Quality Assessment of Building Materials

Quality Assessment of Building Materials

While constructing a building, not only its outline and finishing matters but it is also equally important to ensure its quality construction. You can do so by making sure that the right type of building material with a great quality is being used.

Here is how you can successfully and accurately assess the quality of building materials of your house.

Quality Assessment of Sand:

For beginners, good quality sand has a maximum of 4% silt and is free from unwanted materials such as mud balls. Depending upon its use, sand has been divided into three categories; thin, thick, and medium categories.

Plaster is made from medium size sand, thin size sand is used to finish plaster, and thick size sand is used for underground water tanks and pillars.

In order to check the quality of sand, mix a small amount of sand in a glass of water. The sand will settle down at the bottom of glass, while mud and other impurities will come at the surface of glass water.
Quality Assessment of Bricks:

For evaluating the quality of bricks, you must consider the following points;

• It should be well burnt
• It should have cracks and surface flaws
• A good quality brick would have uniform shape and size
• If scratched with nail, no scratch should appear on its surface
• Maximum weight must not be more than 1850kg/cum.
• Discard bricks if they absorb more than 5% water
• For testing, soak brick in water for 24 hours and then dry it in shadow. If it shows white salts on its surface, the brick quality is low.
• A good quality brick would not break if dropped from a height of one meter

Quality Assessment of Cement:

A standard quality cement does not weigh less than 1440kg/cum and is greenish gray in color. Another characteristic of good quality cement is that it gives a cooling effect when you put your hand in a bag of cement. Moreover, you get a smooth finish when you rub it between your fingers.

For testing the quality of cement, mix a small amount of cement in a glass of water. If the cement floats on the surface before sinking, it is a good quality cement and vice versa.

Quality Assessment of Stone/Crush:

The criterion for evaluating the quality of crush or stone is stated hereby;

• It should be colorless.
• It must be free of any unwanted material such as dust.
• It should not be smooth and must be in different colors.

Note: You must also be careful that while mixing it with water, water must not have any chemical composition.

Quality Assessment of Steel:

While purchasing steel for the construction of your home, you must consider following points;

• It should not weigh less than 7850kg/cum
• It should be rust free
• All steel bars must be equal
• It should be free from any cracks

For further evaluating the quality of steel bars, bend them from 90 to 350 degrees. If after bending, these rods retain back their shape easily without any crack then it is a good quality steel.