Stone is commonly used as a building material for better durability, strength and classic look. Nowadays stones are also used for exterior and interior architectural work. Before using any stone in our building we should known the characteristics of good building stone.

Table of Contents

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD BUILDING STONES:

Crushing strength

For a good stone as a building material its crushing strength should be greater than 100 N/mm2,

Appearance

Appearance matter a lot when stone is used in decorative place of building including exterior and interior architectural decoration.

The building stone which are used for face work should have good appearance quality and they should not leak their color so that capable of preserving lifelong good appearance

It should be of uniform color and free from mini holes, spots.

DURABILITY OF BUILDING STONE

A good building stone should be durable more than bricks and any other material because these are natural material and withstand capability against weathering condition.

Durability of a stone are its chemical composition, texture, resistance to atmospheric and other

Facility of dressing

Stones are natural material so obviously their shape and size are irregular so they should facilitate for carving, moulding, cutting and dressing.

Because this function is inversely proportional to strength and durability of stones but economical point of view the easy dressing of stone are also considered.

Fracture

The fracture quality of stone should be sharp, even, bright and clear with grains.

Dull, chalky and earthly fracture can easily decay with time.

Hardness

We analyse the stone in hardness test and their value indicates the hardness.

The coefficient of hardness in hardness test should be greater than 17 for a stone to be used in roadwork.

Stone is said medium hard when their value varies between 14 and 17.

If it is less than 14, the stone is Poor in hardness and such stone should not be used in road work.

Percentage wear

The wear of building stone is tested in attrition test.

For a good building stone the wear value of stone should not more than 3%.

if wear is more than 3% the stone is not satisfactory. If it is equal to 3%, the stone is just tolerable.

Resistance to fire

The minerals composing stone should be such that shape of stone is preserved when a fire occurs.

Because of fire their is rapid rise in temperature, sudden cooling, difrerent coefficient of linearexpansion of minerals etc.

Seasoning of GOOD BUILDING STONES:

As per characteristics of good building stone, it should be well seasoned before used in building material because their is some presence of moisture in stone when it is quarred.

Because of this moisture it is easy to work (cutting and carving) so it can affect the quality of stone and make it soft stone.

Specific Gravity as a characteristic of Good Building stone:

The specific gravity of natural building stone should be more than 2.7.

Specific gravity is the density of stone compared to ideal condition like density of water as a same volume.

CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD BUILDING STONE IN CONSTRUCTION