Home Construction: Project, Building, and Assessment
To meet the needs of a home, it must pass a three-stage technological process:
- Project
- Construction
- Assessment
The Project
When it is determined that a house should be built, an architectural project is developed. This project defines the characteristics of the design, under the direction of an architect. The project consists of three documents:
- Memory and Specifications: These include calculations to determine ventilation surfaces and indicate the use of materials.
- Plans: Thanks to graphic language, these provide certainty about the size, etc.
- Health and Safety Standards: A document outlining the rules to guarantee good sanitary conditions, comfort, and safety.
Construction
Once the promoter (the person who ordered the work) accepts the project and obtains all necessary permits, the construction of the housing begins, following the project. Technicians from many areas are involved, and these people are led by a manager.
- The director of work, who is usually an architect, coordinates all activities of the team to work safely, follow the work plan, and ensure the budget and deadlines are not exceeded.
Assessment
The companies involved in home construction must respond during the warranty period for possible defects that may appear. This period is 10 years and 6 months for serious defects. These actions provide repair technicians with information about the correct operation of the homes, which is used to make improvements for future housing. This ensures that homes are increasingly private and comfortable. Thanks to this process, whenever there is a serious accident, a technician is informed, who collects the causes and the damage caused.
Graphic Representation
An important element of architectural plans are scale drawings and graphic representations of all parties that make up an architectural work or building.
To draw the plans, plan and side views are used. Important maps include plant heights, distribution, and installations. Different symbols are used to represent different elements integrating the work.
Signs: Simplified graphics or pictures that represent the elements or components of a construction, facilities, etc., and are used on plans.
The use of standardized symbols in construction plans facilitates the interpretation of architectural plans and avoids misunderstandings.
Housing Construction Materials
Different elements are used when building housing:
- Binders: Materials such as powder that, when mixed with water, acquire plasticity and, after a while, become consistent. The most common are cement, gypsum, and lime.
- Conglomerates: These are achieved by mixing a binder with sand and gravel, adding water, and creating a paste. They can take different forms over time, and as the binder hardens, they become very resistant to compression. Examples are mortar and concrete.
- Foundation: A construction element that conveys all the building’s forces to the ground. They are buried and support the building’s structure.
- Structure: Intended to support all efforts to convey the building and grounds to be compensated. Parts include pillars, columns, master walls, beams, and slabs.
- Roofing: Horizontally separates the building from the outside. Its function is to protect homes from rain and snow and prevent moisture penetration. They can be inclined or horizontal, such as roofs and terraces.
- Closures: Formed by the walls, which serve to isolate and separate the different rooms from each other or the outside.
- Coating: Hides irregularities and imperfections of the wall slabs and other building elements and prepares them to receive the finishing.