Why Should You Use Quality Material for Construction Of Your Home?

                                                    Here is the answer for this question.
Often we give the construction responsibility to contractors, where they choose the material for our home construction. Here we don’t have any idea regarding the basic material they are using & of what quality are being used. For construction the home owners should know about the material being used, because higher the quality of material, higher will be the durability of house.

So we are covering some basic material here, which is called structural material :-

A)      Cement:-

Cement is the basic binding material in concrete mixes which consists of cement, sand, stone aggregates & water. Cement mortar consists of cement, sand & water. When mixes with water, cement sets & hardens by means of chemical reactions.

Types of cement:-

1.      Ordinary Portland cement

2.      Blast furnace slag cement

3.      Flyash-based Portland pozzolana cement

4.      Air entertaining cement

5.      Low alkali cement

6.      Hydrophobic cement

7.      Sulphate resisting cement

8.      Quick setting cement

9.      Low heat cement

10.  Rapid hardening cement

11.  Coloured cement

12.  Expansive cement & many more

From this list some are used for bridge construction, some are for commercial buildings. But only two categories of cement are generally used for normal house construction:

1)OPC contains lime, silica, alumina, iron oxide, etc., & is divided into three grades 33,43 & 53 depending on the minimum compressive strength of cement sand mortar cubes at 28 days.

For example, the minimum compressive strength of 33 grade OPC would be 33N/mm² or 330 kg/cm² at 28 days.

Always remember that long-term strengths of all the grades remain the same. Often, low-grade cement is preferred due to its performance parameters like low heat hydration, protection from cracks & durability.

2)Blended cement is similar to ordinary Portland cement. Except, it has mineral additives(flyash, slag, etc.)Which improve the properties of both fresh and hardened concrete. This is because blended cement allows for extended hydration period, reduced water demand, low heat of hydration & improved cohesion of the paste. It also enhances the durability owing to its lower permeability & improved micro structure. Furthermore, ingredients used in blended cement make it a value-added, eco-friendly product.

There are many companies are available for cement so you should choose wisely that which company will meet your requirement.

Storage of cement:-

Also if you are buying cement in bulk amount then you should be careful about its storage , because water is the no 1 enemy of cement. That is why, you need to ensure that that cement should be kept away from moisture, in any form. The room where the cement is kept stored must have airtight doors & windows & it should be kept on raised platform &covered with a tarpaulin.Also try to use the cement in ‘first –in-first-out’ method, so that it will not deteriorate.

Some misconceptions about cement:-

1) Use of high early strength cement results in reduced cement content in concrete. Reducing cement content in the concrete mix results ,in a higher water to cement ratio, which in turns leads to higher permeability of the concrete and eventually ,to poor durability of the concrete structure.

Therefore you should never use a higher grade to save on the quantity of cement.

2)Some people thought that darker the colour of the cement better will be the durability of structure or requirement of cement will be less .

 B)Sand & Stone:-

The second thing required for construction is sand & stone.

The sand and stone are called  aggregates. These two products consist of 70-75% of the total volume of concrete and give body to it. River sand or stone is used as fine aggregate and the stone pieces (crushed rock) as coarse aggregates. In certain parts of the country,10 mm stone pieces are called grit & 20 mm pieces are called coarse aggregates.

The 10 mm & 20 mm stone aggregate are always mixed to get best results, but some time some contractor reduce the amount of 10 mm stone aggregate as a result more sand will be required, which in turn lead to more water absorption per cement bag .And the result of all these thing will lead to poor settling of structure and reduce the durability of building. So it is always best to use the 20mm & 10 mm aggregate ratio in the range of 60:40 to 70:30 . 

Things to focus on when buying aggregates

Stone:-

• Stones must be clean, dense, hard
•  It must not be elongated
• Should be cubical in shape
• Different stone aggregates must not be mixed.

Sand:-

• It should be clean 
• There shouldn’t any clay, Slit, glass, plastic or other materials.

AND another important thing is try to choose good sand in which there is no tiny stones in it, because it affects very much during the plastering work. Because of this tiny stones holes are created in walls.

c)Bricks:-

Bricks also are used for making walls. There are two types of bricks. One is red brick another is cement brick. The cement bricks are quite cheaper than that of red brick .Red brick has its property regarding the temperature of house and cement brick has it’s own.so while choosing bricks decide which bricks suits to you.

Also while buying bricks be careful for maintaining bricks shape because broken bricks cannot be used for construction.

 D)Water:-It is the most essential element of construction material. It distributes the cement evenly so that every particle is coated with cement properly. The chemical reaction of water with cement is called as hydration, wherein it sets & hardens the cement. You need to be careful about the amount of water that in which stage what amount of water is to be used. So simply apply the golden rule :”Use minimum required water for mixing of concrete and mortar,and maximum water for entire curing period.”

Along with these things many other factors affect the durability of building, such as

Curing:- During construction curing is an important part in every step which increases the durability of buildings in a large way by preventing the walls from cracking.

Concrete compaction:-Concrete compaction is done during the roof construction. If it is not done properly then voids are created which leads to weakening of the structure.

Moisture:-The moisture quantity in air depends upon the area topography and also the building side environment. If there is always moisture in the environment then there will efflorescence occurs which will convert salt into soluble solution & when it evaporates it become crystallized on the concrete surface. This will damage the building. So always choose sand in which there will be less salt composition.

Here we have discussed certain things which you should keep in mind while choosing material for your home construction.Give your suggestions regarding choosing of quality material and also share you experience.