Category: Building Materials

The category talks about various building materials. They are, Stones, bricks, cement and lime. Stone is a naturally available building material that has been used for construction from the early age of civilization. Brick, the next in the category of building materials is obtained by molding good clay into a block, which is dried and then burnt. Lime is one of the oldest binding materials used in building construction. When it is mixed with sand it provides lime mortar and when mixed with sand and coarse aggregate, it forms lime concrete. Field test of Cement is one of the most important activity to be done at site to ensure the quality of construction. Every structure comprises of hundreds of building materials like sand, cement, aggregates, bricks, tiles, marble, etc. For creating a quality structure, building material quality plays an important role and needs to be checked frequently at different stages of construction.  Normally lab tests are conducted to ascertain the properties of cement. Lab tests require time, special types of equipment, and professionals for testing and interpreting the results. It may not be possible to check all the properties of cement at the site. To overcome this difficulty cement tests are categorised into two. The quality of cement can be confirmed with the help of some simple field tests. These tests do not require any sophisticated types of equipment and professional skills and get the results very quickly. By conducting these simple tests and analysing the results we will get an idea about the cement quality and can immediately decide on accepting or rejecting it. These are first look tests and quality of cement is ensured by its smoothness to touch, the colour of cement, etc.