Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods

by Edward Allen, Joseph Iano

Overview

THE #1 REFERENCE ON BUILDING CONSTRUCTION—UPDATED FROM THE GROUND UP 

Edward Allen and Joseph Iano’s Fundamentals of Building Construction has been the go-to reference for thousands of professionals and students of architecture, engineering, and construction technology for over thirty years. The materials and methods described in this new Seventh Edition have been thoroughly updated to reflect the latest advancements in the industry. Carefully selected and logically arranged topics—ranging from basic building methods to the principles of structure and enclosure—help readers gain a working knowledge of the field in an enjoyable, easy-to-understand manner. All major construction systems, including light wood frame, mass timber, masonry, steel frame, light gauge steel, and reinforced concrete construction, are addressed.

Now in its Seventh Edition, Fundamentals of Building Construction contains substantial revisions and updates. New illustrations and photographs reflect the latest practices and developments in the industry. Revised chapters address exterior wall systems and high-performance buildings, an updated and comprehensive discussion of building enclosure science, evolving tools for assessing environmental and health impacts of building materials, and more. New and exciting developments in mass timber construction are also included. 

This Seventh Edition includes:

• 125 new or updated illustrations and photographs, as well as 40 new photorealistic renderings
• The latest in construction project delivery methods, construction scheduling, and trends in information technology affecting building design and construction
• Updated discussion of the latest LEED and Living Building Challenge sustainability standards along with expanded coverage of new methods for assessing the environmental impacts of materials and buildings
• Expanded coverage of mass timber materials, fire resistance of mass timber, and the design and construction of tall wood buildings
• Revised end-of-chapter sections, including references, websites, key terminology, review questions, and exercises
• Fully-updated collection of best-in-class ancillary materials: PowerPoint lecture slides, Instructor’s Manual, Test Bank, Interactive Exercises, and more
• Companion book, Exercises in Building Construction, available in print and eBook format

For the nuts and bolts on building construction practices and materials, Fundamentals of Building Construction: Materials and Methods, 7^th Edition lays the foundation that every architect and construction professional needs to build a successful career. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781119446194
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/15/2019
Edition description:	7th ed.
Pages:	944
Product dimensions:	8.80(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.90(d)

About the Author

EDWARD ALLEN, FAIA, has taught for more than 35 years as a faculty member at Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has designed more than 50 constructed buildings and is the best-selling coauthor of The Architects Studio Companion; Architectural Detailing; Form and Forces; and Fundamentals of Residential Construction.

JOSEPH IANO is an author, illustrator, and practicing architect who has taught design and technology in schools of architecture throughout the United States. He has collaborated on numerous publications over the span of more than 30 years. Currently, he heads a Seattle firm that provides technical and quality management consulting to architects and others in the design and construction industry.

Read an Excerpt

Fundamentals of Building Construction

Materials and Methods By Edward Allen Joseph Iano

John Wiley & Sons ISBN: 0-471-21903-7 Chapter One

Making Buildings

Choosing Building Systems: Information Resources

ASTM, CSA, and ANSI

Construction Trade and Professional Associations MasterFormat

Choosing Building Systems: The Work of the Design

Professional

Sustainability

Making Choices

Recurring Concerns

Designing Buildings

Choosing Building Systems: Constraints

Zoning Ordinances

Building Codes

Other Legal Constraints

Designing Buildings

A building begins as an idea in someone's mind, a desire for new and ample accommodations for a family, many families, an organization, or an enterprise. For any but the smallest of buildings, the next step for the owner of the prospective building is to engage, either directly or through a hired construction manager, the services of building design professionals. An architect helps to consolidate the owner's ideas about the new building, develops the form of the building, and assembles a group of engineering specialists to help work out concepts and details of foundations, structural support, and mechanical, electrical, and communications services.

This team of designers, working with the owner, then develops the scheme for the building in progressively finer degrees of detail. Drawings and written specifications are produced bythe architect-engineer design team to document how the building is to be made and of what. A general contractor is selected, either by negotiation or by competitive bidding. The general contractor hires subcontractors to carry out many specialized portions of the work. The drawings and specifications are submitted to the municipal inspector of buildings, who checks them for conformance with zoning ordinances and building codes before issuing a permit to build. Construction may then begin, with the building inspector, the architect, and the engineering consultants inspecting the work at frequent intervals to be sure that it is carried out according to plan.

Choosing Building Systems: Constraints

Although a building begins as an abstraction, it is built in a world of material realities. The designers of a building-the architects and engineers-work constantly from a knowledge of what is possible and what is not. They are able, on the one hand, to employ any of a limitless palette of building materials and any of a number of structural systems to produce a building of almost any desired form and texture. On the other hand, they are inescapably bound by certain physical limitations: how much land there is with which to work; how heavy a building the soil can support; how long a structural span is feasible; what sorts of materials will perform well in the given environment. They are also constrained by a construction budget and by a complex web of legal restrictions.

Those who work in the building professions need a broad understanding of many things, including people, climate, the physical principles by which buildings work, the technologies available for utilization in buildings, the legal restrictions on buildings, and the contractual arrangements under which buildings are built. This book is concerned primarily with the technologies of construction materials-what the materials are, how they are produced, what their properties are, and how they are crafted into buildings. These must be studied, however, with reference to many other factors that bear on the design of buildings, some of which require explanation here.

Zoning Ordinances

The legal restrictions on buildings begin with local zoning ordinances, which govern the types of activities that may take place on a given piece of land, how much of the land may be covered by the building or buildings, how far buildings must be set back from each of the property lines, how many parking spaces must be provided, how large a total floor area may be constructed, and how tall the building may be. In many cities, the zoning ordinances establish special center-city fire zones in which buildings may be built only of noncombustible materials. Copies of the zoning ordinances for a municipality are available for purchase or reference at the office of the building inspector or the planning department, or they may be consulted at public libraries.

Building Codes

In addition to its zoning ordinances, each local government also regulates building activity by means of a building code. The intent of a building code is to protect public health and safety, primarily against building fires, by setting a minimum standard of construction quality.

Most building codes in North America are based on one of several model building codes, standardized codes prepared by national organizations of local building code officials. Canada publishes its own model code, the National Building Code of Canada. In the United States, building codes are enacted and enforced at the state and local levels. At this writing, more and more local code jurisdictions throughout the United States are adopting as a model the International Building Code(r) (IBC), the first unified code in U.S. history, first published in March of 2000. Many jurisdictions, however, still base their codes on three earlier model codes that competed with one another: In the western United States and parts of the Midwest, most codes have been modeled after the Uniform Building Code (UBC). In the East and other areas of the Midwest, the BOCA National Building Code (BOCA) has been the model. The Standard Building Code (SBC) has been adopted by many southern and southeastern states. The IBC was written and issued by the cooperative efforts of the three organizations that formerly published these competing codes.

The establishment of a single model building code for the United States was welcome news to architects and engineers, who were weary of having to work to different standards in different parts of the country. However, their relief was not to last long, because the National Fire Protection Association, for reasons that are difficult to appreciate, issued the first edition of its own model building code in 2002, raising the possibility that it will be adopted in many code jurisdictions and thereby create a situation even more chaotic than before.

Building-code-related information in this book is based on the International Building Code (IBC). The IBC begins by defining occupancy groups for buildings as follows:

Groups A-1 through A-5 are Assembly occupancies: theaters, auditoriums, lecture halls, night clubs, restaurants, houses of worship, libraries, museums, sports arenas, and so on.

Group B is Business occupancies: banks, administrative offices, higher-education facilities, police and fire stations, post offices, professional offices, and the like.

Group E is Educational occupancies: schools for grades K through 12 and day care facilities.

Group F comprises industrial buildings.

Groups H-1 through H-5 are various types of High Hazard occupancies in which toxic, combustible, or explosive materials are present.

Groups I-1 through I-4 are Institutional occupancies in which occupants may not be able to save themselves during a fire or other emergency, such as health care and geriatric facilities and prisons.

Group M is Mercantile occupancies: stores, markets, service stations, and sales rooms.

Groups R-1 through R-4 are Residential occupancies, including apartment buildings, dormitories, fraternities and sororities, hotels, one- and two-family dwellings, and assisted-living facilities.

Group S-1 includes buildings for Storage of hazardous materials, and S-2, low-hazard storage.

Group U is Utility buildings. It comprises agricultural buildings, carports, greenhouses, sheds, stables, fences, tanks, towers, and other secondary buildings.

The IBC's purpose in establishing occupancy groups is to distinguish various degrees and qualities of need for safety in buildings. A hospital, in which many patients are bedridden and cannot escape a fire under their own power, must be built to a high standard of safety. A warehouse for masonry materials, which are noncombustible, is likely to be occupied by only a few people, all of them able bodied, and can be constructed to a lower standard. An elementary school requires more protection for its occupants than a university building. A theater needs special egress provisions to allow its many patrons to escape quickly, without stampeding, in an emergency.

These definitions of occupancy groups are followed by a set of definitions of construction types. At the head of this list (Type I) are highly fire-resistive kinds of construction such as masonry, reinforced concrete, and fire-protected steel. At the foot of it (Type V) are kinds of construction that are relatively combustible because they are framed with small wood members. In between are a range of construction types with varying levels of resistance to fire.

With occupancy groups and construction types carefully defined, the code proceeds to match the two, setting forth in a table which occupancy groups may be housed in which types of construction, and under what limitations of story height and area per floor. Figure 1.1 is reproduced from the International Building Code. It gives the maximum height in stories and the maximum area per floor for every possible combination of occupancy group and construction type. The maximum total floor area of a building under the IBC is three times the maximum area permitted for one floor. If the floor area for a single floor is unlimited, of course, the maximum floor area for the building is also unlimited.

This table concentrates a great deal of useful information into a very small space. A designer may enter it with a particular occupancy group in mind-an electronics plant, for example-and find out very quickly what types of construction will be permitted and what shape the plant may take. Under the IBC, an electronics plant belongs to Occupancy Group F-1, Factory, Moderate-Hazard Occupancy. Reading across the chart from left to right, we find immediately that this factory may be built to any desired size, without limit, using Type IA construction.

Type IA construction is defined in nearby tables in the IBC, one of which is reproduced here as Figure 1.2. Looking down the columns of this table under Type IA construction, we find a listing of the required fire resistance ratings, measured in hours, of the various parts of either a Type IA or a Type IB building. In a Type IA building, for example, we find on the first line that columns, girders, and trusses must be rated at 3 hours. The second line mandates a 3-hour resistance also for bearing walls, walls that serve to carry floors or roofs above. Nonbearing walls or partitions, which carry no load from above, are listed in the third line, which refers to Table 602, which gives fire resistance rating requirements based on the building's distance from other buildings. (Table 602 is included in Figure 1.2.) Floor construction and roof construction standards are defined in the last two lines of Table 601.

Looking across Table 601 in Figure 1.2, we can see that fire resistance rating requirements are highest for Type IA construction, decrease to 1 hour for Type VA, and finally to zero for Type VB.

Fire resistance ratings of many common construction components and assemblies are found in Section 7.19 of the IBC. Ratings for many more assemblies are tabulated in a variety of catalogs and handbooks issued by building material manufacturers, construction trade associations, and organizations concerned with fire protection of buildings. In each case, the ratings are derived from full-scale laboratory fire tests of building components carried out in accordance with Standard E119 of the American Society for Testing and Materials, to assure uniformity of results. (This fire test is described more fully in Chapter 22 of this book.) Figures 1.3-1.5 reproduce small sections of tables from catalogs and handbooks to illustrate how this type of information is presented.

It is not possible in this volume to reproduce a comprehensive listing of fire resistance ratings for every type of building component, but what can be said in a very general way (and with many exceptions) is that the higher the degree of fire resistance, the higher the cost. In general, therefore, buildings are built with the least level of fire resistance that is permitted by the applicable building code. The hypothetical electronics plant could be built using Type IA construction, but does it really need to be constructed to this high standard?

Let us suppose that the owners want the electronics plant to be a two-story building with 20,000 square feet on each floor. The table in Figure 1.1 makes it clear that it can be built of Type IB and Type IIA construction, but not of Type IIB, which permits only 15,500 square feet per floor. It can be built of Type IIIA or IV construction, but not of Type IIIB, VA, or VB.

Other factors come into play in these computations. If a building is protected throughout by an approved, fully automatic sprinkler system for suppression of fires, the IBC provides that the tabulated area may be quadrupled for a single-story building, and tripled for multistory buildings. A one-story increase in allowable height is also granted for most occupancies if a sprinkler system is installed. If the two-story, 20,000-square-foot electronics plant that we have been considering is provided with an approved automatic sprinkler system, a bit of arithmetic will show that it can be built of any construction type shown in Figure 1.1.

If more than a quarter of the building's perimeter walls face public ways or open spaces, an increase in area is granted in accordance with a simple formula. Additionally, if a building is divided by fire walls having the fire resistance ratings specified in another table (Figure 1.6), each portion of the building that is separated from the remainder of the building by fire walls may be considered as a separate building for purposes of computing its allowable area, which effectively permits the architect to create a building many times larger than Figure 1.1 would indicate.

The IBC also establishes standards for natural light; ventilation; means of emergency egress; structural design; floor, wall, ceiling, and roof construction; chimney construction; fire protection systems; accessibility of the building to disabled persons; energy efficiency; and many other important factors.

The building code is not the only code with which a new building must comply.

Continues...
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Table of Contents

1 Making Buildings 3

Learning to Build 4

Buildings and the Environment 4

Other Sustainable Building Programs and Standards 8

The Work of the Design Professional 12

The Work of the Construction Professional 20

Trends in the Delivery of Design and Construction Services 25

2 Foundations and Sitework 33

Foundation Requirements 34

Earth Materials 35

Sustainability and Foundations and Sitework 41

Earthwork and Excavation 42

Foundations 50

Foundations as Building Enclosure 65

Sitework 72

Designing Foundations 75

Foundations and the Building Code 75

3 Wood 79

Trees 80

Sustainability and Wood 84

Lumber 84

Wood Products 96

Plastic Lumber 102

Wood Panel Products 102

Protecting Wood from Decay and Fire 106

Chemical Wood Preservative Treatments 107

Wood Fasteners and Adhesives 109

Wood Product Adhesives and Formaldehyde 115

Prefabricated Wood Components 115

Case Study 121

4 Heavy Timber and Mass Timber Construction 125

Types of Construction 126

Sustainability and Heavy Timber and Mass Timber Construction 129

Fire Resistance of Large Wood Members 131

Calculating the Fire Resistance of Wood Members 131

Traditional Heavy Timber Construction 132

Contemporary Heavy Timber Construction 134

Mass Timber Construction 140

Wood–Concrete Composite Construction 143

Longer Spans in Heavy Timber and Mass Timber 144

Preliminary Design of Heavy Timber and Mass Timber Structures 148

5 Wood Light Frame Construction 151

6 Exterior Finishes for Wood Light Frame Construction 211

Protection from the Weather 212

Roofing 213

Windows and Doors 220

Paints and Coatings 224

Siding 228

Corner Boards and Exterior Trim 237

Sealing Exterior Joints 238

Sustainability and Paints and Other Architectural Coatings 240

Exterior Painting, Finish Grading, and Landscaping 240

Exterior Construction 240

7 Interior Finishes for Wood Light Frame Construction 245

Completing the Building Enclosure 253

Sustainability and Insulation Materials for Wood Light Frame Construction 262

Wall and Ceiling Finish 264

Millwork and Finish Carpentry 265

Proportioning Fireplaces 266

Proportioning Stairs 280

Flooring and Ceramic Tile Work 282

Finishing Touches 284

8 Brick Masonry 289

History 290

Mortar 293

Sustainability and Brick Masonry 296

Brick 296

Brick Masonry 304

Masonry Wall Construction 319

9 Stone and Concrete Masonry 329

Stone Masonry 330

Sustainability and Stone and Concrete Masonry 343

Concrete Masonry 348

Other Types of Masonry Units 358

Masonry Wall Construction 359

10 Masonry Wall Construction 363

Types of Masonry Walls 364

Preliminary Design of Loadbearing Masonry Structures 372

Spanning Systems for Masonry Bearing Wall Construction 372

Detailing Masonry Walls 376

Special Problems of Masonry Construction 380

Movement Joints in Buildings 382

Masonry Paving 388

Masonry and the Building Codes 389

Uniqueness of Masonry 389

11 Steel Frame Construction 395

History 396

The Material Steel 398

Preliminary Design of Steel Structures 401

Joining Steel Members 409

Details of Steel Framing 415

Seismic Force Resisting Systems 421

The Construction Process 426

Fire Protection of Steel Framing 442

Longer Spans and Higher-Capacity Columns in Steel 447

Fabric Structures 454

Sustainability and Steel Frame Construction 458

Steel and the Building Codes 459

Uniqueness of Steel 459

12 Light Gauge Steel Frame Construction 467

The Concept of Light Gauge Steel Construction 468

Sustainability and Light Gauge Steel Framing 469

Light Gauge Steel Framing 470

Other Uses of Light Gauge Steel Framing 479

Preliminary Design of Light Gauge Steel Frame Structures 481

Insulating Light Gauge Steel Frame Structures 481

Finishes for Light Gauge Steel Framing 482

Advantages and Disadvantages of Light Gauge Steel Framing 482

Light Gauge Steel Framing and the Building Codes 482

Metals in Architecture 484

Case Study 490

13 Concrete Construction 495

History 496

Cement and Concrete 497

Sustainability and Concrete Construction 500

Making and Placing Concrete 503

Formwork 507

Reinforcing 508

Concrete Creep 522

Prestressing 522

Concrete Standards 527

Innovations in Concrete 527

14 Sitecast Concrete Framing Systems 533

Casting a Concrete Slab on Grade 535

Casting a Concrete Wall 540

Casting a Concrete Column 544

One-Way Floor and Roof Framing Systems 545

Two-Way Floor and Roof Framing Systems 555

Sitecast Posttensioned Framing Systems 561

Other Types of Sitecast Concrete 562

Cutting Concrete, Stone, and Masonry 568

Longer Spans in Sitecast Concrete 570

Designing Economical Sitecast Concrete Buildings 572

Preliminary Design of Sitecast Concrete Structures 574

Sitecast Concrete and the Building Codes 575

Uniqueness of Sitecast Concrete 575

15 Precast Concrete Framing Systems 583

Precast, Prestressed Concrete Structural Elements 586

Preliminary Design of Precast Concrete Structures 587

Assembly Concepts for Precast Concrete Buildings 588

Manufacture of Precast Concrete Structural Elements 589

Joining Precast Concrete Members 595

Fastening to Concrete 596

Composite Precast/Sitecast Concrete Construction 609

The Construction Process 609

Sustainability and Precast Concrete Framing Systems 610

Precast Concrete and the Building Codes 611

Uniqueness of Precast Concrete 611

16 Designing the Building Enclosure 621

Functional Requirements of the Building Enclosure 622

Sustainability and the Building Enclosure 629

Keeping Water Out 629

Controlling the Flow of Heat 634

Controlling Air Leakage 636

Controlling the Diffusion of Water Vapor 638

Sealing Joints in the Exterior Wall 641

17 Roofing 649

Low-Slope Roofs 651

Sustainability and Roofing 656

Steep Roofs 671

Cool Roofs 684

Dissimilar Metals and Galvanic Corrosion 686

Green Roofs 688

Photovoltaic Systems 690

Roofing and the Building Codes 691

18 Glass and Glazing 695

History 696

The Material Glass 699

Sustainability and Glass 700

Other Types of Glass 711

Glazing 712

Glass and Energy 721

Glass and the Building Codes 721

Case Study 726

19 Windows and Doors 731

Windows 732

Plastics in Building Construction 739

Sustainability and Windows and Doors 745

Doors 745

Other Window and Door Requirements 752

Case Study 726

20 Cladding with Masonry and Concrete 759

Masonry Veneer Curtain Walls 760

Stone Curtain Walls 767

Precast Concrete Curtain Walls 771

Exterior Insulation and Finish Systems 774

Case Study 778

21 Cladding with Metal and Glass 783

Aluminum 784

Sustainability and Cladding with Metal and Glass 789

Aluminum and Glass Framing Systems 791

An Outside Glazed Curtain Wall System 797

Double-Skin Facades 800

Sloped Glazing Systems 800

The Curtain Wall Design Process 801

Metal Panel Cladding 801

22 Selecting Interior Finishes 807

Installation of Mechanical and Electrical Services 808

Sustainability and Interior Finishes 810

The Sequence of Interior Finishing Operations 810

Selecting Interior Finishes 811

Other Surface Flammability Criteria 815

Long-Term Trends in Interior Finish Systems 817

23 Interior Walls and Partitions 821

Interior Walls and Fire Criteria 822

Partition Framing 823

Sustainability and Gypsum and Other Wall Covering Products 826

Plaster Partitions 827

Gypsum Board Partitions 837

Plaster Ornament 838

Masonry Partitions 848

Wall and Partition Facings 848

24 Finish Ceilings and Floors 855

Finish Ceilings 856

Types of Ceilings 857

Sustainability and Finish Ceilings and Floors 866

Finish Flooring 867

Types of Finish Flooring Materials 871

Appendix 884

Glossary 886

Index 917

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"In the new fifth edition of Fundamentals of Building Construction, Allen and Iano set a new benchmark by incorporating sustainability issues into a mainstream construction textbook, section by section, as in this concise overview from the first chapter. We also look forward to a future edition of their outstanding book in which appropriate sustainability considerations have penetrated every topic and page." (ArchitectureWeek, April 13, 2009)

Editorial Reviews

This revision of the authoritative handbook on common building materials and methods includes current information on foundations, new uses for plastics in construction and more. Fifty new photographs and 25 new line drawings further enhance the existing program of over 900 illustrations. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"In the new fifth edition of Fundamentals of Building Construction, Allen and Iano set a new benchmark by incorporating sustainability issues into a mainstream construction textbook, section by section, as in this concise overview from the first chapter. We also look forward to a future edition of their outstanding book in which appropriate sustainability considerations have penetrated every topic and page." (ArchitectureWeek, April 13, 2009)

From the Publisher