Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
buildings. Occupants of public-access buildings as well as “visitors” depend
on building management to provide a comfortable and low-health-risk envi-
ronment. Occupants and visitors usually do not have any control over build-
ing environment conditions.
C. Building types and construction characteristics
Building type, design, and construction characteristics reflect the needs
served by individual buildings, resources and desires of the owner, prefer-
ences of architects and contractors, resource and material availability, cli-
mate, etc. Office buildings, for example, vary in size from small structures
no larger than a residence to giant towers providing hundreds of thousands
to millions of square feet of floor space. They vary from wood-framed with
a variety of cladding types to structures with ribs of steel and facades of
glass and stone.
Like residences, nonresidential buildings have similar basic structural
and furnishing requirements. These include a substructure or building base;
a skeletal frame; external cladding; windows; a roof; insulating materials;
interior wall coverings; flooring; finish coatings; and interior furnishings
such as floor coverings, furniture, storage cabinets, room dividers, etc.
1.
Substructure/structure
Because nonresidential structures tend to be large, they are constructed to
reflect structural demands. The building base must support the weight of
the building whose structural components are steel and concrete. Substruc-
tures therefore are slab-on-grade or have one or two subgrade levels, with
structural members often anchored to bedrock or stabilized ground. The
building frame may be constructed of steel or reinforced concrete columns.
In multistory buildings, structural steel is sprayed with fireproofing insula-
tion, which reduces the risk of warping and building collapse in a fire. Before
1973, such fireproofing contained asbestos.
2.
Walls
Exterior walls may include extensive glass or cladding of limestone building
stone, brick, etc. As in residences, they are often insulated (depending on
climate) with materials manufactured for the walls and roofs of large build-
ings. Such buildings may or may not have vapor barriers. In warm climates,
such as Florida, severe mold infestations on interior wall materials have
occurred as a result of thermal-enhanced movement of water through the
building envelope (without vapor barrier) and subsequent condensation on
cooled wall surfaces. Interior walls are typically covered with gypsum board,
with other materials used for decorative purposes.
3.
Flooring/floor covering
Floors of nonresidential buildings are usually poured concrete, often covered
with vinyl tile, terrazzo, or carpet. Vinyl asbestos tile was widely used in
