The building
materials used to varying degrees in Sri Lanka are as follows: burnt clay
bricks, cement and cement products including asbestos-cement sheets, corrugated
iron, aluminum, alloy, fiber glass and bituminous sheets, structural steel,
earth, common clay and soil blocks, natural stones, lime, timber(including
bamboo) and tiles. Agricultural fiber
wastes are used to a limited extent in specific applications. Building components
such as glass and ceramics (sanitary ware, tiles, and pipes) are also used. The
choice of materials is determined by the particular environment of their use (rural
and urban), cost, aesthetic appearance, functional considerations and their
availability.
The use of
building materials is quite different in rural and in urban areas. Locally available
indigenous materials are widely used in many rural areas.
Traditional
materials
An island
wide survey on rural housing conducted by the national building research organization
in 1984 revealed that earth(61.8%), burnt clay bricks(16.2%),
rubble(8.1%),cement products (4.8%), cabook (4.1%), timber and other materials
(0.9%) are the materials used in superstructure walls of rural houses. Earth construction
was mainly in the form of wattle and daub (50.4%) with rammed earth (8.4%) and
adobe (4.6%) confined to certain areas of country.
As regards
the roofing material, cadjan is the most popular with 42.6% of the housing
units using it as the prime material. Straw and palmyrah thatching have been
used in 4.1% and 1.6% houses respectively. Clay tiles constitute 33.8% of the
houses while 10.8% houses are roofed with corrugated sheets.
The majority
of urban houses have brick walls (62%) tiled roof cover (47.7%) and cement
floors (78%).
burnt red clay bricks
cadjan
palmyrah tree
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