BUILDING MATERIALS

David J. Akers
Civil Engineer, San Diego, California
This section describes the basic materials used in building construction and discusses their common applications.
1. CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS
Cementitious materials include the many products that are mixed with either
water or some other liquid or both to form a cementing paste that may be
formed or molded while plastic but will set into a rigid shape. When sand is
added to the paste, mortar is formed. A combination of coarse and fine
aggregate (sand) added to the paste forms concrete.
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TYPES OF CEMENTITIOUS MATERIALS

the simplest classifications is by the chemical constituent that is responsible
for the setting or hardening of the cement.
1. Modern Cement - portland, alu-minous, and natural cements
2. Limes - principal function today is to plasticize the otherwise harsh
cements and ad resilience to mortars and stuccoes. Use of limes is
beneficial in that their slow setting promotes healing, the recementing of
hairline cracks.
3. Gypsum cements - is composed of calcined gypsum and its related
products.
4. Oxychloride cements - a class of specialty cements of unusual proper-ties.
Their cost prohibits their general use in competition with the cheaper
cements;
5. but for special uses, such as the production of sparkproof floors, they
cannot be equaled.
6. Masonry cements or mortar cements
7. Polymers are plastics with long-chain
8. molecules. Concretes made with them have many qualities much superior
to those
9. of ordinary concrete.