This document provides an overview of flooring in buildings. It defines a floor as the bottom surface of a room or vehicle that provides a level surface to support occupants, furniture, and equipment. Floors are classified based on their shape, construction, and location within a building. Various types of flooring materials are described, including mud, brick, flagstone, concrete, terrazzo, tile, wood, asphalt, rubber, cork, and plastic floors. The document outlines the requirements for good floors and discusses factors to consider when selecting flooring materials for different applications.

1. FLOOR
Building Materials and Technology
S1S2 A, SCMS School of Architecture
Ar. Reshma C Beddyson

2. Floor?
A floor is the bottom surface of a room or vehicle. is a continuous supporting surface
extending horizontally throughout a building. In other words, the surface of a room on
which one stands. Generally, the building is vertically divided into floors for every 3m
and it may also differ to several metres for high rise buildings.
Building Materials and Technology S1S2 A Ar. Reshma C Beddyson

3. The purpose of a floor is to provide a level surface capable of supporting the
occupants of a building, furniture, equipment and sometimes internal partitions.
Purpose?
Building Materials and Technology S1S2 A Ar. Reshma C Beddyson

4. Requirements of good floor.
 It should have adequate strength and stability
 It should have adequate fire resistance
 It should have sound insulation
 It should be Damp resistant
 It should have Thermal insulation
Building Materials and Technology S1S2 A Ar. Reshma C Beddyson

5. Classification based on Shape/ Form
Building Materials and Technology S1S2 A Ar. Reshma C Beddyson

6. Classification based on construction
Building Materials and Technology S1S2 A Ar. Reshma C Beddyson

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Basement floor:-
The floor which is constructed below ground level for
storerooms or mechanical room or parking is called as
Basement floor.
Podium floor or Cellar:-
The floor which is constructed either below ground level or
above ground level, especially for car parking is called as
podium floor
.

8. Building Materials and Technology S1S2 A Ar. Reshma C Beddyson
Stilt floor:-
Stilt floor is basically the lowermost floor of a structure
which is constructed above ground level. The height of the
stilt floor shouldn’t be more than 2.5m. This kind of floors
adopted in the parking of Shopping malls & Theaters.
Ground floor:-
The floor which is constructed on ground level is called
ground floor.
.

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Mezzanine Floor:-
The word mezzanine floor means a small floor that is in
between two major floors
(The floor which is constructed between Ground and the First
floor is called as Mezzanine floor).
Mezzanine floor is constructed for services of building, shops
& offices, to provide facilities for the occupants who are living
in High-rise buildings. For proper ventilation, the ceiling height
of floor is increased 1metre more than the normal ceiling
height.
You can see this kind of floors in theatres (front rows of the
balcony). In some theatres, the section behind the main
orchestra section is raked upward at a steeper angle, and
those seats are called Mezzanine floor.
.

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First floor:-
The floor which is constructed above ground floor or above the
mezzanine floor is called as the first floor.
.
Helipad:-
The floor which is constructed above Roof floor and which is
used for Landing of Helicopter or taking off of Helicopter is
called Helipad. This kind of floor is generally in circular shape
.

11. Floor construction
Building Materials and Technology S1S2 A Ar. Reshma C Beddyson

12. Floor support
Building Materials and Technology S1S2 A Ar. Reshma C Beddyson

13. Building Materials and Technology S1S2 A Ar. Reshma C Beddyson
Floor construction

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Floor construction

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Floor construction

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18. Flooring
Building Materials and Technology S1S2 A Ar. Reshma C Beddyson

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Floor covering is a term to generally describe any finish material applied over a
floor structure to provide a walking surface.
BASE PREPARATION- Lay Base Coat Of 100 Mm Thick In The Ratio Of Cement
Concrete 1:8:16 ( 1 Part Of Cement, 8 Parts Of Fine Sand And16 Parts Of Brick
Blast) Or 1:4:8 On Compacted Earth Under The Floor. The base is same for all
types of floors.
2. FINSHING- Then finishing of the floor is carried on, for different flooring
materials. As we will discuss here the finishing of terrazzo, brick, stone and
cement concrete floor.
STEPS OF FLOORING

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TYPES OF FLOORING
.
Hard Flooring
.
Soft Flooring
.
• Wood
• Stone
• Tile
.
• Carpet
• Rugs
• Resilient
.

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SELECTION OF FLOORING MATERIAL
.
Depends upon below factors:
• Thermal Insulation
• Fire Resistance
• Smoothness
• Hardness
• Maintenance
• Initial Cost
• Appearance
• Cleanliness
• Durability
• Damp Resistance
• Sound Insulation

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• This flooring is cheap, hard, fairly impervious, easy
to construct & easy to maintain.
• It has good thermal insulation property.
• Over a well prepared ground a 25 cm thick moist
earth is spread & then rammed well to get
compacted thickness of 15 cm.
• In order to prevent cracks, small quantity of
chopped straw is mixed in the moist earth before
rammed.
• Sometimes, cow-dung is mixed with earth & a thin
layer of this spread over the compacted layer.
MUD FLOORING

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CHOPPED STRAW FLOORING

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BRICK FLOORING
It is used in cheap construction, specially where
good bricks are available.
This flooring is specially suited to ware-house,
stores, godowns etc. 10 to 15 cm thick layer of
lean cement concrete (1:8:16) or lime concrete
is laid over the prepared sub grade.
This forms the base course, over which bricks
are laid flat on 12 mm thick mortar bed in such
way that all the joints are full with mortar.

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BRICK FLOORING

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FLAG STONE FLOORING
• Flag stone is sand stone available in 2 cm to 4 cm
thickness in the form of stone slabs of square ( 30
cm X 30 cm, 45 cm X 45 cm, 60 cm X 60 cm) or
rectangular size (45 cm X 60 cm).
• Sub soil is properly compacted, over which 10 to 15
cm thick lime or lean cement concrete is laid. This
forms the base course.
• The Flag stones are then laid over 20 to 25 mm
thick layer of bed mortar.
• In laying the slabs, work is started from two
diagonally opposite corners & brought up from
both sides.

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CEMENT CONCRETE FLOORING
• This is commonly used for residential,
commercial & even industrial building. It is
moderately cheap, quite durable and easy to
construct.
• The floor consists of two components:-
• a) Base concrete b) Topping or wearing surface.
• They are constructed either monolithically or
non-monolithically. When the floor is laid
monolithically, good bond between the two
components is obtained resulting in smaller
overall thickness..

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TERRAZZO FLOORING
• It is very decorative and has good wearing
properties. The flooring is however more
expensive.
• It is widely used in residential buildings, hospitals,
offices, schools and other public buildings.
• Terrazzo is special prepared concrete surface
containing cement and marble chips in proportion
to 1:2.
• When surface has set, the chips are exposed by
grinding operation. The sub base preparation and
• concrete base laying is done in the similar manner
of cement concrete flooring.

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TILED FLOORING
• Tiled flooring is constructed from square,
hexagonal, or other shapes made up of clay, cement
concrete or terrazzo.
• These are commonly used in residential flooring,
offices, hospitals, schools and other public
buildings.
• Over the concrete base, a 25 to 30 mm thick layer of
lime mortar 1:3 is spread to serve as a bedding.
• Before laying the tiles it is cured for 12 to 24 hours,
neat cement slurry is spread over the bedding
mortar and the tiles are laid flat over it, gently
pressing them into the bedding mortar with the
help of wooden mallet till level surface.

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MARBLE FLOORING
• It is a superior type of flooring used in bathrooms
and kitchens of residential building and in
hospitals, sanatoriums, temples etc. where extra
cleanliness is an essential requirement.
• The base concrete is prepared in the same
manner as that of concrete floor.
• Over the base concrete, 20 mm thick bedding
mortar of either 1:4 cement-sand mix is spread
under the area of each individual slab.
• The marble slab is then laid over it, gently pressed
with the wooden mallet and leveled. The paved
area is properly cured for about a week.

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WOODEN FLOORING
• It is used for carpentry halls, dancing halls,
auditorium etc.
• They are not commonly used in residential
building of India because timber flooring is
quiet costlier.
• In hilly areas, where timber is cheaply & readily
available, and where temperature drops very
low, timber flooring is quite common. One of
the major problems in timber flooring is the
damp prevention.
• This can be done by introducing D.P.C. layer
below the flooring.

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ASPHALT FLOORING
1) ASPHALT MASTIC FLOORING:-
• Asphalt mastic is the mixture of sand and
asphalt in the ratio of 2:1, mixed hot and then
laid in continuous sheet.
• It can also be applied cold, by mixing with
• mineral oil and asbestos.
• The thickness of asphalt mastic may be 2.5cm
for ordinary construction. It is laid on cement
concrete base course.

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ASPHALT FLOORING
2) ASPHALTIC TILES:-
• These are prepared from asphalt, asbestos
fibers, and mineral pigments by pressing the
mix in different sizes with thickness wearing
from 3 to 6 mm.
• Asphaltic tiles are cheap, resilient, soundproof,
non absorbent and moisture proof.

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ASPHALT FLOORING
3) ASPHALTIC MOSAIC:-
This is prepared similar to mastic asphalt, the
marble chips are used in the place of sand.
Asphalt may be either in black or other suitable
color, and is laid in hot condition.
4) ACID PROOF MASTIC FLOORING:-
Acid proof blocks of asphalt are available. The
asphalt blocks are first laid on concrete base then
acid proof asphalt is uniformly spread over the
surface of the blocks. Fined sand is spread over
the liquid asphalt before it hardens.

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RUBBER FLOORING
• It consists of sheets or tiles of rubber in variety
of patterns and colors with thickness varying
from 3 to 10mm.
• The sheets or tiles are fixed to concrete base or
wood by means of appropriate adhesives
(epoxypolyurethane).
• Rubber flooring are resilient and sound proof,
however they are costly.
• They are used only in office and public
buildings.

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CORK FLOORING
• It is perfectly noise less and used in
libraries,theatres, art galleries, broadcasting
stations etc.
• Cork is the outer bark of cork oak tree, is
available in the form of cork carpet and cork
tiles.
• It is fixed to concrete base by inserting a layer
of saturated felt.
• They are available in various sized (10cm x
10cm to 30cm x 90cm) various thickness (5 to
15mm) and various shades.

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PLASTIC OR P.V.C. FLOORING
• It is made up of plastic material called poly-
vinyl chloride (PVC) fabricated in the form of
tiles of different sizes and different color
shades.
• These tiles are now widely used in residential
as well as non-residential building.
• The tiles are laid on concrete base.
• The tile is laid when the adhesive has set
sufficiently; it is gently pressed with the help
of 5kg weight wooden roller and the oozing
out adhesive is wiped off.

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GLASS FLOORING
• This is a special purpose flooring used in
circumstances where it is desired to transmit
light from upper floor to lower floor and
specially to admit the light at the basement
from the upper floor.
• Structural glass is available in the form of tiles
in thickness varying from 12 to 30 mm.
• Glass flooring is very costly and it is not used
commonly.

39. Icons for sheets
scales
hatches
Line
weights
Wall
section
Shallow
foundation
Pile
foundation
1
2
3
4
5
6
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40. Thank you
Building Materials and Technology S1S2 A Ar. Reshma C Beddyson