Stone:
stone structures are stable because of their unique construction method, which is characterized by the presence of a load-bearing facade of carefully-selected interlocking stones. Dry-stone technology is best known as wall construction, but dry stone buildings, bridges, and other structures also exist.
Rock structures have existed for as long as history can recall. It is the longest lasting building material available, and is usually readily available. There are many types of rock through out the world all with differing attributes that make them better or worse for particular uses. Rock is a very dense material so it gives a lot of protection too, its main draw-back as a material is its weight and awkwardness. Its energy density is also considered a big draw-back, as stone is hard to keep warm without using large amounts of heating resources.
Dry-stone walls have been built for as long as humans have put one stone on top of another. Eventually different forms of mortar were used to hold the stones together, cement being the most commonplace now.
Mostly stone buildings can be seen in most major cities, some civilizations built entirely with stone such as the Pyramids in Egypt, the Aztec pyramids and the remains of the Inca civilization.
Straw:
Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and basket-making.
In many parts of the world, straw is used to bind clay and concrete. A mixture of clay and straw, known as cob, can be used as a building material. There are many recipes for making cob.
When baled, straw has excellent insulation characteristics. It can be used, alone or in a post-and-beam construction, to build straw bale houses.
Enviroboard can be made from straw
straw have been in use in many ways for building since prehistory. The incorporation in machine-manufactured modular bales seems to date back to the early 20th century in the midwestern United States, particularly the sand-hills of Nebraska[5], where grass was plentiful and other building materials (even quality sods) were not
Mud:
Mud is a liquid or semi-liquid mixture of water and some combination of soil, silt, and clay. Ancient mud deposits harden over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone (generally called lutites). When geological deposits of mud are formed in estuaries the resultant layers are termed bay muds. Mud is closely related to slurry and sediment.
Mud, in the construction industry, refers to wet plaster, stucco, cement or other similar substances.[clarification needed]
Mud that is mostly clay, or a mixture of clay and sand may be used for ceramics, of which one form is the common fired brick, or dried with the inclusion of straw reenforcing to form an unfired adobe brick. Adobe walls are frequently finished with a mud plaster, seen above in the introductory illustration. Such buildings must be protected from groundwater, usually by building upon a masonry, fired brick, rock or rubble foundation, and also from wind-driven rain in damp climates, usually by deep roof overhangs. In extremely dry climates a well drained flat roof may be protected with a well-prepared and properly maintained dried mud coating, viable as the mud will expand when moistened and so become more water resistant.
In ceramics, the making of liquid mud (called slip)[citation needed] is a stage in the process of refinement of the materials, since larger particles will settle from the liquid.
Mud is similar to muck, but lacking significant quantities of humus, and often containing higher proportions of sand.
Mud can provide a home for numerous types of animals, including varieties of worms, frogs, snails, clams, and crayfish. Other animals, such as pigs and elephants bathe in mud in order to cool off and protect themselves from the sun. Humans have also used mud as a building material, or a sealant material.
Timber is supplied either rough or finished. Besides pulpwood, rough lumber is the raw material for furniture-making and other items requiring additional cutting and shaping. It is available in many species, usually hardwoods. Finished lumber is supplied in standard sizes, mostly for the construction industry, primarily softwood from coniferous species including pine, fir and spruce (collectively known as Spruce-pine-fir), cedar, hemlock, but also some hardwood, for high-grade flooring.
Timber:
Timber is wood that is used in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production.
Written By:
Suliat Yusuf
