Essential Construction Materials: Types and Properties

Posted on May 26, 2025 in Geology

Building Materials and Components

Structural Elements

  • The structure is the skeleton of a building. It is formed by the foundations, columns, beams, and floor slabs. It can be made of concrete, reinforced concrete, or steel.

Enclosures

  • Enclosures serve as external protection. They are formed by the walls and roof facade.

Partitions

  • Partitions are internal walls that distribute the interior space of each building, primarily made from bricks or prefabricated gypsum.

Finishes and Coverings

  • Floor, wall, and ceiling coverings provide a clean finish. These include decorative materials such as paints and fabrics.

Natural Stone Materials

Extraction and Preparation

  • Stones are extracted from quarries manually or using mechanical means and explosives. The extracted stones must be washed before final finishing.

Types of Natural Stone

Magmatic or Igneous Rocks

  • Granulated texture. Granite is the most common, which has great strength and durability under compression.

Sedimentary Rocks

  • Can originate from various forms:
    • By accumulation of fragments of other rocks (e.g., sand, gravel, and clay).
    • By crystallization of substances or accumulation of mineralized organic residues (e.g., limestone).

Metamorphic Rocks

  • Formed from igneous and sedimentary rocks, undergoing natural transformation.
    • Slate: Gray or black, with a texture that allows its division into sheets.
    • Marble: Crystalline, compact texture, with spots and streaks of different colors.

Key Material Properties

  • Compressive Strength: Indicates the ability to support forces that tend to crush the material.
  • Tensile Strength: Informs us of the capacity to withstand forces that try to stretch it.
  • Flexural Strength: Reveals the ability to absorb forces that tend to bend it.

Artificial Stone Materials

Glass

  • Glass is a material known and widely used since ancient times. It is produced from oxides of raw materials like sand, lime, and soda.

Applications of Glass

  • Windows: Obtained using single panes spaced by dehydrated air space.
  • Floors and Walls: Translucent pieces of glass, solid or hollow, that are obtained by pressing a melt into the desired shape.
  • Thermal and Acoustic Insulation: Fiberglass is used, obtained from molten glass by passing it through small holes in a centrifugation movement.

Ceramics

  • Ceramics is a material composed primarily of clay, although its composition can vary. The most common products are tiles, roof tiles, and bricks. They are fragile, deformable, and non-combustible.

Ceramic Manufacturing Process

  • To make a ceramic piece, it undergoes these steps: crushing and grinding, sieving, mixing and kneading, molding, drying, and firing.

Binders and Derivatives

  • A binder is a powdered material used to attach one material to another. When combined with water, it adheres to the material and hardens through a physical process called setting.

Plaster

  • Plaster comes from gypsum stone (calcium sulfate). To use the stone in the construction process, it is subjected to heat to evaporate its water content, then it is ground to achieve the desired grain size.

Types of Plaster

  • Thick Plaster: Paste used for initial adhesion or grip.
  • Fine Plaster: Used for interior coating or finishing.
  • Prefabricated Gypsum: Has greater purity and strength than normal plaster casts.

Cement

  • Cement is the most important binder in construction. It is obtained by mixing limestone and clay, to which a proportion of gypsum is added. When combined with water and sand, a paste called cement mortar is obtained. This mix is used to adhere tiles, bricks, etc.