Types of Building Construction

A building can be defined as a structure consisting of foundation, walls, floors and roofs erected to provide covered space for different uses. The choice of the method depends on the

• Extent of construction
• Importance of construction
• Economy
• Type of the land

Based on construction system, Building construction are classified into three types. They are:-

• Load bearing construction
• Framed construction
• Composite construction

Load Bearing Construction

In this system, the load bearing walls of stone or bricks are constructed on a continuous foundation. Loads from slab roof or trusses and floors are transmitted through load bearing walls to soil below the ground. Wall is resting on the wall footing. The load transfer mechanism in such a way that the load of roof and slab is transferred to the wall and then transferred to the footing and hard strata.

Hard strata is high density of soil which have capability resist the load of a construction and prevent a settlement. Load Bearing Construction is economical to two storeyed and can be built up to four storeyed. As the height of the construction gets increase, in terms to transfer load of a structure effective to the hard strata, the thickness of the wall get increased. It results in the reduced usable of the floor area. Now a days , Load Bearing Construction is only builded for non important construction.

Framed Construction

This structure consists of slabs, beams, columns and rigid joints. Here slabs rests on beams which are supported by a network of columns. The live loads from slab are transferred to cross beams, which in turn transfer it to main beams through rigid joints.The load transfer mechanism is in such a way that the load of slab and roof is transferred to the beam, beam to the column , column to the footing and then footing to the hard strata. In case of the frame construction, wall does not carry any load except itself weight. Wall is constructed to just enclose the area. Therefore the thickness of the wall is very less than the thickness of wall in load bearing construction . Frame construction can economical up to multi storeyed construction and also the speed of the construction of a frame construction is much faster than load bearing. Example of Frame construction can besteel construction or RCC construction. Now a days all the necessary constructions are made by frame construction.

Composite Construction

It is combination of both load bearing as well as framed structure. Composite structure are preferred for the buildings having large spans such as warehouse, workshops, halls, large factory sheds etc.It is suitable where there is hard strata is available at the shallow depth as the external wall is load bearing. Most of the wearhouse or the industrial shade are constructed as a composite construction.