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Chapter 3: Building Materials
Unit 3: Sustainable Building Materials
1. Watch the video 3.3.1, and write your response to the material discussed in the video
2. Watch the video 3.3.1, and answer these questions by choosing the appropriate options.
a) What is the video talking about?
1. Car tires 2. Tire logs 3. Tire waste
b) What was the consideration of modifying tire waste to become these products?
1. Millions of car tires were removed in USA
2. Every man, woman, and child removed car tires in USA.
3. Millions of car tires were removed in a year in USA
c) How many percents of a tire is worn by a car?
1. 10%
2. ½%
3. 90%
d) How did people recycle these used tires?
1. They burnt, buried, and ground the tire.
2. They remolded the ground tire into other products.
3. They used the crumbled tire for road fill.
Activate your knowledge
Discuss with your friends to answer these questions
What is sustainable building materials?
Can you give some examples of sustainable building materials?
2 e) What are the properties of the products?
1. inexpensive, and easy to use 2. similar to wooden logs
3. strong, and able to absorb deformation f) What are the products used for?
1. It can be used for building houses, bridges, and stairs.
2. It can be used for controlling erosion, sea walls, and stream bank protection.
3. It can be used for road fill.
g) What are the benefits of producing these products?
1. It is cleaning environment, producing green products, and creating jobs.
2. The products are applicable, reused, and can be used for various purposes.
3. It can be used for military purposes.
Preparing to watch
3. Read this
Green Building Materials
Introduction
The concept of sustainable building incorporates and integrates a variety of strategies during the design, construction and operation of building projects.
Green building materials offer specific benefits to the building owner and building occupants because of these five reasons:
• Reduced maintenance/replacement costs over the life of the building.
• Energy conservation.
• Improved occupant health and productivity.
• Lower costs associated with changing space configurations.
• Greater design flexibility.
Using green building materials and products promotes the conservation of dwindling
nonrenewable resources internationally. In addition, integrating green building materials into building projects can help reduce the environmental impacts associated with the extraction, transport, processing, fabrication, installation, reuse, recycling, and disposal of these building industry source materials.
3 What is a green building product or material?
Green building materials are composed of renewable, rather than nonrenewable resources.
Green materials are environmentally responsible because impacts are considered over the life of the product (Spiegel and Meadows, 1999). Depending upon project-specific goals, an assessment of green materials may involve an evaluation of one or more of the criteria listed below.
Green building material/product selection criteria
This information was based on Lynn Froeschle's article, "Environmental Assessment and Specification of Green Building Materials" (1999). Overall material/product selection criteria are based on resource efficiency, indoor air quality, energy efficiency, water conservation, and affordability
Resource Efficiency can be accomplished by utilizing materials that meet the following criteria:
• Recycled Content: Products with identifiable recycled content.
• Natural, plentiful or renewable: Materials harvested from sustainably managed sources and preferably have an independent certification.
• Resource efficient manufacturing process: Products manufactured with resource- efficient processes including reducing energy consumption, minimizing waste (recycled, recyclable and or source reduced product packaging), and reducing greenhouse gases.
• Locally available: Building materials, components, and systems found locally or regionally saving energy and resources in transportation to the project site.
• Salvaged, refurbished, or remanufactured: Includes saving a material from disposal.
• Reusable or recyclable:Materials that can be easily reused or recycled.
• Recycled or recyclable product packaging: Products enclosed in recycled content or packaging.
• Durable: Materials that are longer lasting or are comparable to conventional products with long life expectancies.
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is enhanced by utilizing materials that have low or non-toxic, Minimal chemical emissions, Low-VOC assembly. They are moistureresistant, healthfully maintained, and promote healthy IAQ by identifying indoor air pollutants or enhancing the air quality.
Energy Efficiency can be maximized by utilizing materials, components, and systems that help reduce energy consumption in buildings and facilities.
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Water Conservation can be obtained by utilizing materials, products, and systems that help reduce water consumption in buildings and conserve water in landscaped areas.
Affordability can be considered when building product life-cycle costs are within a project- defined percentage of the overall budget.
Modified from Green Building http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/GreenBuilding/, retrieved 15/10/2015
4. Identify the building, road, or any other construction materials used around you and based on the text above identify the sustainability of the materials.
While watching
5. Watch the video 3.3.2, and answer these following questions a. What is the topic of the video?
b. What are the benefits of using precast concrete?
c. What equipment is essential when erecting precast concrete?
d. Why is it claimed that using precast concrete reduce waste?
e. Why can precast concrete be used to reduce the total energy?
f. Does precast concrete contain recycle materials or is it reusable?
g. How does precast concrete help indoor environment quality?
h. Give an example that precast concrete provide flexibility in design?
i. What are the properties of precast concrete that make it durable?
After Watching
6. Please select one type of projects based on your study program. You are asked to design a building, highway, or dam. It will be constructed in a wet and humid area, either in the mountaineous or coast area. Please discuss whether it is good if you use precast concrete as the main materials for your project and and give reasons. You can discuss in a group of three or four, and then present a short report to the class.
7. Read this and then answer the questions
The advantages and disadvantages of
steel and wooden house frames?
5 Wood is fast and flexible
- Timber provides for flexibility of design, and allows modifications and tweaks to layout during the construction process. Factory pre-fabricated and pre-cut steel frames do not.
- Builders are familiar with using wood, and usually prefer it. Builders report frame construction times of two to two and a half time longer for steel frames.
- Steel frames, however, have the advantages of being able to be constructed in wet weather, and do not require the drying time of wood frames. Wood moves as it dries out.
- Wood is lower cost raw material than steel.
Smug and sound – Thermal performance
- Wood is 400 times better as thermal insulator than steel and 14 times better than concrete.
- In solid form, wood also has significant thermal mass properties, retaining heat from the day and releasing it at night.
- Wood also acts as humidity regulator, absorbing moisture when humid and desorbing moisture when the air is dry.
- Read more about the thermal performance of wood.
- All building materials used for the structure of houses in New Zealand are required to have a minimum service life of 50 years to comply with the building code.
- Wood, used appropriately in accordance with building standards, will usually far exceed this.
- The mutual enemy of both wood and steel is moisture. Ingress of moisture into wall cavities should be minimized and the design should ensure that any moisture that does enter from leaks or condensation can drain and dry.
- Although steel is normally galvanized to protect it from corrosion, steel frames are susceptible to rust where the surface coating is cut, scratched or penetrated, and from edges that have been cut.
- Wood treated with appropriate level of preservative, and properly maintained, can last in service for a hundred years or more.
Modified from http://www.nzwood.co.nz/, retrieved 15/9/2015
Complete this table to show the advantages and disadvantages of wood and steel for house frames
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Sustainability Wood Steel
+ - + -
Resource efficiency
- Recycled content ✓ ✓
- Natural, plentiful or renewable ✓ - Resource efficient manufacturing process
- Locally available ✓
- Refurbished or remanufactured - Reusable or recycle
- Durable Indoor Air Quality Energy Efficiency Water conservation
affordability ✓ ✓
Vocabulary
8. Word formation “Derivation”.
Derivation is the process of forming new words from the “stem word” by adding affixes, prefixes or suffixes, and these words will have different part of speech or different meanings, for example:
nature (noun) + al (suffix) → natural (adjective) nature (noun) + ly (suffix) → naturally (adverb)
un (prefix) + nature (noun) + al (suffix) → unnatural (adjective)
Find the words from the texts 3 and 7, and fill this table as much words as possible and guess the meanings of the words.
Noun Verb Adjective Adverb
Nature - natural naturally
cycle, cycling, recycling
cycle, recycle recycled, recyclable -
availability - available -
... efficient ...
etc etc etc etc
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Language focus
10. Passive sentences are very important in formal academic texts. Identify the passive sentences in text 7. The formula of passive sentences with “modal auxiliary”
11. Worksafety: Read this and answer the questions
Worksafety in construction sites
According to Construction Regulations 2015, a worker is someone who works for or under the control of a contractor site. Workers should recognise any risks because they are those most at risk of injury and ill health on a construction project. They can help those they are working for to establish ways in which the work can be carried out safely and without risk to health. Workers must report anything they see that is likely to endanger either their own or others health and safety. Workers must be consulted by their employers, or whoever is in control of their work, about matters which affect their health, safety and welfare.
Workers’ duties start as soon as they are appointed to start work on site and continue until the period they are contracted to work for finishes. In addition, workers must have the skills, knowledge, training and experience (SKTE) to do the work that they have been employed to do, or be in the process of obtaining them. If they do not have the full range of SKTE, their employer, or whoever is in control of them, must provide them with the training and supervision that enables them to carry out their work safely and without risk to health.
Workers have an important role and should take an active part in helping to manage health and safety risks. In particular, workers must:
• only carry out construction work if they have the relevant skills, knowledge, training and experience - or they are provided with the training and supervision that enables them to do it safely and without risk to health
• make themselves aware of the health and safety risks involved in work on every site and the way those risks are managed
• always follow site rules and procedures
• cooperate with other dutyholders, such as the contractor in control of their work and the principal contractor (who controls the overall project when there is more than one contractor)
MODAL + BE + VERB (PAST PARTICIPLE)
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• report any risks they find to whoever controls the work on site, whether the risks affect their own health and safety or anyone else, including other workers and members of the public
Employers must consult their workers (or their representatives) on any health and safety matters that affect them. Many employers go further by using positive worker involvement to highlight areas of concern and implement effective practices.
Modified from: http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/areyou/worker.htm, 15/10/2015
Answer these questions:
a. Who is a construction worker?
b. Why are construction workers important in helping to ensure construction work is carried out in a way that avoids harm?
c. When do construction workers’ duties start and finish?
d. What skills, knowledge, training and experience do construction workers need to carry out their work in a way that ensures health and safety on site?
e. What you need to do?
12. Enrichment
a. Find a youtube or news about sustainable materials for building houses, constructing bridges or any other civil objects.
b. Make notes of the materials, and write the positive and negative points of.using the materials
c. Discuss with your friends whether you are going to apply those materials in your designs.
Consider these points:
• strength
• The availability of the materials
• The cost
• The skills of the workers
• The process of manufacturing the materials
• The management to apply these materials
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Speaking
13. Study this
This is an example of a catalogue that you might get from a supplier ABCD. Study this
catalogue and you may get other information from other sources such as web or manufacturers.
You also might need other properties of the materials such as durability etc.
Material Compression Strength Tension Strength Price (psi) (kPa) (psi) (kPa)
Bricks 1000 7000 40 280 $15/m2
Limestone
9000 60000 300 2100
$8.50/
400mm x200mm x150mmm
Portland Cement 3000 21000 500 3500 $75/ton
Portland Concrete 1000 7000 200 1400 $155/m3
Taken from http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/compression-tension-strength-d_1352.html
Use the table to design a site office on a seashore or sea reclaimed area, this is the example of a conversation between Mr Wahid, a site civil engineer, and you, Sigit, as new junior civil engineer. You, a junior civil engineer, and Mr Wahid, site engineer, is discussing the appropriate and sustainable materials for the houses, roads and bridges.
This is the example of the conversation when they are discussing the materials for their site office on the seashore.
Sigit : Good morning, Sir. How are you today?
Wahid : Oh, hello, Sigit, I’m fine. I’m just wondering what materials we are going to use for our site offices on a seashore area. It’s wet, and contain salty vapor, but it often rain hard. I think, I would like to have two floor office so that it will not take large footprint and save the magrove forest.
Sigit : If it’s often on the seashore then, the hut should be high enough because at noon the sea water level rises. And almost all the construction
materials will be kept inside the hut. So, the hut should strong and has water tight.
Wahid : Yes, of course. What are the appropriate materials for our office?
Sigit : What do you think if the hut use precast concrete. It can be built very
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quickly and it can be demolished and reuse for future huts. This is a multiyear project and it might need more than one hut.
Wahid : I think you are right, some types of precast concrete is good for sea water and salty vapor. We can use the mangrove wood for the fence.
Sigit : Yes, the back part of the hut need fence because the vehicle access is from the back; the front part has sea view. Hmmm, it is a very nice site office.
Wahid : Ok, Sigit, can you calculate the precast concrete needed for the site office? I would like to have a two floor site office. The area will be 25 x 27 meters and each floor has at least 2.5 meters high.
Sigit : Yes, Sir. I will do it as soon as possible. What do you think if it has aluminium door and window frames. Aliminium is water and corrosion resistant.
Wahid : Good. Could you finish it by tomorrow. I will see you tomorrow
morning, so that I can check it before you write any ordering letter to the supplier.
Sigit : I’ll try my best, and see you tomorrow.
Make similar conversation dealing with the parts of building and the appropriate materials for those parts.
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Writing
14. Write an ordering letter to a building material supplier. For example:
Marina Offshore City
Jl. Marina Raya 100, Jakarta Utara 14351, Phone 021-8765432 e-mail: [email protected]
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Mr Abdullah Kadir
ABCD Building Material Supplier Jl. Pondok Hijau 123
Jakarta Utara 14253 Dear Mr Kadir
Thank you for sending your catalog so promptly. I received it a few days of my request. Please send me the following items:
No. Product Quantity Unit Price Total
1 Precast Concrete 100 x 100 m x
10mm 12 $155/m3 $186
I am closing a money order for $186. If there are some additional charges, please let me know.
Please transport the precast concrete to the address given above.
Yours sincerely,
Mohammad Sigit Suparno
12 References
1. Lynn M. Froeschle, "Environmental Assessment and Specification of Green Building Materials," The Construction Specifier, October 1999, p. 53. (Back)
2. D.M. Roodman and N. Lenssen, A Building Revolution: How Ecology and Health Concerns are Transforming Construction, Worldwatch Paper 124, Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C., March 1995, p. 5. (Back)
3. Ross Spiegel and Dru Meadows, Green Building Materials: A Guide to Product Selection and Specification, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1999. (Back)
