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| A double-storey bungalow house in Bukit Jelutong, Shah Alam. |
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| The front view of the stairs |
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| Plan view of the stairs. |
There is a total of 20 steps including the two landing for this staircase. Based on my observation, I think that this house used reinforced concrete system to build the stairs and solid wood as the finishing. The staircase design is also knows as half-turn stairs.
While doing a more detailed research on reinforced concrete, there was a few questions that popped up in my head like "What is reinforced concrete?" "Why did they chose reinforced concrete as a system to build the stairs?" "How do we build it?". From all the questions I asked myself, I began to research even more and found my answers.
What is reinforced concrete?
Reinforced concrete is a combination of traditional cement concrete with reinforcements (steel bar). This combination is made to utilise the compressive strength if concrete and tensile strength of steel simultancely.
Why reinforced concrete?
Mainly because there is so many advantages of using reinforced concrete system such as;
- Reinforced concrete has a high compressive strength compared to other building material.
- Due to the provided reinforcement, reinforced concrete can also withstand a good amount of tensile stress.
- It is fire and weather resistant.
- Reinforced concrete, as a fluid material in the beginning, can be economically molded into a nearly limitless range of shapes.
- The maintenance cost is very low.
- The cost of concrete is fairly cheap compared to other materials.
However not all materials are flawless so I have also listed down the disadvantages of reinforced concrete below;
- The tensile strength of reinforced concrete is about one-tenth of its compressive strength.
- The main steps of using reinforced concrete are mixing, casting and curing. All of this will affect the final strength.
- The cost of the forms used for casting reinforced concrete is relatively higher.
- Shrinkage causes crack development and strength loss.
How do we apply reinforced concrete in stairs?
There is not much information that I can find about building the stairs using reinforced concrete in step-by-step but however from my understanding, the steps goes as follows.
1. Prepare the measurements and calculations for the stairs (how tall is the riser, how big is the thread, how many steps total and etc.)
2. Make the formwork using wood and insert reinforcement steel bars inside length way and sideway.
3. Add the stringers evenly along the stairs.
4. Pour in the concrete mixture in the formwork and let it harden for a few days.
5. Finish with finishes of choice (e.x. solid wood, tiles and etc.)
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| The inside of an RC Staircase formwork |
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| Close up of the form wor |
Reflection
Reinforced concrete, as an economic building material, is very popular nowadays. It is widely used in many types of building around the world. Along with many advantages reinforced concrete also poses some disadvantages too.
In my opinion, the choice of using reinforced concrete system is very suitable for a bungalow house as it can withstand a lot of human traffic and also cost friendly in terms of building and the maintenance.
