Different Types of Building Materials

The materials which are used for the construction of the buildings are known as building materials. Building materials are made of many natural products such as clay, leaves, twigs, rocks, sand and many more. Besides this, some man made products are also used for making the building materials. It is interesting to know that there are many countries that the building materials are being manufacture in which are used for different purposes like plumbing, carpeting etc.

Natural and synthetic are the two categories of building materials. But both have their own uses. The people around the world use such building materials to their houses or buildings which are suitable to their local weather conditions.

Natural Building Materials:

The materials which have not gone through any process are natural building material like glass.

Synthetic Building Materials:

The materials made in industries and gone through processing after human manipulation are known as synthetic building materials like plastics.

For structural components, stone and brush are generally used, whereas mud as a type of concrete and insulation is used to fill in the space between stone and brush. Flexible material such as fabric membranes are supported by a system of steel cables or internal air pressure which can be used for the manufacture of modern buildings.

The most important role played in manufacture of buildings is of clay and mud.

The amount of mud and clay used leads to the different styles of buildings. But it mostly depends on the quality of the soil that is being used.

The important class of building material is Cement. It is interesting to know that natural fibers and wood are composed of many soluble organic compounds like phonemics, glycosides and carbohydrates which are very dangerous. So, before using wood in making cement bonded components, its compatibility is to be checked with the cement, to prevent it from any danger. Many procedures based on different characteristics are used, such as, compatibility of hydration, interfacial bond, strength and morphology to determine wood-cement compatibility.

Whereas the rammed earth which is use in creating walls have both old and new version, one of it is made by packing tightly or compacting mud between the planks using hand, and now mechanical pneumatic compressors and machines are used. The houses which are built through such building materials like rammed earth tend to be naturally warm in winter and cool in summer. The reason behind this is that, solid and clay are very good thermal mass and they both help a lot in keeping the temperature at a constant level.

Whereas the drawback of earthen walls is that they change temperature slowly. There are quite many similar alternatives now available that can be used... But due to the presence of clay in the earthen wall the heat and coolness stays longer. Wood built houses have no such issues. Building by people mostly with dirt and clay such as adobe and cob, have been built for centuries in the rest of the world. Some are still being built by many people but now, not on a large scale. Many of these buildings which have been created hundred years ago are still in good condition and are fit for living.

Cob Style:

When the clay is used on the large scale then it means the clay is being use in the manufacture of cob style houses or buildings.

Sod Style:

The low clay soil is usually used with the manufacturing of sod style building.

Building Material and Building Products:

Building product is a term which is often use in market place and basically refers to that particles which are already made from various materials. Such are used in architectural and decorative hardware parts of a building. The building materials are not a part of building products. These both are different things. The difference between building material and building product is that the building material is used in manufacturing a building whereas the building products are used exclusively to construct the supporting fixtures like windows, doors, cabinets, etc and also in the construction of the building architecture. If building materials are used in construction of building than building products is only used to make the building work in a modular fashion.

List of Building Materials

There are several building materials which are being used in the manufacture of the buildings from many centuries and are still in use. Some of them are:

Rock which have existed for histories. We can say that it is one of the long lasting building materials which is available still. Being a dense building material, it is very protective. But it has many draw back as well like it is too heavy and it is very difficult to keep it warm.
The oldest building material is thatch and it is very cheap. Also because grass is easily harvested and it is also good insulator.
The building material which is mostly used in tropical areas and sub-tropical areas is brush which is made of plant parts. And brush structures are entirely found in rain forests.
The uncommon building material is ice which was only used for igloos. But now has being used in some places like ice hotels for tourist attraction.
Like cement, concrete is a composite building material made from the combination of rock. Portland is the most common place for concrete. Some features like longevity and formability made concrete the most common but important building material in this modern age.
The building material used for structural framework of buildings is metal. Metal is of many types. For longevity of building, metal is a best building material. Steel is a metal alloy. Corrosion is the metals prime enemy. When a building industry needs large amount of metal, a large number of human labors is also required to produce metal. Some of the metals like gold and silver are only used as decoration because these materials are quite unaffordable and it also lack the structural quality like hardness.
The building material which is use now a days and it is also an element of class and richness, is glass.