The purpose of floor is to provide a level surface capable of supporting the occupants of the building, furniture, equipment and sometime interior wall The floor must satisfy the following requirements
· Adequate strength and stability
· Adequate fire resistance
· Sound proof
· Damp resistance
· Thermal insulations
Components of a floor
Sub floor, basecourse or floor
base Floor covering or flooring
Selection of flooring materials
Factor that affect the choice of flooring
· Initial cost
· Appearance
· Cleanliness
· Durability
· Damp resistance
· Sound insulation
· Thermal insulation
· Fire resistance
· Smoothness
· Hardness
· Maintenance
Types of flooring
· Mud flooring and muram flooring
· Brick flooring
· Flag stone flooring cement concrete flooring
· Terrazzo flooring
· Mosaic flooring
· Tiled flooring
· Marble flooring timber flooring
· Asphalt flooring
· Rubber flooring
· Linoleum flooring
· Cork flooring
Double are masons
· Glass flooring
· Plastic or pvc flooring
Mud flooring and muram flooring
This type of flooring is cheap, hard highly impervious
It is easy to construct and easy to maintain
It has good thermal insulation property due to which it remains cool in summer and warm in winter
Over a well prepared ground 25 cm thick selected moist earth is spread and it rammed well to compacted thickness of 15cm
In order to prevent cracks small quantity of chopped straw is mixed
Muram flooring
Muram is a form of disintegrated rock with binding material
To construct such a floor a 15 cm thick layer muram is laid over prepared sub grade over it 2.5 cm thick powder layer of muram is spread and rammed
Brick flooring
The sub grade is compacted properly, to the desired level and 7.5 cm thick layer is spread
Over this a course of brick is laid flat in mortar is built
Such flooring is used in cheap construction, especially where good bricks are available
Flag stone flooring
Flag stone is laminated sand stone available in 2cm to 4cm thickness in the form of stone slab of 30X30 cm or 45X45cm and 60X60 cm
This type of works also called paving.
The stones are laid on concrete base the subsoil is properly compacted over which 10 to of lime concrete or lean cement concrete is laid
Cement concrete flooring
This is commonly used for residential, commercial even industrial building..
It is moderately cheap quite durable and easy to construct
Double are masons
The floor consist of two components
Base concrete
Topping or wearing surface
The base course ma be 7.5 to 10 cm thick
The topping consist of 1:2:4 cement concrete
Terrazzo flooring
Terrazzo flooring is another type of floor finish that is laid in thin layer over concrete topping
It is very decorative and good wearing properties
Terrazzo is a specially prepare concrete surface containing cement and marble chips in the proportion to 1:1 1/4 to 1:2
When the surface has set the chips are exposed by grinding operation
Mosaic flooring
Mosaic flooring Is made of small pieces of broken tiles of china glazed or of cement or of marble arranged in different pattern
These pieces are cut to desired shape and sizes a concrete base is prepare as in the case of concrete flooring over that 5to8 thick lime surkhi mortar is spread over an area, over this 3mm thick cementing paste is layered and is left to dry about 4 hours, there after small pieces of broken tiles or marble pieces of different colors arranged definite pattern and hammered in different layers
Tiled flooring
Tiled flooring is constructed from square, hexagonal or other shapes made up of clay cement concrete and terrazzo. These are available In various thickness Thes are commonly used in residential houses, schools, hospitals and other public buildings
Over the concrete base a 25 to 30 mm thick layr of lime mortar 1:3 to serve as a bedding The bedding mortar is allowed to harden for 12 to 24 hours
Neat cement slurry is spread over it and the tiles are laid flat over it
Marble flooring
It is the superior type of flooring used in bathrooms and kitchens of residential building and hospitals ,sanitorium ,temples etc
After the preparation of base concrete 20 mm thick bed layer of 1:4 cement mix spread under the Double are masons area of each individual slabs.
The marble layer is then laid over it and pressed with wooden mallet and leveled
Timber flooring Timber flooring is used for carpentry halls ,dancing halls auditorium Etc
These are not commonly usedin India because its costlier
But hilly area where wood is available and temperature drops very low timber flooring is quite common
The suspended type of wooden floor is supported above the ground
The solid type of wooden floor is fully supported on the ground.
