Building Materials

Builder Superstore supplies an increasing amount of materials which are used in construction. As the website develops, more and more types of materials will be available with our same service standards.
As this is a vast topic we have listed a few areas of interest to our users that can be seen below.

Building structures are created using many materials in the United Kingdom. Today the production and assembly of various building materials is a multibillion pound industry, and environmental concern has been brewing for years about the depletion of natural resources.

Natural Building Materials

Natural stone and rocks are quarried as the most suthentic and basic of building materials. Builders in the United Kingdom have used these materials together to build homes to suit the local weather conditions. Historically stone was used as basic structural components in our buildings while now reformed stone, steel, concrete blocks and fibre glass insulation are more common.

Wood

As everyone knows, wood is a product of trees, and sometimes other fiberous plants. Used for construction purposes when cut or pressed into lumber and timber, such as boards, planks and similar materials.

It the most basic and useful building material and is used in building any type of structure thoughout the United Kindgom. Wood is very flexible under loads whilst keeping strength when bending and it is incredibly strong when compressed vertically. Timber frame construction is used in green building and has many benefits to the builder. Builder Superstore seeks to offer quality timber framed houses, timber framed garages and timber framed extensions. Saving money, time and energy for the builder and adding a green build to help save the environment too.

Timber frame construction has many differing qualities from different types of wood, even among same tree species. This means specific species are better for various uses than others. And growing conditions are important for deciding quality.

Historically, wood for building large structures was used in its unprocessed form as logs. The trees were just cut to the needed length, sometimes stripped of bark, and then notched or lashed in to place.

In earlier times, and in some parts of the world, many country homes or communities had a personal wood-lot from which the family or community would grow and harvest trees to build with. These lots would be tended to like a garden.

With the invention of mechanizing saws came the mass production of dimensional lumber. This made buildings quicker to put up and more uniform. Thus the modern western style home was made.

Brick and Block

A brick is a block made of kiln-fired material, usually clay or shale, but also may be of lower quality mud, etc. Clay bricks are formed in a moulding (the soft mud method), or in commercial manufacture more frequently by extruding clay through a die and then wire-cutting them to the proper size (the stiff mud process).

Bricks were very popular as a building material in the 1700, 1800 and 1900s. This was probably due to the fact that it was much more flame retardant than wood in the ever crowding cities, and fairly cheap to produce.

Another type of block replaced clay bricks in the late 20th century. It was the Breeze block. Made mostly with concrete this block has had widespread use in the United Kingdom because of its prices, speed of construction and weight.

Concrete

Concrete is a composite building material made from the combination of aggregate (composite) and a binder such as cement. The most common form of concrete is Portland cement concrete, which consists of mineral aggregate (generally gravel and sand), portland cement and water. After mixing, the cement hydrates and eventually hardens into a stone-like material. When used in the generic sense, this is the material referred to by the term concrete.

For a concrete construction of any size, as concrete has a rather low tensile strength, it is generally strengthened using steel rods or bars (known as rebars). This strengthened concrete is then referred to as reinforced concrete. In order to minimise any air bubbles, that would weaken the structure, a vibrator is used to eliminate any air that has been entrained when the liquid concrete mix is poured around the ironwork. Concrete has been the predominant building material in this modern age because of its strength, value, readiness and ease of use.

Metal

Metal is used as a structural framework for larger buildings such as skyscrapers, or as an external surface covering. There are many types of metals used for building. Steel is a metal alloy whose major component is iron, and is the usual choice for metal structural building materials. It is strong, flexible, and if refined well and/or treated lasts a long time.

Metals with lower density have better corrosion resistance - aluminium alloys and tin are overcome by their greater cost. Brass was more common in the past, but is usually restricted to specific uses or specialty items today.
 
Metal figures heavily in prefabricated structures across the UK city scapes and can be seen used in most cosmopolitan cities. It requires a great deal of human labor to produce metal, especially in the large amounts needed for the building industries. Steel and metal are not green building materials however they have excellent qualities in durability and save time and money in many areas.

Titanium and chrome as used for more specialist uses and are very hard metals, though chrome is very brittle, too. Titanium can be used for structural purposes, though it is quite expensive. Chrome, gold and silver are also expensive and can only be used for decorational purposes. These are used as decoration because they are too soft to provide any structural support. Corrosion is metal's prime enemy when it comes to longevity.

Glass

Clear glass has been used to allow users of building to gain light and aspects of the outdoors whilst acting as a barrier against the elements. Glass was developed to cover small openings in buildings and it has now become advanced to be used in multiple layers of glazing with high insulation properties. Also safety glass is important for use in secure buildings to protect users and against the spread of fire and smoke within buildings. Glass is generally made from mixtures of sand and silicates, and is very brittle.

In modern architecture toughened glass "curtain walls" are used to cover the entire facade of a building. Glass can also be used to span over a wide roof structure in a "space frame".

Ceramics

Builder Superstore has a great range of ceramics and they include the obvious types such as tiles and fixtures. Ceramics are mostly used as fixtures or coverings in buildings. Ceramic floors, walls, counter-tops, even ceilings have good thermal properties and waterproofing for buildings. Many countries use ceramic roofing tiles to ensure structures are watertight.

Ceramics used to be just a specialised form of clay-pottery firing in kilns, but it has evolved into more technical areas. It lacks conductiveness meaning it makes an efficient insulator.