BUILDING GYPSUM CHARACTERISTICS BASIC INFORMATION

Compared with other binding materials, building gypsum has the following characteristics:

1. Fast Setting and Hardening
The setting time of building gypsum changes with the calcination temperature, grinding rate and impurity content. Generally, mixed with water, its initial setting needs just a few minutes at room temperature, and its final setting is also within 30min.

Under the natural dry indoor conditions, total hardening needs about one week. The setting time can be adjusted according to requirements.

If the time needs to be postponed, delayed coagulant can be added to reduce the solubility and the solution rate of building gypsum, such as sulfite alcohol wastewater, bone glue activated by borax or lime, hide glue, and protein glue; if it needs to be accelerated, accelerator can be added, such as sodium chloride, silicon sodium fluoride, sodium sulfate, and magnesium sulfate.

2. Micro-expansion
In the hardening process, the volume of building gypsum just expands a little, and there won’t be any cracks. Thus, it can be used alone without any extenders, and can also be casted into construction members and decorative patterns with accurate size and smooth and compact surface.

3. Big Porosity
After hardening, the porosity of building gypsum can reach 50%-60%, so its products are light, insulating, and sound-absorbing. But these products have low strength and large water absorption due to big porosity.


4. Poor Water Resistance
Building gypsum has low softening coefficient (about 0.2-0.3) and poor water resistance. Absorbing water, it.wil1 break up with the freeze of water. Thus, its water resistance and frost resistance are poor, not used outdoors.

5. Good Fire Resistance
The main component of building gypsum after hardcning is CaS04*2H20. When it contacts with fire, the evaporation of crystal water will absorb heat and generate anhydrous gypsum which has good thermal insulation. The thicker its products are, the better their fire resistance will be.

6. Large Plastic Deformation
Gypsum and its products have an obvious performance of plastic deformation. Creep becomes more serious especially under bending load. Thus, it is not used for load-bearing structures normally. If it is used, some necessary measures need to be taken

STEEP SLOPE ROOF STYLES BASIC INFORMATION

While low-slope roofs are generally limited to flat-roof styles and are seldom found on residential structures, steep-roof styles vary greatly.

Of the steep-roof styles, the gable roof is the most common. It has a high point, or ridge, at or near the center of the house or wing that extends from one end wall to the other.

The roof slopes downward from the ridge in both directions. This roof style gets its name from the gable, which is the triangular section of end wall between the rafter plate and the roof ridge.

The roof on one side of the ridge is usually the same size and slope as the roof on the other side. The gable roof of the saltbox house is an exception.

An architecture common in New England, the saltbox has different slopes and slopes of different lengths. A hip roof also has a ridge, but the ridge does not extend from one end of the roof to the other.

The lower edge of the roof, or eave, is at a constant height and the roof slopes downward to the eaves on all sides. The point where two roof surfaces meet at an outside corner is called a hip. The junction where two roof surfaces meet at an inside corner is called a valley.

A shed roof slopes in only one direction, like half a gable roof. The roof has no ridge and the walls that support the rafters are different heights. The shed roof has several variations. One is the butterfly roof, where two shed roofs slope toward a low point over the middle of the house.

In another variation, two shed roofs slope upward from the eaves, but do not meet at a ridge. The wall between the two roofs is called a clerestory, and is often filled with windows to let light into the interior
of the house.

A gambrel, or barn roof, has double slopes: one pair of gentle slopes and one pair of steep slopes. Like a gable roof, the gambrel roof slopes in both directions from a center ridge. At a point about halfway between ridge and eave, however, the roof slope becomes much steeper.

In effect, the lower slope replaces the upper exterior walls of a two-story house. It is common to add projections through the roof, called dormers, for light and ventilation.

Just as a gambrel roof is like a gable roof with two different slopes, a mansard roof is like a hip roof. From a shorter ridge, the roof drops in two distinct slopes to eaves that are the same height all the way around the structure.

Up to 40 percent of the building is roof with the mansard roof design. In addition to typical residential applications, mansard roofs are often used for apartment complexes, commercial buildings, and even institutions such as schools.