PRACTICE REVIEWIonut - Mihai VLAD

IntroductionThe practical stage was made at S.C. Turexim S.R.L. During the practical stage I have visited the following sites: a building for a family in Campina consolidation of a building (P+3) finishing work at a building in Bucharest

House in Campina

This house is situated in a residential part of Campina and its principal purpose is home for a family with a child.

This building in composed from a small basement, ground floor, one story and the attic. In the architectural plan I saw that the house is ideal divided for a family to live in. So, at the ground floor we have a big living room, a kitchen, and a big bathroom. At the floor there are three bedrooms and a bathroom. The attic was not divided being only a big storing place for that family. Also in the right part of the house its a garage.The house is built on a continuous foundation. A continuous spread foundation is commonly used to provide a stable base around the entire perimeter of a structure. The dimensions of a continuous spread footing vary according to the soil conditions under the building, the load placed on the footing, and the construction style of the structure being supported.In this case was a problem because of the moisture content of the soil. The outside of the foundation walls were insulated before backfilling in order to prevent moisture problems and random infiltrations.

Foundation plan

Also because of the moisture content of the soil the basement insulation was required. In most cases a basement with insulation installed on its exterior walls should be considered a conditioned space. In new construction, adding insulation on the exterior basement walls will minimize thermal bridging and reduce heat loss through the foundation, provide some protection against moisture intrusion and infiltration of water, protect the foundation from the effect of freeze-thaw cycle.The walls of this house are confined masonry walls, made of reinforced columns of 25x25 cm, tie beams, and bricks with vertical holes. This type of bricks is ideal to reduce the weight of the walls and to improve thermal insulation capacity.

This type of frames is designed in order to fullfill the performance requirments such as mechanical safety. This walls must provide resistance and stability in relation with vertical loads and horizontal loads.

Confined masonry buildings have been observed to incur little or no damage in moderate to even sever earthquakes.

Formwork plan over ground floor

When I was on this construction sites, the workers were building the roof.

Construction of a ridged roof

A simple ridged roof consists of declined rafterthat rest on vertical wall-plates on top of each wall. The top ends of the rafters meet at the horizontal ridge plate or ridge beam. Horizontalpurlinsare fixed to the rafters to support the roof covering. Heavier under purlin are used to support longer rafter spans. Tie beamsor ceiling joists, are connected between the lower ends of opposite rafters to prevent them from spreading and forcing the walls apart. Collar beamsor collar ties may be fixed higher up between opposite rafters for extra strength. The rafters, tie beams and joists serve to transmit the weight of the roof to the walls of the building.

Consolidation of a building (P+3)

The second site that I was visited, was a consolidation for an old house in Bucharest.Degradation of the composite material brick or stone masonry is caused by several deterioration phenomena, which can be categorized into different main types. Physical deterioration is the damage, caused by temperature variations, fire, frost and thaw, erosion by water, corrosion of metal parts in the wall, dust. Consolidation procedures:

Strengthening masonry by cladding materials with superior properties:This procedure, done by cladding with cement mortar and concrete is a consolidation procedure very used in Romania. Cladding is done on the both faces of the structure after a proper preparation of the masonry (disposal of joints on approx. 15 mm, injection of masonry, masonry cleaning, apply of a layer of 10-15mm of mortar, reinforcement and then the second layer of mortar)Strengthening masonry with columns and tie beams made of reinforced concrete:Introduction of tie beams and columns help to assure a better behavior of the walls on both directions in case of an earthquake. Addition of new reinforced concrete shear walls provides the best option of strengthening an existing structure for improved seismic performanceThis way of consolidation is used to: create a state of multiaxial efforts by introducing a compressive force perpendicular to the applied load increase resistance of walls during elastic phase increase ultimate capacity at eccentric compressibility tensile ductility increase The minimum specifications for jacketing of columns are: Strength of the new materials must be equal or greater than those of the existing column. Concrete strength should be at least 5 MPa greater than the strength of the existing concrete. For columns where extra longitudinal reinforcement is not required, a minimum of 12 barsis placed in the four corners Minimum jacket thickness should be 100 mm Minimum diameter of ties should be 8 mm

Addition of new reinforced concrete shear walls provides the best option of strengthening an existing structure for improved seismic performance.Incorporation of new structural components in an existing building will change the dynamic behavior of the whole structure considerably during the earthquake. The choice of the type, number and size of the added elements depends on the particularities of the existing structure and the functional layout of the building.

Finishing work at a buildingAt this building I can only see how the finishing work is done after the entire structure is complete.Finishing works represent a group of construction operations relating to the exterior and interior finishing of building to enhance their service and aesthetic qualities. This a concluding stage of construction. Finishing work is a very labor-intensive process, and for residential construction it accounts for up to 35 percent of all labor expenditures in construction and assembly operations.In this process the following processes were made: the exterior walls were painted all the interior doors were installed (doors of MDF and PVC only for bathroom) commercial parquet was installed painting was done with quality washable paint at the interior.

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