Adobe is a building material made from earth and organic materials. Adobe is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of earthen construction, or various architectural styles like Pueblo Revival or Territorial Revival. Most adobe buildings are similar in appearance to cob and rammed earth buildings. Adobe is among the earliest building materials, and is used throughout the world.
A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term brick denotes a unit primarily composed of clay, but is now also used informally to denote units made of other materials or other chemically cured construction blocks. Bricks can be joined using mortar, adhesives or by interlocking. Bricks are usually produced at brickworks in numerous classes, types, materials, and sizes which vary with region, and are produced in bulk quantities.
Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most widely used building material. Its usage worldwide, ton for ton, is twice that of steel, wood, plastics, and aluminium combined.
Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar. The term masonry can also refer to the building units themselves.
Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with mortar and even the ancient lime mortar, to wall or cover formed structures.
Earth materials include minerals, rocks, soil and water. These are the naturally occurring materials found on Earth that constitute the raw materials upon which our global society exists. Earth materials are vital resources that provide the basic components for life, agriculture and industry.
Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings and other structures, like bridges. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-made products are in use, some more and some less synthetic. The manufacturing of building materials is an established industry in many countries and the use of these materials is typically segmented into specific specialty trades, such as carpentry, insulation, plumbing, and roofing work. They provide the make-up of habitats and structures including homes.
Rammed earth is a technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method.
Earthbag construction is an inexpensive building method using mostly local soil to create structures which are both strong and can be quickly built.
A concrete block, also known as a cinder block in North American English, breeze block in British English, concrete masonry unit (CMU), or by various other terms, is a standard-size rectangular block used in building construction. The use of blockwork allows structures to be built in the traditional masonry style with layers of staggered blocks.
Papercrete is a building material that consists of re-pulped paper fiber combined with Portland cement or clay, as well as other soils. First patented in 1928 by Eric Patterson and Mike McCain, it was revived during the 1980s. It is generally perceived as an environmentally friendly material due to the significant recycled content, although this is offset by the presence of cement, which emits CO2 during manufacture. The material also lacks standardisation, and proper use therefore requires care and experience. However the inventors have both contributed considerably to research into developing the necessary machinery to make it, as well as methods of using it for construction.
Lime mortar or torching is a masonry mortar composed of lime and an aggregate such as sand, mixed with water. It is one of the oldest known types of mortar, used in ancient Rome and Greece, when it largely replaced the clay and gypsum mortars common to ancient Egyptian construction.
An earth structure is a building or other structure made largely from soil. Since soil is a widely available material, it has been used in construction since prehistory. It may be combined with other materials, compressed and/or baked to add strength.
Sandcrete is a yellow-white building material made from a binder, sand in a ratio of circa 1:8, and water. Sometimes other ingredients may be added to reduce the amount of expensive Portland cement such as pozzolanas and rice husk ash. Sandcrete is similar but weaker than mortar, for which the ratio is circa 1:5. Soil cement and landcrete are similar materials but use other types of soil and hydraform blocks which are compressed, stabilized, earth blocks.
Structural engineering depends on the knowledge of materials and their properties, in order to understand how different materials resist and support loads.
Fly ash brick (FAB) is a building material, specifically masonry units, containing class C or class F fly ash and water. Compressed at 28 MPa(272 atm) and cured for 24 hours in a 66 °C steam bath, then toughened with an air entrainment agent, the bricks can last for more than 100 freeze-thaw cycles. Owing to the high concentration of calcium oxide in class C fly ash, the brick is described as "self-cementing". The manufacturing method saves energy, reduces mercury pollution in the environment, and often costs 20% less than traditional clay brick manufacturing.
Concrete is produced in a variety of compositions, finishes and performance characteristics to meet a wide range of needs.
Concrete has relatively high compressive strength, but significantly lower tensile strength. The compressive strength is typically controlled with the ratio of water to cement when forming the concrete, and tensile strength is increased by additives, typically steel, to create reinforced concrete. In other words we can say concrete is made up of sand, ballast, cement and water.
Hydraform International Pty Ltd. is a manufacturer of brick and blockmaking machines. It was founded in Johannesburg, South Africa. The company specialises in brick and blockmaking machines and accessories that enable the development of a stabilised soil cement block or a compressed earth block (CEB). Their products include stabilised soil blockmaking machines, pan mixing machines that are used to create the mixture for the blockmaking mixtures and accessories for these machines. The brick that is created by their machines is an interlocking stabilised soil cement block that is made using a mixture of soil, water and Portland Cement.
Alker is an earth-based stabilized building material produced by the addition of gypsum, lime, and water to earth with the appropriate granulometric structure and with a cohesive property. Unbaked and produced on-site either as adobe blocks or by pouring into mouldings, it has significant economical and ecological advantages. Its physical and mechanical properties are superior to traditional earth construction materials, and are comparable to other stabilized earthen materials. The ratios of the mixture are determined in accordance with the purpose of construction. Alker has primarily been used as a wall construction material; for this purpose, the addition of 8-10% gypsum, 2.5-5% lime, and 20% water to earth produces optimum results. These ratios may change according to the nature and content of clay in the soil.
