FLOORING

7.1 Flooring and its types

 Flooring

Floor are the horizontal elements of a building structure which divide the building into different level for the purpose of creating more accommodation with in a restricted space one above the other and provide support for the occupants, furniture, equipment etc. of a building.

Floor system is the building’s primary horizontal planes which support both live and dead loads. Structurally the floor system must transfer these loads laterally to either beams or columns or to the bearing walls while providing at the same time lateral support for adjacent walls. A floor system may be composed of linear beams or joist overlaid with a plane of sheathing ( protective covering consisting) or it may be an almost homogenous material.

Types

1. Ground floor
2. Basement floor
3. Upper floor

1. Ground floor

The bottom floor near the natural surrounding ground level is termed as ground floor.

OR

The floor of a building immediately above ground is known as ground floor.

Two types of ground floor

a) Solid ground floor

b) Suspended ground floor

1. Solid ground floor

In this floor there is no gap between ground level and plinth level (ground floor level). The gap between ground level and plinth level are completely filled with solid materials.

                           b)Suspended ground floor

Suspended ground floor is a timber floor that is not touching the ground level and it is suspended above the ground. In this floor a certain air gap between the ground level and the plinth level is there. Ventilation is provided in the wall to keep the air circulation and floor becomes dry. Mostly used in dancing hall, stage, auditorium, etc.

• Basement floor

A floor when provided for the accommodation below the natural ground level is termed as basement floor. A basement floor is similar to ground floor except its location.

• Upper floor

All other floor above the ground floor are termed as upper floor (timber floor, flay-stones flooring resting on steel joists, stone patty floors, R.C.C.,etc.)

7.2 Special types of floor finishing

          The materials used for floor finishing or floor covering or flooring are:

1. Mud and muram
2. Bricks
3. Flag stones
4. Concrete
5. Terrazzo
6. Mosaic
7. Tiles
8. Marble
9. Granite finish
10. Wood or timber
11. Asphalt
12. Rubber
13. Linoleum flooring
14. Cork
15. Glass
16.  Plastic or P.V.C.

1. Mud and muram flooring
2. used only in low cost housing

          Mud flooring

•   Cheap, hard, fairly impervious, easy to construct and maintain
•    Has good thermal insulation property due to which it remains cool in summer and fairly warm in winter.
•    25 cm thick selected moist earth is speeded and is then rammed well to get a compacted thickness of 15 cm.
• To prevent cracks due to drying, small quantity of chopped straw is mixed in moist earth.
• Sometimes cow-dung is mixed with moist earth and thin paint of cement -cow dung (1:2 to 1:3 is also applied).

Muram

•     Is a form of disintegrated rock with binding material; flooring has practically same properties as that of mud flooring.
•    15 cm thick layer of muram is laid over prepare sub grade, over it, 2.5 cm thick layer of powder muram (fine muram) is spread and water is sprinkled over it and then rammed well.
•   After that, surface is saturated with a 6 mm thin film of water
• After dry hard surface is formed, it is rubbed with thin paste of cow-dung and rammed again for two days during morning hours.

  2)  Brick flooring

• Used in cheap construction, specially where good bricks are available, specially where good bricks are available, especially suited to houses , stores, etc.
• Well burnt and uniform shape bricks are used

Laid either flat or on edges arrange, set any patterns, for looking good

3) Flag stone flooring

• Is any laminated sand stone available in 2cm to 4 cm thickness, in the form of stone slabs of square (30cm*30 cm, 45cm*45 cm or 60cm*60cm) or rectangular size (45cm*60cm).
• Also called paving and laid on concrete base
• 10 to 15cm thick lime concrete or lean concrete is laid
• Flag stones are then laid over 20 to 25 mm thick layer of bed mortar.

•  Cement concrete flooring
• Commonly used for residential, commercial, industrial
• Moderately cheap, quite durable and easy to construct
• Floor consist two component
• base concrete and  ii) topping or wearing surface

• base course may be 7.5 to 10 cm thick either in dean cement concrete(1:3:6 to 1:5:10) or lime sand (or 1 lime: 1 surkhi:1 sand) and 60% coarse aggregate of 40 mm nominal size
• after hardened base concrete, surface is brushed and cleaned thoroughly and wetted the previous night and topping is then laid in square or rectangular panels by use of glass or plain asbestos strips or wooden battens set
• the topping consists of 1:2:4 cement concrete and laid to desired thickness ( usually 4cm)

5)  Terrazzo flooring (chips of polished stone set in concrete)

• Type of floor finish that is laid ( thin layer) over concrete topping
• very decorative and has good wearing properties
• specially prepared concrete surface containing cement ( white or      grey) and marble chips in proportion to 1:1.25 to 1:2 when the surface has set, the chips are exposed by grinding operation
• size 3 to 6 mm, more expensive

6. Mosaic flooring (small pieces of colored stone or glass)

• Made of small pieces of broken tiles of china glazed or cement, or marble , arranged in different patterns
• On a concrete base 5 to 8 cm thick lime-surkhi mortar is spread and level. Then 3mm thick cementing material in the form of paste of two parts of slaked limen, one part of powdered marble and one part of Puzzolana materials spread and left to dry for about 4 hours.
• Then small pieces of broken tiles or marble pieces of different colors are arranged in definite patterns and hammered into cementing layer.

                         fig :- mosaic flooring

•  Tiles flooring
• Constructed from square hexagonal or other shapes made of clay (pottery),cement concrete
• Common use
• Tiled Method of layering tiled flooring is similar to the flag stone except that greater care is required.
• Before layering the tiles neat cement slurry is spread over the bedding mortar and the tiles are laid flat over it, gently pressing.

                 Fig:- ceramic floor tiles

• Marble flooring
• Superior type of flooring used in bathroom, kitchen
• Marble slabs may be laid in diff sizes
• Concrete base is prepared in same manner as that for concrete flooring
•  20 mm thick bedding mortar of (1:4 cement sand) is spread under the area of each individual slab and laid over the base concrete by gently pressed with wooden matter and leveled. 

•  Timber flooring

This floor is suspended type (or solid type)

• Made void between the upper finish floor and the ground so it is called suspended and it is made up of timber as wood material so called as timber floor
• The floor which is directly situated on the ground is called solid type
• The joists are placed on the wall plate of the main wall and other end of it is placed on the sleeper wall which is constructed on the ground as the simply foundation wall. The boarding are placed on the joist which is constructed as the finished floor. Air is continuously circulated inside the void between the ground floor and suspended floor which protect the wooden material from damaging. The air bricks and voids are provided for easy air circulation. This type of floor is constructed on the moist area and D.P.C. is placed on the main wall.

1. Asphalt Flooring
2. Being dustless, elastic, durable, water proof, acid proof and attractive in appearance
3. Clean sharp sand or grit is mixed to melted asphalts (molten mass) in proportion of 2:1(two parts cement and 1 part asphalt)
4. The compost is poured on the previously prepared concrete bed by means of iron ladle
5. Uniform thickness(13mm to 25mm)
6. Before the layer becomes hard very fine sand in small quantity is shifted over it and the surface is well rubbed

Asphalt flooring is of 4 types

1. Asphalt mastic flooring
2. Asphalt tiles flooring
3. Asphaltic terrazzo
4. Acid proof mastic flooring

(For details see B.C. Punmia’s book)

1. Rubber Flooring
2. Consists of sheets or tiles of rubber in variety of patterns and colom with thickness varying from 3 to10 mm
3. Sheets or tiles are fixed to concrete base
4. Resilient and noise proof

                                        Fig:- rubber flooring

1. Cork Floor
2. Perfectly noiseless and used in libraries, theaters, art galleries etc.
3. Available in the form of cork carpet or cork tiles , fixed to concrete base

                      Fig:- Cork Floating Floor planks

1. Glass Flooring
2. Special purpose flooring , used ion circumstances where it is desired to transmit light from upper floor to lower floor
3. Available in the form of tiles or slabs in varying thickness of 12 to 30 mm
4. Fixed in closely spaced frames

Fig:- glass flooring

1. Plastic or P.V.C. Flooring
2. Made of plastic material called Poly Vinyl Chloride (P.V.C.), fabricated in the form of tiles of different size and color shades
3. Widely used in all residential as well as non-residential buildings. The tiles are laid on concrete base.

7.3 Floor and Wall Ties

The present invention relates to an improved method of construction of building. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method of construction which provides a tensile connection between floor and wall element which when overloaded, fails in a ductile manner.

There are two general method of connection for a tensile connection between walls and floors. If such connection are going to fail at all, it isdesirable that the failure be in the tie element and be a ductile failure.

In the first method, reinforced bars are precast in the wall elements at regular spacing adjacent the intended final position of a floor slab. Each bar is bent out at right angles in the wall and one end is tied to the floor slab.

The second method incorporates a screw thread elements attached to reinforced rod within the wall element. A thread bar is attached to the screw threaded element and tied to the floor slab. This overcomes the difficulty of the first method but is more expensive method of connection. Further disadvantage is that within the presence of screw thread if failure occurs, one can’t reliably get ductile failure of the metal element. Further with both methods the strength of the tie is limited by the thickness of wall and strength of mortar.