Classical Building Materials

Abstract

Classical building materials are widely used in Civil Engineering projects. Many ancient generations used fire clay and stone as building blocks. The most common building materials today include stones, concrete, plastics, bitumen, glass, wood, metals, bricks, polymers, tiles and heat resisting materials. Current research work has come up with the considerable improvement in the natural characteristics of these materials. Glasses are available in more variety as they were 50 years ago. Similarly, concrete is now available in ultra-high strengths and even blast resistant form. Recently, use of nano-technology has emerged as a rapidly growing field; success of which is also highly dependent on the basic understanding of classical building materials. Advance research work including implementation of nanotechnology may come up with further improvements in the physical and chemical properties of these materials. This chapter would focus on classical materials in detail covering their physical and chemical characteristics, usages as well as economical suitability.