PRACTICE REVIEW

Ionut - Mihai VLAD

Introduction
The practical stage was made at S.C. Turexim S.R.L.
During the practical stage I have visited the following
sites:
- a building for a family in Campina
- consolidation of a building (P+3)
- finishing work at a building in Bucharest

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House in Campina

This house is situated

in a residential part of
Campina and its principal
purpose is home for a
family with a child.

This building in composed from a small basement, ground

floor, one story and the attic. In the architectural plan I saw
that the house is ideal divided for a family to live in. So, at the
ground floor we have a big living room, a kitchen, and a big
bathroom. At the floor there are three bedrooms and a
bathroom. The attic was not divided being only a big storing
place for that family. Also in the right part of the house its a
garage.
The house is built on a continuous foundation. A
continuous spread foundation is commonly used to provide a
stable base around the entire perimeter of a structure. The
dimensions of a continuous spread footing vary according to
the soil conditions under the building, the load placed on the
footing, and the construction style of the structure being
supported. In this case was a problem because of the moisture
content of the soil. The outside of the foundation walls were
insulated before backfilling in order to prevent moisture
problems and random infiltrations.

Foundation plan
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Ionut - Mihai VLAD

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Also because of the moisture content of the soil the

basement insulation was required. In most cases a basement
with insulation installed on its exterior walls should be
considered a conditioned space. In new construction, adding
insulation on the exterior basement walls will minimize thermal
bridging and reduce heat loss through the foundation, provide
some protection against moisture intrusion and infiltration of
water, protect the foundation from the effect of freeze-thaw
cycle.
The walls of this house are confined masonry walls, made
of reinforced columns of 25x25 cm, tie beams, and bricks with
vertical holes. This type of bricks is ideal to reduce the weight
of the walls and to improve thermal insulation capacity.

This type of frames is

designed in order to fullfill
the performance requirments
such as mechanical safety.
This walls must provide
resistance and stability in
relation with vertical loads
and horizontal loads.

Confined masonry buildings have been observed to incur

little or no damage in moderate to even sever earthquakes.

Formwork plan over ground floor

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Ionut - Mihai VLAD

When I was on this construction sites, the workers were

building the roof.

Construction of a ridged roof

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Ionut - Mihai VLAD

A simple ridged roof consists of declined rafter that rest on

vertical wall-plates on top of each wall. The top ends of the
rafters meet at the horizontal ridge plate or ridge beam.
Horizontal purlins are fixed to the rafters to support the roof
covering. Heavier under purlin are used to support longer rafter
spans. Tie beams or ceiling joists, are connected between the
lower ends of opposite rafters to prevent them from spreading
and forcing the walls apart. Collar beams or collar ties may be
fixed higher up between opposite rafters for extra strength. The
rafters, tie beams and joists serve to transmit the weight of the
roof to the walls of the building.

Consolidation of a building (P+3)

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The second site that I was visited, was a consolidation for

an old house in Bucharest.
Degradation of the composite material brick or stone
masonry is caused by several deterioration phenomena, which
can be categorized into different main types.
Physical
deterioration is the damage, caused by temperature variations,
fire, frost and thaw, erosion by water, corrosion of metal parts
in the wall, dust.

Consolidation procedures:

Strengthening masonry by cladding materials with

superior properties:
This procedure, done by cladding with cement mortar and
concrete is a consolidation procedure very used in Romania.
Cladding is done on the both faces of the structure after a
proper preparation of the masonry (disposal of joints on approx.
15 mm, injection of masonry, masonry cleaning, apply of a
layer of 10-15mm of mortar, reinforcement and then the
second layer of mortar)
Strengthening masonry with columns and tie beams made
of reinforced concrete:
Introduction of tie beams and columns help to assure a
better behavior of the walls on both directions in case of an
earthquake.
Addition of new reinforced concrete shear walls provides
the best option of strengthening an existing structure for
improved seismic performance
This way of consolidation is used to:
- create a state of multiaxial efforts by introducing a
compressive force perpendicular to the applied load
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- increase resistance of walls during elastic phase

- increase
ultimate
capacity
at
eccentric
compressibility
- tensile ductility increase
The minimum specifications for jacketing of columns are:

- Strength of the new materials must be equal or

greater than those of the existing column. Concrete
strength should be at least 5 MPa greater than the
strength of the existing concrete.

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- For columns where extra longitudinal reinforcement

is not required, a minimum of 12 barsis placed in
the four corners
- Minimum jacket thickness should be 100 mm
- Minimum diameter of ties should be 8 mm

Addition of new reinforced concrete shear walls provides

the best option of strengthening an existing structure for
improved seismic performance.
Incorporation of new structural components in an existing

building will change the dynamic behavior of the whole

structure considerably during the earthquake. The choice of the
type, number and size of the added elements depends on the
particularities of the existing structure and the functional layout
of the building.

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Finishing work at a building

At this building I can only see how the finishing work is
done after the entire structure is complete.
Finishing works represent a group of construction
operations relating to the exterior and interior finishing of
building to enhance their service and aesthetic qualities. This a
concluding stage of construction. Finishing work is a very laborintensive process, and for residential construction it accounts
for up to 35 percent of all labor expenditures in construction
and assembly operations.
In this process the following processes were made:
- the exterior walls were painted
- all the interior doors were installed (doors of MDF and
PVC only for bathroom)
- commercial parquet was installed
- painting was done with quality washable paint at the
interior.

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