Concrete lintels.

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Since Portland cement was first mass produced towards the end of the nineteenth century it has been practical and economic to cast and use concrete lintels to support brickwork over openings.

Concrete is made from reasonably cheap materials, it can easily be moulded or cast when wet and when it hardens it has very good strength in resisting crushing and does not lose strength or otherwise deteriorate when exposed to the weather. The one desirable quality that concrete lacks, if it is to be used as a lintel, is tensile strength, that is strength to resist being pulled apart. To provide the necessary tensile strength to concrete steel reinforcement is east into concrete.

For a simple explanation for the need and placing of reinforcement in concrete lintels suppose that a piece of india rubber were used as a lintel. Under load any material supported at its ends will deflect, bend, under its own weight and loads that it supports. India rubber has very poor compressive and tensile strength so that under load it will bend very noticeably, as illustrated in Fig. 90. The top surface of the rubber becomes squeezed, indicating compression, and the lower surface stretched, indicating tension. A close examination of the india rubber shows that it is most squeezed at its top surface and progressively less to the centre, and conversely most stretched and progressively less up from its bottom surface to the centre of depth.

A concrete lintel will not bend so obviously as india rubber, but it will bend and its top surface will be compressed and its bottom surface stretched or in tension under load. Concrete is strong in resisting compression but weak in resisting tension, and to give the concrete lintel the strength required to resist the tension which is maximum at its lower surface, steel is added, because steel is strong in resisting tension, This is the reason why rods of steel are cast into the bottom of a concrete lintel when it is being moulded in its wet state.

Lengths of steel rod are cast into the bottom of concrete lintels to give them strength in resisting tensile or stretching forces. As the tension is greatest at the underside of the lintel it would seem sensible to cast the steel rods in the lowest surface. In fact the steel rods are cast in some 15mm or more above the bottom surface. 

The reason for this is that steel very soon rusts when exposed to air and if the steel rods were in the lower surface of the lintel they would rust, expand and rupture the concrete around them, and in time give way and the lintel might collapse. Also if a fire occurs in the building the steel rods would, if cast in the surface, expand and come away from the concrete and the lintel collapse. The rods are cast at least 15 mm up from the bottom of the lintel and 15 mm or more of concrete below them is called the concrete cover.

Fig. 90 Bending under load.

Dense aggregate blocks for general use.

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The blocks are made of Portland cement, natural aggregate or blast- furnace slag. The usual mix is 1 part of cement to 6 or 8 of aggregate by volume. These blocks are as heavy per cubic metre as bricks, they are not good thermal insulators and their strength in resisting crushing is less than that of most well burned bricks. The colour and texture of these blocks is far from attractive and they are usually covered with plaster or a coat of rendering. These blocks are used for internal and external loadbearing walls, including walls below ground.

Soluble sulphates, Portland blast-furnace cement, Sulphate resiting Portland cement.

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Soluble sulphates.

There are water soluble suiphates in some soils, such as plastic clay, which react with ordinary cement and in time will weaken concrete. It is usual practice, therefore, to use one of the sulphate-resistant cements for concrete in contact with sulphate bearing soils.

Portland blast-furnace cement.

This cement is more resistant to the destructive action of suiphates than ordinary Portland cement and is often used for concrete foun dations in plastic clay subsoils. This cement is made by grinding a mixture of ordinary Portland cement with blast-furnace slag. Alternatively another type of cement known as ‘sulphate resisting cement’ is often used.

Sulphate resiting Portland cement.

 

This cement has a reduced content of aluminates that combine with soluble suiphates in some soils and is used for concrete in contact with those soils.

Water-cement ratio.

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The materials used for making concrete are mixed with water for two reasons. Firstly to cause the reaction between cement and water which results in the cement acting as a binding agent and secondly to make the materials of concrete sufficiently plastic to be placed in position. The ratio of water to cement used in concrete affects its ultimate strength, and a certain water—cement ratio produces the best concrete. If too little water is used the concrete is so stiff that it cannot be compacted and if too much water is used the concrete does not develop full strength.

The amount of water required to make concrete sufficiently plastic depends on the position in which the concrete is to be placed. The extreme examples of this are concrete for large foundations, which can be mixed with comparatively little water and yet be consolidated, and concrete to be placed inside formwork for narrow reinforced concrete beams where the concrete has to be comparatively wet to be placed. In the first example, as little water is used, the proportion of cement to aggregate can be as low as say 1 part of cement to 9 of aggregate and in the second, as more water has to he used, the proportion of cement to aggregate has to be as high as say I part of cement to 4 of aggregate. As cement is expensive compared with aggregate it is usual to use as little water and therefore cement as the necessary plasticity of the concrete will allow.

Cement.

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The cement most used is ordinary Portland cement. It is manufactured by heating a mixture of finely powdered clay and limestone with water to a temperature of about 1200°C, at which the lime and clay fuse to form a clinker. This clinker is ground with the addition of a little gypsum to a fine powder of cement. Cement powder reacts with water and its composition gradually changes and the particles of cement bind together and adhere strongly to materials with which they are mixed. Cement hardens gradually after it is mixed with water.

Some thirty minutes to an hour after mixing with water the cement is no longer plastic and it is said that the initial set has occurred. About 10 hours after mixing with water, the cement has solidified and it increasingly hardens until some 7 days after mixing with water when it is a dense solid mass.

Oversite concrete - Portland Cement.

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When Portland cement was first continuously produced, towards the end of the nineteenth century, it became practical to cover the site of buildings with a layer of concrete as a solid level base for floors and as a barrier to rising damp. From the early part of the twentieth century it became accepted practice to cover the site of buildings with a layer of concrete some 100mm thick, the concrete oversite or oversite concrete. At the time, many ground floors of houses were formed as raised timber floors on oversite concrete with the space below the floor ventilated against stagnant damp air.

With the shortage of timber that followed the Second World War, the raised timber ground floor was abandoned and the majority of ground floors were formed as solid, ground supported floors with the floor finish laid on the concrete oversite. At the time it was accepted practice to form a continuous horizontal damp-proof course, some 150 mm above ground level, in all walls with foundations in the ground.

With the removal of vegetable top soil the level of the soil inside the building would be from 100 to 300mm below the level of the ground outside. If a layer of concrete were then laid oversite its finished level would be up to 200 mm below outside ground level and up to 350 mm below the horizontal dpc in walls. There would then be considerable likelihood of moisture rising through the foundation walls, to make the inside walls below the dpc damp, as illustrated in Fig. 24.

It would, of course, be possible to make the concrete oversite up to 450 mm thick so that its top surface was level with the dpc and so prevent damp rising into the building. But this would be unnecessarily expensive. Instead, a layer of what is known as hardcore is spread oversite, of sufficient thickness to raise the level of the top of the concrete oversite to that of the dpc in walls. The purpose of the hardcore is primarily to raise the level of the concrete oversite for solid, ground supported floors.

The layer of concrete oversite will serve as a reasonably effective barrier to damp rising from the ground by absorbing some moisture from below. The moisture retained in the concrete will tend to make solid floor finishes cold underfoot and may adversely affect timber floor finishes. During the second half of the twentieth century it became accepted practice to form a waterproof membrane under, in or over the oversite concrete as a barrier to rising damp, against the cold underfoot feel of solid floors and to protect floor finishes. Having accepted the use of a damp-proof membrane it was then logical to unite this barrier to damp, to the damp-proof course in walls, by forming them at the same level or by running a vertical dpc up from the lower membrane to unite with the dpc in walls.

Fig. 24 Diagram to illustrate the need for hardcore.

Even with the damp-proof membrane there is some appreciable transfer of heat from heated buildings through the concrete and hardcore to the cold ground below. In Approved Document L to the Building Regulations is the inclusion of provision for insulation to ground floors for the conservation of fuel and power. The requirement can be met by a layer of insulating material under the site concrete, under a floor screed or under boarded or sheet floor finishes to provide a maximum U value of 0.45 W/m2K for the floor.

The requirement to the Building Regulations for the resistance of the passage of moisture to the inside of the building through floors is met if the ground is covered with dense concrete laid on a hardcore bed and a damp-proof membrane. The concrete should be at least 100 mm thick and composed of 50 kg of cement to not more than 0.11 m3 of fine aggregate and 0.16 m3 of coarse aggregate of BS 5328 mix ST2. The hardcore bed should be of broken brick or similar inert material, free from materials including water soluble sulphates in quantities which could damage the concrete. A damp-proof membrane, above or below the concrete, should ideally be continuous with the dpc in the walls.

It is practice on building sites to first build external and internal load bearing walls from the concrete foundation up to the level of the dpc, above ground, in walls. The hardcore bed and the oversite concrete are then spread and levelled within the external walls.

If the hardcore is spread over the area of the ground floor and into excavations for foundations and soft pockets of ground that have been removed and the hardcore is thoroughly consolidated by ramming, there should be very little consolidation settlement of the concrete ground supported floor slab inside walls. Where a floor slab has suffered settlement cracking, it has been due to an inadequate hardcore bed, poor filling of excavation for trenches or ground movement due to moisture changes. It has been suggested that the floor slab be cast into walls for edge support. This dubious practice, which required edge formwork support of slabs at cavities, will have the effect of promoting cracking of the slab, that may be caused by any slight consolidation settlement. Where appreciable settlement is anticipated it is best to reinforce the slab and build it into walls as a suspended reinforced concrete slab.