Column

• A supporting pillar consisting of a base, shaft and a capital.

• A structural element that transmits, through compression , the weight of the structure above
to other structure below.

• Columns are frequently used to support beams or arches on which the upper parts of walls
or ceilings.
Beam

• A structural element that is capable of withstanding load primarily by resisting bending.

Concrete
Advantage of Reinforced Concrete Column:

• It has a relatively high compressive strength;

• It has better resistance to fire than steel;

• It has a long service life with low maintenance cost; In some types of structures, such as
dams, piers, and footings, it is the most economical structural material;

• It can be cast to take the shape required, making it widely used in precast structural
components. It yields rigid members with minimum apparent deflection.
Disadvantage of Reinforced Concrete Column:

• It has a low tensile strength of about one-tenth of its compressive strength;

• It needs mixing, casting, and curing, all of which affect the final strength of concrete;

• The cost of the forms used to cast of concrete placed in the forms;

• It has a low compressive strength as compared to steel (the ratio is about 1:10, depending
on materials), which leads to large sections in columns of multi-storey buildings;

• Cracks develop in concrete due to shrinkage and the application of live loads.

Steel Frame
Steel construction is most often used in
High rise buildings because of its strength, low weight, and speed of construction
Industrial buildings because of its ability to create large span spaces at low cost
Warehouse buildings for the same reason
Residential buildings in a technique called light gauge steel construction
Temporary Structures as these are quick to set up and remove
Steel structures have the following advantages:
They are super-quick to build at site, as a lot of work can be pre-fabbed at the factory.
They are flexible, which makes them very good at resisting dynamic (changing) forces such
as wind or earthquake forces.
A wide range of ready-made structural sections are available, such as I, C, and angle sections
They can be made to take any kind of shape, and clad with any type of material
A wide range of joining methods is available, such as bolting, welding, and riveting
DISADVANTAGES OF STEEL STRUCTURES
Steel structures have the following disadvantages:
They lose strength at high temperatures, and are susceptible to fire.
They are prone to corrosion in humid or marine environments

Timber
Light wood framed construction is one of the most popular types of building methods for
homes in the United States and parts of Europe.

It has the following characteristics:

It is light, and allows quick construction with no heavy tools or equipment. Every component
can easily be carried by hand - a house essentially becomes a large carpentry job. The main
tool is a handheld nail gun.
It is able to adapt itself to any geometric shape, and can be clad with a variety of materials.
There are a huge variety of products and systems tailored to this type of construction.

It has these negative characteristics:

It is not highly fireproof, as it is made of wood.
It is not strong enough to resist major wind events such as tornadoes and hurricanes.
BALLOON FRAME STRUCTURES
While this is an outmoded form of wood construction no longer used today, it is good to
know what it is and why it is no longer used.
In balloon frame construction, if you had a two-storey house that was twenty feet high, you
would use a single 20 foot long vertical stud for both storeys. This made the studs heavy and
difficult to handle. The second problem was the gap between the two studs, which acted
passageways for the spread of fire from the lower to the upper storey.

For these reasons, balloon frame construction has been superseded by platform frame
construction, which is superior in all respects.
PLATFORM FRAME STRUCTURES
This is the sequence you would follow to erect a 2-storey platform frame house.

Erect the ground floor platform, a horizontal wooden platform over the foundation.
Build all the walls upto a height of one storey. This can easily be done by building each wall
flat - on the floor platform - and then tilting it vertically.
Build the next floor platform.
Erect the next set of vertical walls in the same manner on the top of the second platform.
Build the sloping roof over the walls.