A floor is the walking surface of a room or vehicle. Floors vary from simple dirt in a cave to many-layered surfaces using modern technology. Floors may be stone, wood, bamboo, metal, or any other material that can hold a person's weight.

The levels of a building are often referred to as floors and are described in the article storey A storey or story (American English) is any level part of a building that has a permanent roof and could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). The plurals are storeys and stories, respectively. This article describes the structure of floors.

Floors typically consist of a subfloor for support and a floor covering used to give a good walking surface. In modern buildings the subfloor often has electrical wiring, plumbing, and other services built in. Because floors meet many needs, some essential to safety, floors are built to strict building codes A building code, or building control, is a set of rules that specify the minimum acceptable level of safety for constructed objects such as buildings and nonbuilding structures. The main purpose of building codes are to protect public health, safety and general welfare as they relate to the construction and occupancy of buildings and structures.

Special floor structures

Where a special floor structure like a floating floor A Floating Floor is a floor that does not need to be nailed or glued to the subfloor. The term floating floor refers to the installation method, but is often used synonymously with laminate flooring in a domestic context is laid upon another floor then both may be referred to as subfloors.

Special floor structures are used for a number of purposes:

• Balcony Balcony , a kind of platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, a platform projecting from a wall
• Floating floor A Floating Floor is a floor that does not need to be nailed or glued to the subfloor. The term floating floor refers to the installation method, but is often used synonymously with laminate flooring in a domestic context, normally for noise or vibration reduction
• Glass floor This article is about a structural feature. For the expression concerning limitations on advancement, see glass ceiling. For the 2004 Maritime album, see Glass Floor, as in glass bottomed elevators
• Nightingale floor Nightingale floors, or uguisubari listen (help·info), were floors designed to make a chirping sound when walked upon. These floors were used in the hallways of some temples and palaces, the most famous example being Nijo Castle, in Kyoto, Japan. Dry boards naturally creak under pressure, but these floors were designed so that the flooring nails makes a noise when an intruder walks on it
• Raised floor A raised floor is a type of floor used in office buildings (such as IT data centers) with a high requirement for servicing to carry cables, wiring, electrical supply, and sometimes air conditioning or chilled water pipes. Additional structural support and lighting are often provided when a floor is raised enough for a person to crawl or even walk, utilities underneath can be accessed easily
• Sprung floor A sprung floor is a floor that absorbs shocks giving it a softer feel. Such floors are considered the best available for dance and indoor sports and physical education. They enhance performance and greatly reduce injuries. Modern sprung floors are supported by foam backing or rubber feet, while the traditional floors are cushioned mechanically, improves the performance and safety of athletes and dancers

Floor covering

Floor covering is a term to generically describe any finish material applied over a floor structure to provide a walking surface. Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor, or for the work of installing such a floor covering. Both terms are used interchangeably but floor covering refers more to loose-laid materials.

Materials almost always classified as floor covering include carpet A carpet is a textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is generally either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene, and usually consists of twisted tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their structure, area rugs Braided rugs are made by using three or more strips of fabric, usually wool, folding the raw edges to the middle and braiding them together. For an oval rug the center braid should be one inch longer than the width-length in feet. example 2' x 4' rug center strip would be 2'2" long. The center braid is laced together and new strips are sewn, and resilient flooring such as linoleum Linoleum is a floor covering made from renewable materials such as solidified linseed oil (linoxyn), pine rosin, ground cork dust, wood flour, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canvas backing; pigments are often added to the materials or vinyl A vinyl compound is any organic compound that contains a vinyl group . Vinyl groups (formula −C flooring. Materials commonly called flooring Flooring is the general term for a permanent covering of a floor, or for the work of installing such a floor covering. Floor covering is a term to generically describe any finish material applied over a floor structure to provide a walking surface. Both terms are used interchangeably but floor covering refers more to loose-laid materials include wood flooring Wood flooring is any product manufactured from timber that is designed for use as flooring, either structural or aesthetic. Bamboo flooring is often considered a wood floor, although it is not manufactured from timber, but a grass, laminated wood, ceramic tile A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, and walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops. Alternatively, tile can sometimes refer to similar units made from lightweight materials such as perlite, wood, and mineral wool,, stone Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone such as marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, and tile. Masonry is generally a highly durable form of, terrazzo Terrazzo workers create walkways, floors, patios, and panels by exposing marble chips and other fine aggregates on the surface of finished concrete or epoxy-resin. Much of the preliminary work of terrazzo workers is similar to that of cement masons. Marble-chip, cementitious terrazzo requires three layers of materials. First, cement masons or, and various seamless chemical floor coatings.^[1]

The choice of material for floor covering is affected by factors such as cost, endurance, noise insulation, comfort and cleaning effort. Some types of flooring must not be installed below grade (lower than ground level), and laminate or hardwood should be avoided where there may be moisture or condensation.

The subfloor may be finished in a way that makes it usable without any extra work, see:

• Earthen floor An earthen floor, also called an adobe floor, is a floor made of dirt, raw earth, or other unworked ground materials. It is usually constructed, in modern times, with a mixture of sand, finely chopped straw and clay, mixed to a thickened consistency and spread with a trowel on a sub-surface such as concrete. Once dry, it is then usually saturated adobe or clay Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals. Clay deposits are mostly composed of clay minerals, a subtype of phyllosilicate minerals, which impart plasticity and harden when fired or dried; they also may contain variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure by polar attraction. Organic materials floors
• Solid ground floor cement screed or granolithic

There are a number of special features that may be used to ornament In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Architectural ornament can be carved from stone, wood or precious metals, formed with plaster or clay, or impressed onto a surface as applied ornament; in other applied arts the main material of the object, or a different one may be used a floor or perform a useful service. Examples include Floor medallions Floor Medallions are generally a centerpiece of flooring design that can be made with various flooring materials including natural stone, wood, metal, tile, glass or a variety of other materials suitable for flooring. The pattern can be created using various methods such as mosaic, intarsia, and marquetry which provide a decorative centerpiece of a floor design, or Gratings A grating is any regularly spaced collection of essentially identical, parallel, elongated elements. Gratings usually consist of a single set of elongated elements, but can consist of two sets, in which case the second set is usually perpendicular to the first . When the two sets are perpendicular, this is also known as a mesh used to drain water or to rub dirt off shoes.

Subfloor construction

The subfloor provides the strength of a floor. Many floors have no separate floor covering on top. The subfloor may also provide services like underfloor heating Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of central heating and cooling which uses heat conduction and radiant heat or cold for indoor climate control, rather than forced air heating which relies on convection. Heat can be provided by circulating heated water or by electric cable, mesh, or film heaters or ducts Ducts are used in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning to deliver and remove air. These needed airflows include, for example, supply air, return air, and exhaust air. Ducts also deliver, most commonly as part of the supply air, ventilation air. As such, air ducts are one method of ensuring acceptable indoor air quality as well as thermal for air conditioning Air conditioning is the cooling of indoor air for thermal comfort. In a broader sense, the term can refer to any form of cooling, heating, ventilation, or disinfection that modifies the condition of air. An air conditioner is an appliance, system, or machine designed to stabilise the air temperature and humidity within an area (used for cooling as.

A ground-level floor can be an earthen floor An earthen floor, also called an adobe floor, is a floor made of dirt, raw earth, or other unworked ground materials. It is usually constructed, in modern times, with a mixture of sand, finely chopped straw and clay, mixed to a thickened consistency and spread with a trowel on a sub-surface such as concrete. Once dry, it is then usually saturated made of soil Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics, or be solid ground floors made of concrete slab A concrete slab is a common structural element of modern buildings. Horizontal slabs of steel reinforced concrete, typically between 10 and 50 centimetres thick, are most often used to construct floors and ceilings, while thinner slabs are also used for exterior paving. Floors above may be built on beams A beam is a structural element that is capable of withstanding load primarily by resisting bending. The bending force induced into the material of the beam as a result of the external loads, own weight and external reactions to these loads is called a bending moment or joists A joist, in architecture and engineering, is one of the horizontal supporting members that run from wall to wall, wall to beam, or beam to beam to support a ceiling, roof, or floor. It may be made of wood, steel, or concrete. Typically, a beam is bigger than, and is thus distinguished from, a joist. Joists are often supported by beams and are or use structures like hollow core slabs A hollow core slab , also known as a voided slab or hollow core plank is a precast slab of prestressed concrete typically used in the construction of floors in multi-story apartment buildings. The slab has been especially popular in countries where the emphasis of home construction has been on affordable housing, including socialist countries of.

Ground floor construction

Ground-level slab floors are prepared for pouring by grading Grading in civil engineering and construction is the work of ensuring a level base for a construction work such as a foundation or the base course for a road or a railway the base material so that it is flat, and then spreading a layer of sand and gravel. A grid of rebar A rebar , also known as reinforcing steel, reinforcement steel, or a deformed bar, is a common steel bar, and is commonly used in reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry structures. It is usually formed from carbon steel, and is given ridges for better mechanical anchoring into the concrete. In Australia, it is colloquially known as reo is usually added to reinforce the concrete Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is reinforced with iron or steel. Other materials used to reinforce concrete can be organic and inorganic fibres as well as composites, especially if it will be used structurally, i.e., to support part of the building.

Upper floor construction

Floors in woodframe homes Framing, in construction known as light-frame construction, is a building technique based around structural members, usually called studs, which provide a stable frame to which interior and exterior wall coverings are attached, and covered by a roof comprising horizontal ceiling joists and sloping rafters or manufactured pre-fabricated roof are usually constructed with joists centered no more than 16 inches or 40 centimeters apart, according to most building codes A building code, or building control, is a set of rules that specify the minimum acceptable level of safety for constructed objects such as buildings and nonbuilding structures. The main purpose of building codes are to protect public health, safety and general welfare as they relate to the construction and occupancy of buildings and structures.^{[citation needed]} Heavy floors, such as those made of stone Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone such as marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, and tile. Masonry is generally a highly durable form of, require more closely-spaced joists. If the span Span is the distance between two intermediate supports for a structure, e.g. a beam or a bridge. A span can be closed by a solid beam or of a rope. The first kind is used for bridges, the second one for power lines, overhead telecommunication lines, some type of antennas or for aerial tramways between load-bearing walls is too long for joists to safely support, then a heavy crossbeam (thick or laminated A laminate is a material that can be constructed by uniting two or more layers of material together. The process of creating a laminate is lamination, which in common parlance refers to the placing of something between layers of plastic and glueing them with heat and/or pressure, usually with an adhesive. However, in electrical engineering, wood, or a metal I-beam I-beams (also known as H-beams, W-beams , rolled steel joist (RSJ), or double-T (especially in Polish, Spanish and German)) are beams with an I- or H-shaped cross-section. The horizontal elements of the "I" are flanges, while the vertical element is the web. The web resists shear forces while the flanges resist most of the bending moment or H-beam I-beams (also known as H-beams, W-beams , rolled steel joist (RSJ), or double-T (especially in Polish, Spanish and German)) are beams with an I- or H-shaped cross-section. The horizontal elements of the "I" are flanges, while the vertical element is the web. The web resists shear forces while the flanges resist most of the bending moment) may be used. A "subfloor" of plywood Plywood is a manufactured wood, made by gluing together a number of thin veneers or plies of softwood or hardwood. It is used mostly in commercial sites, purely because it is a strong durable substance. A common reason for using plywood instead of plain wood is its resistance to cracking, shrinkage, twisting/warping, and its general high degree of or waferboard is then laid over the joists.

Utilities

In modern buildings, there are numerous services provided via ducts Ducts are used in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning to deliver and remove air. These needed airflows include, for example, supply air, return air, and exhaust air. Ducts also deliver, most commonly as part of the supply air, ventilation air. As such, air ducts are one method of ensuring acceptable indoor air quality as well as thermal or wires underneath the floor or above the ceiling. The floor of one level typically also holds the ceiling of the level below (if any).

Services provided by subfloors include:

• Air conditioning Air conditioning is the cooling of indoor air for thermal comfort. In a broader sense, the term can refer to any form of cooling, heating, ventilation, or disinfection that modifies the condition of air. An air conditioner is an appliance, system, or machine designed to stabilise the air temperature and humidity within an area (used for cooling as
• Communication fibers Telecommunication is the transmission of messages, over significant distances, for the purpose of communication. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as smoke, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded drumbeats, lung-blown horns, or sent by loud whistles, for
• Electrical wiring Electrical wiring in general refers to insulated conductors used to carry electricity, and associated devices. This article describes general aspects of electrical wiring as used to provide power in buildings and structures, commonly referred to as building wiring. This article is intended to describe common features of electrical wiring that
• Fire protection
• Thermal insulation The term thermal insulation can refer to materials used to reduce the rate of heat transfer, or the methods and processes used to reduce heat transfer. Heat energy can be transferred by conduction, convection, radiation or by actual movement of material from one location to another. For the purposes of this discussion only the first three
• Plumbing
• Sewerage
• Soundproofing
• Underfloor heating

In floors supported by joists, utilities are run through the floor by drilling small holes through the joists to serve as conduits. Where the floor is over the basement or crawlspace, utilities may instead be run under the joists, making the installation less expensive. Also, ducts for air conditioning (central heating and cooling) are large and cannot cross through joists or beams; thus, ducts are typically at or near the plenum, or come directly from underneath (or from an attic).

Pipes for plumbing, sewerage, underfloor heating, and other utilities may be laid directly in slab floors, typically via cellular floor raceways. However, later maintenance of these systems can be expensive, requiring the opening of concrete or other fixed structures. Electrically heated floors are available, and both kinds of systems can also be used in wood floors as well.

Issues with floors

Wood floors, particularly older ones, will tend to 'squeak' in certain places. This is caused by the wood rubbing against other wood, usually at a joint of the subfloor. Firmly securing the pieces to each other with screws or nails may reduce this problem.

Floor vibration is a problem with floors. Wood floors tend to pass sound, particularly heavy footsteps and low bass frequencies. Floating floors can reduce this problem. Concrete floors are usually so massive they do not have this problem, but they are also much more expensive to construct and must meet more stringent building requirements due to their weight.

The flooring may need protection sometimes e.g. a gym floor alternately used for seating in a graduation ceremony. A gym floor cover can be used to reduce the need to satisfy incompatible requirements.

Floor cleaning

Floor cleaning is a major occupation throughout the world. Cleaning is essential to prevent injuries due to slips and to remove dirt. Floors are also treated to protect or beautify the surface. The correct method to clean one type of floor can often damage another, so it is important to use the correct treatment.

See also

References

1. ^ http://www.wfca.org/ World Floor Covering Association

External links

Categories: Floors | Building materials | Structural system

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