Table Of ContentESSENCE BOOKS ON BUI LDING
General Editor: J. H. Cheetham, A.R.I.B.A.
WALLS
SOME OTIIER ELBS LOW-PRICED EDITIONS
Anderson MATERIALS SCIENCE Longman
and Leaver
Bannister and SURVEYING Pitman
Raymond
Blyth A GEOLOGY FOR Arnold
ENGINEERS
Boughton REINFORCED CONCRETE Crosby Lockwood
DETAILER'S MANUAL Staples
Burnside ELECTROMAGNETIC Crosby Lockwood
DISTANCE Staples
MEASUREMENT
Case and STRENGTII OF Arnold
Chilver MATERIALS AND
STRUCTURES
Coates, Coutie STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS Nelson
and Kong
Constructional STEEL DESIGNER'S Crosby Lockwood
Steel Research MANUAL Staples
and Development
Organisation
Dugdale SURVEYING Macdonald &
Evans
Hart ENGINEERING DRAWING Hodder & Stoughton
WITH PROBLEMS AND
SOLUTIONS
Jeffrey MATIIEMATICS FOR Nelson
ENGINEERS AND
SCIENTISTS
John INTRODUCTION TO Macmillan
ENGINEERING
MATERIALS
Kelsey GEOMETRICAL AND Crosby Lockwood
BllLDING DRAWING Staples
Launder FOUNDATIONS Macmillan
Marshall STRUCTURES Pitman
Morley THEORY OF Longman
STRUCTURES
Owen ROOFS Macmillan
Ryder STRENGTH OF Macmillan
MATERIALS,
Third Edition
Smith CONSTRUCTION Longman
SCIENCE
Smith SOIL MECHANICS Macdonald &
Evans
WALLS
Robert Fisher, Dip!. Arch. (U.C.L.), R.I.B.A.
Senior Lecturer,
School of Environmental Studies,
University College London
[ff0
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Macmillan Education
© Robert Fisher 1972
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission.
First edition 1972
Reprinted (with corrections) 1975
ELBS edition first published 1975
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Associated companies in New York Dublin
Melbourne Johannesburg and Madras
SBN 333 13557 1 (Macmillan edition)
333 19290 7 (ELBS edition)
ISBN 978-1-349-01506-1 ISBN 978-1-349-01504-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-01504-7
The paperback edition of this book is sold subject to
the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or
otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise
circulated without the publisher's prior consent, in
any form of binding or cover other than that in which
it is published and without a similar condition includ
ing this condition being imposed on the subsequent
purchaser.
Preface
This volume on walls has been prepared so as to avoid as far as
possible descriptions of wall constructions in the traditional sense.
Information on this aspect of the subject is readily available in
construction text books, papers, Codes of Practice and published
detail sheets.
The emphasis has been placed primarily on the performance of
walls of different types and materials so that students may begin to
understand the probable consequences of the decisions they make
concerning materials and methods of construction. Furthermore,
this volume deals with the use and performance of materials and
assemblies which at the present time predominate in practice and
will continue to do so for many years.
Information has been brought together from a wide variety of
different sources. Though less exhaustive in detail than that provided
at the sources, its usefulness may be greater for those concerned
with design by giving an overall rather than a highly specialized view
of the subject.
The first chapter is proportionately large because it is used to
present certain basic general principles which relate walls to
buildings as a whole. It describes how they participate structurally
and environmentally and deals with dimensional variabilities, the
implications of construction processes and the principles underlying
standards in relation to fire resistance.
Codes and regulations are the means by which acceptable
standards of performance are achieved. The reasons for their
existence are explained and frequent references to them are made in
the text. It has been clearly impossible to reproduce them in this
volume and the reader is advised to refer whenever necessary
*
particularly to Building Regulations, 1965, and Code of Practice No.
III : 1964.
Subsequent chapters deal with the characteristics of walls of
particular materials. Wherever it has been appropriate to do so, these
topics are dealt with in the same order as in Chapter 1. Thus,
structural characteristics precede environmental performance and
*Amended by Building Regulations, 1972, and Second Amendment, 1974.
H.M.S.O.
v
these are followed by dimensional, formal and assembly aspects. In
Chapter 4, the treatment is somewhat different because different
materials and production methods are involved and the problems
arising from their use are of a different nature.
A very short chapter deals briefly with free-standing walls. These
are frequently not sufficiently well-studied or understood though
Elizabeth Beazley's well-known book, Design and Detail of Space
between Buildings, has done much to fill the gap. Finally some
photographs are provided in an appendix to illustrate some of the
visual aspects of the subject.
vi
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
1. Walls as parts of systems 1
Walls as elements in a structural system 1
Walls as elements in a system of environmental control 7
Dimensional changes and movements 26
Assembly processes 30
Fire resistance 32
2. The use of bricks and blocks 37
Strengths of bricks and brickwork 37
Environmental performance of brick, block and masonry
walls 44
Dimensional changes in brick and block walls 47
Dimension, form and laying processes 52
3. The use of concrete 61
In situ concrete 61
Environmental performance 62
Dimensional stability 67
Precast concrete 69
Forms of concrete units and production methods 70
Performances of large concrete panels 72
Concrete finish and appearance 74
4. The use of prefabricated light cladding and walling
materials 77
Performance and product specifications 77
Co-ordination of dimensions 79
Dimensional stability and accuracy 82
Joints between panels 90
5. Free-standing walls 95
Appendix Plates 1-1 3 101
References 114
Bibliograph 115
Index 116
vii
Acknowledgements
The author is indebted to many colleagues for their advice and help
in preparing this short book, and to Martin Fisher for the
photography.
Acknowledgement is also made to the following for their
permission to reproduce the material quoted:
Tables 1, 2 and 3. Compiled from CP 111 : 1964. (Table 1 has
been converted to metric.)
Figure 12. B.R.S. Digest, 110, Oct. 1969. Figure 2.
Table 6. Principles of Modern Building, Vol. 1, HMSO, p. 224.
Table 16.1.
Table 7. B.R.S. Digest, 96, Aug. 1968. Tables 1 and 2.
Tables 13, 16 and 19. B.R.S. Digest, 108, Aug. 1969. Table 8.
Table 15. B.R.S. Digest, 102, Feb. 1969. Table 1.
Figure 14. B.R.S. Current Paper No. 45. Figure 11. (The material
reproduced from the Building Research Station is published by
permission of the Controller, HMSO and Crown copyright is
reserved.)
Figure ~7. B.R.S. D':f(est, 96, Aug. 1968. Figure 5.
Figure 42. Architects' J., Jan. 6, 1965, p. 25. Technical Study,
"Microclimate and Housing", a paper by H. C. Shellard,
Meteorological Office.
viii
1 Walls as parts of systems
Walls as elements in a structural system
Most elements in the constru.ction of a building contribute to a
number of different purposes. Walls, floors and roofs are usually
required to do more than just provide shelter, or divide space, or
support each other. Sometimes, they perform two or three of these
roles together, at the same time satisfying many other requirements.
Thus, structural and environmental performances, cost, appearance,
durability in use, assembly and transport, dimensional character
istics, availability and the many different skills required for
manufacture and assembly are all aspects of building components
and elements which should be mutually compatible, as well as being
appropriate to the general requirements of the building as a whole.
It is for this reason that, in this volume, we relate the nature and
properties of walls to those of buildings.
Types and forms of structural walls
Structural walls are those which make a positive contribution in a
structural system. Such walls may perform this role in two ways.
They may be:
1. Load-bearing walls, in which case, they must be designed to carry
vertical loads in addition to their own weight. Such loads arise
from floors, roofs and perhaps other structural walls, together
with any live loads which these elements may carry. Loads of this
kind impose direct compression stresses.
2. Stabilizing walls which are designed to resist horizontal or
oblique forces resulting from wind pressure, earthquake forces,
earth or water pressure, or oblique thrusts from arched structural
forms. Walls serving these purposes must resist shear stresses and
bending. Examples of such walls are shear walls, retaining walls,
buttresses, and some types of panel wall built as an infilling to
stiffen a structural framework.
F or these basic structural purposes, walls may take one of several
structural forms: (I) they may consist of blocks or bricks laid in
mortar and arranged to avoid vertical planar continuity of joints
which might otherwise become the locus of cracking and structural
weakness, Fig.l(a). (2) They may be formed from homogeneous
1
