Building Design and Construction Handbook - Merritt - Ventech!

SECTION ELEVEN
WALL, FLOOR, AND CEILING
SYSTEMS
Frederick S. Merritt*
Consulting Engineer,
West Palm Beach, Florida
This section discusses design and construction of systems generally used for enclosing
buildings and the spaces within them. (Some such systems, such as roofs
and foundations, however, are treated in other sections, because of their special
functions in addition to enclosure of spaces.) The systems covered in this section,
as described in Art. 1.7, include exterior walls; interior walls, or partitions; floors;
and ceilings.
Each of these systems usually consists of one or more facing subsystems and a
structural subsystem that supports them. The facing subsystems may be the surfaces
of the structural subsystem or separate entities that enclose that subsystem. They
serve esthetic purposes, provide privacy, and bar, or at least restrict, passage of
people or other moving objects, water, air, sound, heat and also often light.
Wood structural subsystems are discussed in Sec. 10, and concrete is discussed
in Sec. 9. Basic principles of waterproofing building exteriors are presented in Art.
3.4.2. This section describes techniques applicable to unit masonry and curtain
walls.
Floors provide not only a horizontal separation of interior building spaces but
also a surface on which human activities can take place and on which materials
and equipment can be stored. The structural subsystem usually consists of a slab
or deck and also often of beams that support it. These are described in Secs. 7
through 10. This section discusses constructions used for the upper facing, or floor
coverings, which serve esthetic purposes and act as a wearing surface. The bottom
facing, or ceiling, may be the bottom surface of the slab or deck or a separate
entity, such as a gypsum-plaster membrane, which is also discussed in this section,
or acoustical tile.
*Deceased.
11.1