Log book - Week 4 FLOOR SYSTEMS AND HORIZONTAL ELEMENTS"
Floor & Framing Systems Concrete systems: -The thickness of a slab is calculated by the distance between beams divided 30. As some buildings have a height restriction, this means that each floor of a building must be a small as possible whilst still maintaining the same internal area. One way of shortening the building is to lay the concrete slabs flat instead of standing upright. Although standing the slabs upright gives a lot more compressive strength, it takes up a lot of the crucially needed height. The main things to take into consideration when constructing flooring and framing systems are anticipated floor loads, costs and efficiency. This is necessary for cornet, steel and timber systems. Steel systems: Girders are the main beams, which are usually steel but can be concrete. Water pipes can be carried through the gap between a joist. Important buildings such as hospitals are built with concrete as they are able to withstand fire longer than steel or timber.
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Timber systems: The main parts of timber systems are Bearers(primary) and Joists(secondary) which support the flooring. Eg. supports floorboards or decking. The joists are supported on bearers. The bearers which are supported on concrete columns reduce the length of the joists therefore making them more stable as it increases the number of pathways to the solid ground.
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IMAGE 1: Steel girder.