Builderz Focus

INTRODUCTION One of the important components of the building especially for those with more than one floor levels or building constructed at height is stairs . Stairs are building components which allow building users or households to move from one floor level to the other, so it is connector or communication path between floors or levels. Stairs are composed with series of steps at certain inclination angle to allow vertical movements inside and outside the building. Types of Stairs   Stairs can be classified into number of types as depending on its architectural design inside the building, the followings are some types of stairs that can be found in different buildings. Main parts of stairs . The following are standard requirements for each stair component, so as to have comfort and serviceable stair. Landing , this is horizontal slab between two or more  flights, which  is used as resting or changing in direction point. Riser , t is the vertical portion of step, wher...

  INTRODUCTION Hardened concrete as the artificial hard rock that could be designed or made with certain desired shape from casted fresh concrete, has some weaknesses that make it alone unfit for major structures which are the following ·        Have little or negligible strength against tension ·    Brittle property (not ductile), which makes it susceptible to cracking on loading When we design different major structures, there are two important criteria that are put into consideration    Safety of the structure against failure, the structure should be able to carry desired loads for intended period of time.   Serviceability or functional of the structure, where by the structure should neither deflect in extent that it affects comfort ability of users nor lead to detaching or breaking of attached materials such as tiles of curtain walls. Introduction of reinforcements which are ductile or elastic material into...

INTRODUCTION Soil natural found material from weathering processes of different rocks, soil in construction industry can be used as construction material or natural foundation for different structure erected on it. Soil compaction is most popular and important construction process that is must be performed when working with road layers, embankments and structural beds. Compaction of a road layer using steel roller Compaction of soil is the mechanical process on soil, that is applied to increase density of soil by reducing void spaces between soil particles, compaction as mechanical process can occur either naturally or artificially, naturally this can be seen in soil formation process. There are three things that need be present so that compaction can occur, which are water (lubricant), air voids and compactive effort. Water as the lubricant reduce friction resistance (shear strength) between soil particles, that allow soil particles to be driven or moved into air voids during compacti...

STRENGTH OF CONCRETE Is the property of hardened concrete to resist excessive strains due to induced stresses that could result to its failure, these stresses can be from internal or external factors. Strengths of hardened concrete can be distinguished from one to another regarding to type of stress or load that a concrete is required to resist, as follows 1. Compressive strength This is the ability of hardened concrete to resist compression stresses; the compression strength of concrete is the one which denotes grade of concrete, this is very important strength property of concrete than other strength properties because a). Easy to measure b). Other strength properties such as flexural shear and bond strengths they can be deduced from compressive strength through established correlations. Compression strength of concrete is measured through standard uniaxial compression test, which can be performed on concrete cubes or cylinders. On going compression strength testing of concrete cub...

  INTRODUCTION Angular measurement is the measurement of angular distances between two directions establishes either horizontally or vertically. Angular measurement can be measurement by using various kinds of instruments with different accuracies such as compass, theodolite, total stations and GPS. Angular measurement systems In surveying we have three systems of angular measurements that are used in various countries and regions across the globe this is due to difference in standard codes and researches. Here we have sexagesimal system, centesimal system and radian system. Circle division in different systems 1. Sexagesimal system This is the system in which earth as circle is divided into 360 equal parts known as degree; this system of angular measurement is used in many countries in the world including UK. In this system angular distances (angles) are measured in degrees ( 0 ), minutes (‘), and seconds (“), where by 1 0 = 60’ and 1’ =- 60”.  2.  Cen...

Reinforced Concrete as the composite structural material of reinforcements and concrete is mostly popular construction material in the world due to its properties. During construction of reinforced concrete structures, always reinforcements are not left exposed to the environment due to different factors, a concrete portion that keep reinforcements away from environmental exposure is what called concrete cover . In construction of different of structures there is provision of concrete covers of different sizes (thickness), in this post we will look on concrete cover its purpose for application and how its size is desired. Reasons for provision of concrete cover 1. Provision of thermal insulation and fire protection to reinforcements. Concrete is one of materials forming reinforced concrete, is most highly fire resistive material in construction. At high temperature that could be due to uncontrolled fire properties such as strength, modulus of elasticity of different materials are r...

In construction industry, concrete exist as most  popular building material exist in two forms as fresh concrete and hardened concrete. Fresh concrete , this is concrete in plastic state that can be poured or casted in different shaped forms to form artificial hard rock on hardening. Hardened concrete , this is the concrete in solid form, concrete that lost its plasticity property so it can not be poured or casted in forms. Concrete in each form or state has its specific properties which describe its behaviors in different conditions during its lifetime. The following are the properties of hardened concrete which describe how hardened concrete behaves and how they affected by external surrounding. Strength Strength , this is the ability of hardened concrete to withstand induced stresses in structure where is going to be used. The strength of concrete can be  expressed in three kinds, due to different kinds of stresses that exist from structure usage, here we have compressive s...

In construction projects, there is erection of different structural and non structural members (components) to their adequate position to form a required structure. The positioning of structure components into their accurate and precise position is done by through surveying by considering both vertical and horizontal references. In either vertical or horizontal referencing there is either linear measurement or angular measurement sometimes both. Linear measurement in surveying refers to horizontal or vertical measurement of linear distances on earth’s surface so as to allocate different features either man made or natural.   Units conversions in linear measurements   In linear measurements, there are two most preferable, acceptable and used systems of measurement which are metric and imperial system of measurements. The two systems units can be converted as follows. Conversion of distance measuring units Instruments used for linear measurement Various instruments are...