CE 200

Details of Construction
(Lab Manual)

Department of Civil Engineering

Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology
Version 1; November, 2015
 Preface

Any construction process is done in a step by step, within a given schedule, whether it is a
building, bridge or a tower. This is a task that needs sound planning, design, and field
supervision. Different structural members, e.g., beam, column, etc and different structures e.g.,
building, bridge, etc. each demands specific construction procedure to be followed depending on
the project, environment, time, etc. This lab handout covers some common structural members
their definition, types and typical construction steps. Although, undoubtedly, the title Details
of Construction actually refers to further detail description of construction process with its
various alternatives. This should be viewed as an introductory resource to that large sphere of
practical field knowledge. This Lab manual was prepared with the help of the renowned text
book Building Construction by Shushil Kumar. Pictures from some presentations of the students
of CE Department, AUST have also been used in describing different process.

Munshi Galib Muktadir

Department of Civil Engineering
Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology

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 INDEX

SL. No. Topic Name Page no.

1 Types of Building 1
2 Components of a Building 1
3 Load Transfer Path 07
4 Foundation 09
5 Methods of Site Exploration 10
6 Types of Foundation 14
7 Wall Footing 14
8 Single Footing 15
9 Combined Footing 18
10 Mat/ Raft Footing 19
11 Pile Foundation 25

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 Types of Building
Depending upon the character of occupancy or the type of use, different types of buildings can
be classified in following groups:

Residential Building [e.g. apartment houses, dormitories, hotels]

Educational Building
Institutional Building [e.g. hospitals, orphanages, jails etc.]
Assembly Building [e.g. theatres, gymnasiums, mosques etc.]
Business Building
Mercantile Building
Industrial Building [e.g. refineries, gas plants, dairies etc.]
Storage Building [e.g. warehouses, cold storages, garages etc.]
Hazardous Building

Components of a Building
A building can be broadly divided in two parts:

1. Super-structure
-Portion of the building above the ground
2. Sub-structure
-Portion of the building below the ground

Super-structure

Sub-structure

Fig. Super-structure & Sub-structure

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The components of a building can be broadly classified as under:

Foundations
o It is the lowest part of a structure below the ground level which is in direct
contact with the ground and transmits all dead, live and other loads to the soil
in a way that the soil is not stressed beyond its safe allowable bearing
capacity.

Fig. Foundation

Plinth
o The portion of the building between the ground surrounding the building and
the top of the floor immediately above the ground.
o Prevents rain water from entering the ground floor.

Fig. Plinth

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 Walls
o Walls are provided to enclose or divide the floor space in desired pattern.
o In addition, walls provide privacy, security and give protection against sun,
rain, cold and other adverse effects of weather.
o Non Load Bearing Walls:
Do not carry load to foundation. Rather only used as partition wall.
o Load Bearing Walls:
Participate in transferring load to foundation.

Fig. Wall

Beams
o A Beam is a structural element that is capable of withstanding load primarily
by resisting bending.
o Beams are primarily designed to take load coming in a direction parallel to its
cross section.
o Apart from taking load coming from transverse direction, beams are often
designed to take significant amount of axial load as well.

Fig. Beam

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 Columns
o Column is a structural element that transmits the weight of the structure above
to other structural elements below primarily through compression. In other
words, a column is primarily a compression member.
o Often column is designed to take significant lateral loads as well.

Fig. Column

Floors
o Floors are flat supporting elements of a building. They divide a building into
different levels thereby creating more accommodation on a given plot or land.
o The basic purpose of a floor is to provide a firm and dry platform for people
and other items like furniture, stores, equipment etc.

Fig. Floor

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 Doors, windows etc
o A door may be defined as a barrier secured in an opening left in a wall to
provide usual means of access to a building, room or passage.
o A window may be defined as an opening left in a wall for the purpose of
providing day light, vision and ventilation.

Fig. Door

Stairs
o A stair may be defined as a structure comprising of a number of steps
connecting one floor to another.

Fig. Stair

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 Roof
o It is the uppermost component of a building and its main function is to cover
the space below and protect it from rain, snow, sun, wind etc.

Fig. Roof

Building finishes
o A building is considered incomplete till such time the surface of its
components is given appropriate treatment.
o Building finishes include items like plastering, pointing, white/ color washing,
painting, varnishing, distempering etc.

Fig. Building Finish

Building services
o Building services include services like water supply, drainage, sanitation,
lighting, electricity, acoustics, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, fire
detection and fire control etc.

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 Load Transfer Path

For a typical frame structure, vertical external load (self-weight and other dead loads) passes
from one member to another in the following sequence and finally distributed on soil.

Load from Superimposed Deal Load (Partition wall, furniture etc) and Live Load is
Slab initially carried by the slab on which those are placed.

This load is transferred from slab to the beams that support the slab.
Beam

Load is transferred from beam to columns that support the beam.

Column

Column of one floor transfers load to column of the floor below.

Column

This process is continued.

Column

Bottom most column of the structure transfers load to foundation.

Foundation

Finally, foundation transfers the load to the soil beneath the structure.
Soil

*Lateral external load (wind load, earthquake load etc) takes a bit more complex path until transferred to soil and not discussed
here.

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On the other hand, for a typical Load Bearing Structure, vertical external load (self-weight and
other dead loads) passes from one member to another in the following sequence and finally
distributed on soil.

Load from Superimposed Deal Load (Partition wall, furniture etc) and Live Load is
Slab initially carried by the slab on which those are placed.

This load is transferred from slab to the beams that support the slab.
Beam

Load is transferred from beam to walls that support the beam.

Wall

Wall of one floor transfers load to wall of the floor below.

Wall

This process is continued.

Wall

Wall of the bottom floor transfers load to foundation.

Foundation

Finally, foundation transfers the load to the soil beneath the structure.
Soil

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 Foundation
What is Foundation?
It is the lowest part of a structure below ground level.
Has direct contact with ground.
It provides a base for the super-structure through the artificial arrangement of concrete
block, piles, raft etc.

Why is it needed?
To distribute the weight of structure over a large area without stressing the soil beyond its
capacity.
To load the sub-stratum evenly and prevent unequal settlement or differential
settlement.
To provide a level surface that facilitates subsequent construction works.
To take the structure deep into the ground and thus increase its stability by preventing
overturning.

As self weight and all other type of load that comes to a structure is finally transferred to the soil
beneath it, the designer should have adequate information regarding the type and nature of soil
available at different depths at the site for designing safe, sound and economical foundation for a
structure. The aim is to get as much information about the physical properties and characteristics
of the underlying material at site as well as details of other geological features of the area. All
these attempts and activities are termed, in a broader sense, as Site Exploration.

More specifically, purposes of site exploration are:

Determination of safe bearing capacity of soil.
Selection of a safe and economical foundation type.
Determination of depth of foundation.
Prediction of the settlement of foundation.
Locating ground water level.
Forecasting the difficulties which are likely to be encountered due to nature of subsoil
during construction.

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 Methods of site exploration:
Test Pit:

Fig. Test Pit

o The holes which are large enough to permit the entry of persons for
inspection are called Test pits.
o Pits are square in plane and are dug by hand or by excavating equipment.
o In cohesion less soils the sides of the test pit are sharply sloped.
o In cohesive soils, at depth below 3m, bracing is required to keep the sides
of the pit vertical.
o Comparatively expensive thus used for structure having shallow
foundations (up to 3 meters).

Boring
o Methods of boring:
Auger boring

Fig. Different types of auger

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 o At every 30 cm of depth penetrated, the auger is
taken out.
o This method can be conveniently used for soil
penetration up to 15m.
o Not adopted in grounds where gravel, boulders or
compacted materials is present.

Shell and Auger boring [description writing in progress]

Wash boring

o Step 01: Three legged pipe derrick is placed

o Step 02: Centering and Placing of Augur

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o Step 03: Temporary casing is placed

o Step 04: Provision for water supply by hose pipe

o Step 05: Using bentonite

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 Percussion boring [description writing in progress]
Rotary boring [description writing in progress]

Probing [description writing in progress]

Sub-surface sounding [description writing in progress]
Geophysical method [description writing in progress]

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 Types of Foundation

Foundation

Shallow Deep

Strip Individual Mat Pile Caisson Cofferdam

Wall Footing:

o Consists of several courses of bricks.

o Lowest course usually twice the breadth of wall.
o CC and BFS are not part of foundation.
o Where the walls are subjected to heavy loading and the bearing capacity of soil is low,
reinforced concrete footing below the wall should be provided
o R.C. footing may be stepped or single

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Single Footing:

o Step 01: Excavation of Trench.

o Step 02: Leveling and Dressing

o Step 03: Brick Flat Soling (BFS),3- Size of brick 10x5x3 (9.5x4.5x2.75)

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o Step 04: Cement Concrete (CC),3 C:FA:CA = 1:2:4/1:3:6

o Step05: Shuttering/ Formwork (must be leak proof)

o Step 06: C.C. block (to maintain clear cover)

o Step 07: Rebar Placement

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o Step 08: Casting of Concrete, C:FA:CA=1:1.5:3/1:2:4, w/c ratio=0.42-0.5

o Step 09: Compaction (to avoid segregation)

o Step10: Removal of shuttering

o Step 11: Curing (usually 21 days for foundation)

o Step 12: Backfilling

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Combined Footing:

Combined footings are provided when

o Two internal columns are so close that the two isolated footings overlap.
o Space outside the external column is limited by property line.
o Bearing capacity of soil is so low.
o Area of footing = Total Load/ Allowable Bearing Capacity of soil
o Center of gravity of footing must coincide with center of gravity of load.

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Mat/ Raft Footing:
When Required?

o When foundation area cover 50-60% of the total plot area (i.e. when bearing capacity is
too low)
o Basement needed

Advantages:
o greater space (basement)
o reduce differential settlement

Disadvantages:
o Shore protection
o During construction ground water level may rise, which may cause the lose of contact
with soil.
o Water may seep inside
o When raft thickness is high, problem may arise due to heat differences.

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Construction Process Step by Step:

o Step 01: Centering and Leveling

To provide an accurate networks of height
o Step 02: Shoring
Shoring is the process of supporting an unsafe structure by
building a temporary structure.
Shoring is commonly used before installing the foundation.
supports the surrounding loads until the underground levels of
the building are constructed
To protect from shear failure of soil.
Can be of 3 types: Pile shore, steel sheet shore and timber
shore.

Concrete Pile Timber Pile Steel Pile

o Step 03: Soil Excavation

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 o Step 04: Providing Strutting and Bracing

o Step 05: Compaction and Leveling of Soil

Fig. Leveling Fig. Sand Layer Fig. Compaction

o Step 06: Provide Polythene, BFS, CC Layer

Fig. Polythene Fig. CC layer Fig. Leveler

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o Step 07: Placing CC block to beneath bottom layer reinforcement

o Step 08: Placing of Reinforcement

A batch of horizontal reinforcement is

placed;
Another batch of reinforcement is placed to
complete the bottom mesh;

Column rod placement

Vertical rod (chair) placement over bottom

mesh to hold the upper mesh

Upper mesh placement

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o Step 09: Concreting

o Step 10: Vibrating

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o Step 11: Leveling

o Step 12: Curing

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Pile Foundation:

Types of Pile
Foundation

Based on Based on
Function Material Used

1. Bearing Pile 2. Friction Pile Timber Pile Steel Pile

3. Shore Pile/
4. Anchor Pile Concrete Pile Composite Pile
Sheet Pile

5. Batter Pile 6. Fender Pile

7. Compaction
Pile

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 Fig. Bearing and Friction Pile

Fig. Sheet Pile

Fig. Anchor, Fender, Batter Pile

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Timber Piles (Load 20 tonne normally, lower end pointed)
Advantages:

o Economical and available in market

o Can be driven rapidly
o Elastic (for lateral forces)
o Do not need heavy machinery

Disadvantages:

o Restricted Length
o Low bearing capacity
o Susceptible to GWT (Dry &Wet season) * *
o Decay by salt water/attack by insect
o Can be injured during drive

Fig. Lower Pointed End of Timber Pile

Steel Piles:
o Available sizes are 46, 48, 510, 612
o Normally 30 ft length is available. If exceeds welded at the joint.
o Produce very small soil displacement.
o Penetrate through a rock or through hard substratum.
o Since corrosion is the main problem for steel, so required to coat with coal tar
or some other types to prevent corrosion.
o Other types of steel piles are
Pipe piles (like steel pipe)
Screw piles (may be hollow or solid, helix or screw base)

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 Disc piles (disc at bottom to increase bearing area, inserted in
sandy soil by water jets

Fig. Steel H Pile Fig. Steel Screw Pile Fig. Steel Disc Pile

Concrete Pile:
Advantages:

o Durable (independent of GWL)

o Could be of any length, size, shape.
o No. of piles required is less due to greater bearing power
o No corrosion
o Materials available

Disadvantages

o Cost > timber piles

o Must be reinforced to withstand handling stress
o Elaborate technical supervision and heavy driving machine required
o For precast, require space and carrying cost.

Types of
Concrete Pile

Pre-cast piles Cast-in-situ piles Prestressed

(Driven Piles) (Bored Piles) concrete piles

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Pre-cast piles (Driven Piles):

Pre means before & cast means made.So precast pile refers to a pile that has made before it is
being used.

Why and Where?

o Pre cast pile is used for extra heavy weight structure because it can ensure full
strength by proper maintaining.
o It can be used under water.

Shape:

o Circular
o Square
o Octagonal

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Construction Step by Step:

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