UNDERLAY Traditional Axminster and Wilton style carpets do not tend to have a bonded foam underlay and the traditional way to smooth out base floor irregularities was to use a felt. This has largely been superceded by rubber foam although felt often has better sound absorption qualities. Felt will need paper as a first layer. Under layers are important and will prevent some wearing.

GRANOLITHIC See screed. Generally a hard cement / sand layer but only measuring about 15-25mm. This is laid wetter than screed and with strength throughout instead of just on the surface so that it can be used as a wearing surface, particularly in garages. GRIPPER RODS Plywood battens around 25mm wide with small nails protruding 'hedgehog style'. These are laid spike up around the perimeter of a room to grip the edge of a carpet. LATEX SELF LEVELLING A mixture of fine aggregate and liquid rubber poured onto a floor to run and find its own level, thereby filling any small holes or slightly off-level areas. Around 6mm is the maximum workable depth.

LINO A traditional mixture of cork dust or wood dust, flax, chalk and linseed oil which is highly compressed between rollers onto a jute backing and used as flooring. Lino is produced near Dundee in Scotland. OVER BOARDING Floorboards are unsuitable for sheet flooring materials, as the joints will show through. This is prevented by over boarding with plywood or with pre-soaked or oiled hardboard. Pre-soaking with water is important to prevent expansion 'bubbling up' the boarding. SCREED A coarse, washed sand, sometimes granite based and referred to as 'grano', which is mixed with cement when slightly damp and spread over a floor to about 65mm then steel trowelled smooth. The screed may be laid over a concrete floor a day or so after setting and monolithically bonded to the concrete by pouring liquid cement (grout) over as glue.

TERRAZZO A mixture of white cement and marble chippings/powder, laid wet then ground smooth. This is often seen in shop doorways but can also be used for work surfaces and basins. THERMOPLASTIC A finishing floor tile of hard vinyl plastic that, in the past, was mixed with asbestos fibre. For this reason, 20-year-old marbled plastic tiles should be treated as suspect.

Reference
Allen, Edward. (1999) Fundamentals of Building Construction Materials & Methods 3rd Ed. NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sharma, S.K. (1990) Building Construction 7th Ed. Delhi: S. Chand & Co. Ltd. Chudley, Roy. (1999) Construction Technology 3rd Ed. UK: Addison Wesley Longman Ltd. R. Barry, (1984) The Construction Of Building Volume 1 UK: The English Language Book Society and Granada.