Unit 2.

HOUSE BUILDING

I. Vocabulary
Video- crash course on Civil engineering-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xbtnz4wdaA-
Civil engineering-the planning, building, and repair of roads, bridges, large buildings etc.
A building (n)- a structure such as a house, church, or factory, that has a roof and walls.

Structural Elements of a House

1. Foundation (n) is a structure that transfers loads to the earth; (rom: temelie);
The word “foundation” is used to mean:
 construction below grade, such as footings, cellar, or basement;
 the composition of the earth on which the building rests;
 special construction, such as pilings and piers used to support the building.
2. Frame (n) - the basic structure of a building that other parts are added onto; (rom:cadru al unei
construcții);
 Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel
columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof
and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame.
 Light-frame construction (wood-frame) is a building technique where structural members,
called studs, provide a stable frame to which interior and exterior wall coverings are attached.
 Concrete frame consists of a concrete structure reinforced with steel bars poured on the site.
3. Roof (n) - the covering that forms the top of a building. There are two parts to a roof, its
supporting structure(rafters (căpriori), trusses (ferme), roof sheathing (căptușeală))
and its outer skin, or uppermost weatherproof layer (the wood shingles șindrile,or
tiles țigle, slate ardezie, or metal);
4. Wall-(n) - a vertical structure, often made of stone or brick, that divides space or surrounds
something;
 A load-bearing wall (or bearing wall) is a wall that bears a load resting upon it by
conducting its weight to a foundation structure. (rom: perete portant);
The materials most often used to construct load-bearing walls in large buildings are concrete,
block, or brick.
 Interior Wall (or partition wall) is a wall that separates space within a house. (rom: perete
despartitor);
5. Window—An opening in a building for admitting light and air.
It usually has a pane (rom: (ochi de) geam) or panes of glass and is set in a frame or
sash (rom: cercevea sau cadru mobil de fereastră) that is generally movable for
opening and shutting.
6. Doors- Various parts of a door are the same as the corresponding parts of a window.
There are doors both for exterior and interior use. Exterior doors must, in addition to
offering privacy, protect the interior of the structure from the elements.

The Planning Stage in House Building

 acquiring the plot for future construction;

 inviting specialists to examine the geology, landscape, legality, etc;
 making the house plan (a set of construction drawings, sometimes called blueprints.);
 getting construction authorization/permits from local authorities;
 signing a contract with a specialized in construction company.
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 Steps in Building a House

1. site preparation 7. setting doors& windows

2. laying the foundation & setting the plumbing 8. insulating the house
3. constructing the framework 9. wiring & plumbing
4. raising load-bearing walls 10. installing heating & cooling system
5. installing the roofing 11. interior & exterior wall finishing
6. building interior walls 12. cleanup & landscape

Specialized Verbs:
 to begin the construction of a house- a demara construcția casei;
 to dig a hole for the foundation –a săpa groapa de fundație;
 to pour concrete/ the foundation- a turna betonul/fundația;
 to lay the first brick – a pune prima cărămidă;
 to apply asphalt coating to the foundation wall – a aplica stratul bituminous pe pereții fundației;
 to prevent water from seeping in – a preveni pătrunderea apei;
 to build/ raise the walls- a ridica pereții;
 to complete the first/second floor- a finisa primul/al doilea etaj;
 to insulate the lofts – a izola mansarda;
 to set/raise the roof- a pune acoperișul;
 to place roof trusses on top of the walls- a instala grinzile pentru acoperiș;
 to install roof covering- a instala învelișul/căptușeala;
 to install HVAC systems (heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems);
 to nail your interior walls and ceilings – a fixa în cuie/ înșuruba pereții interiori și tavanul;
 to plaster, to paint, to wallpaper- a tencui, a zugrăvi, a pune tapet ;
 to apply a textured effect to walls- a aplica tencuială texturată pe pereți;
 to clean up/landscape around the house- a amenaja terenul în jurul casei.

II. Read the following text and do the post-reading activities.

Text A: BUILDING A HOUSE STEP BY STEP

House-building is the construction of houses. People often build houses out of the nearest
available material, and often tradition and culture govern construction-materials, so whole towns, areas,
or even countries may be built out of one main type of material. For example, a large fraction of
American houses use wood, while most British and many European houses utilize stone or brick.
Traditional houses are built of wood, brick, stone and concrete. Many houses are built of prefabricated
blocks (prefabs) which are produced on an industrial scale in factories and assembled on the spot on the
construction side.
In modern house-construction, to some extent, aluminum and steel have displaced some traditional
building materials. Increasingly popular alternative construction materials include insulating concrete
forms (foam forms filled with concrete), structural insulated panels.
More recently builders have begun to collaborate with structural engineers who use computers and
finite element analysis to design prefabricated steel-framed homes with known resistance to high wind-
loads and seismic forces. These newer products provide labor savings, more consistent quality, and
possibly accelerated construction processes.

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 The house building process commonly starts with a planning stage in which plans are prepared by
an architect and approved by the client and any regulatory authority.
If you ever watch any house being built, you will find that it goes through certain steps. In the
construction of a house the first step is to make a careful survey of the site and to examine the soil in
order to find its bearing power.
Many of these steps are performed by independent crews known as subcontractors. For example,
the framing is generally done by one subcontractor specializing in framing, while the roofing is done by a
completely different subcontractor specializing in roofing. The building process takes place under the
supervision of the foremen and engineers. The structure is put up by brick layers, carpenters, plasters,
plumbers, painters, locksmiths, glass-cutters, etc.
The first crew on the site handles site preparation. The site-preparation crew typically arrives on
the site with a bulldozer and an excavator or backhoe. The crew's job is to clear the site of any trees, rocks
and debris, level the site if necessary and dig as necessary for the foundation being built.
Houses are generally built on a foundation that is either a basement, or a slab. The slab is
probably the easiest foundation to build. It is a flat concrete pad poured directly on the ground. A house
with a basement starts with a hole about 8 feet deep. In most cases a basement is poured in three pieces:
the "beams," then the walls, and then the slab inside the walls. This approach helps keep the basement
waterproof. At this stage trenches for connection to services such as sewerage, water and electricity are
established.
The part upon which the stability of the structure depends is the framework. It carries the loads
which are imposed on it. To do this work properly and safely, the floors, walls, roofs and other parts of
the construction must be correctly designed and proportioned. The designer determines the size of the
walls, the floor joists, the beams, the girders, and the parts which make up the framework. So, the framing
crew is the next group of people on the site. They start by building the floor. Once the floor is complete,
the framing crew next starts on the walls. If the house is wooden-framed then a framework is constructed
which will support the boards, siding and roof. If the house is of brick construction, then courses of bricks
are laid to construct the walls. When doors and windows are to be made, a lintel is usually inserted in the
wall above the opening. The sashes are placed in position later and so, of course, are the window panes.
Walls are constructed to enclose areas and to support the weight of walls and roofs. On the interiors, the
walls are covered in plaster, and then either painted or decorated with wallpaper. The internal walls of a
house fall into two categories: load-bearing walls and partition walls. Floors and roofs are supported by
strong beams, which are long, heavy pieces of wood or metal.
The whole structure is crowned by a roof which covers the building and protects it from exposure
to the weather. It ties the walls and gives strength to the structure. A complete roof consists of covering,
sheathing, rafters and trusses. The covering is the outer or weather-resisting coating of the roof. The
materials mostly used are shingles, slate, tiles and iron. The sheathing is the layer of boards or other
material to which the covering is attached. The rafters are the inclined beams which support the
sheathing. Trusses are used for the roof framing. Trusses are pre-fabricated, wooden structures used to
support the roof. The ridge is the highest horizontal line of the roof.
Floors, beams and internal walls are constructed as the building develops, with plumbing and
wiring for water and electricity being installed as appropriate.
Houses are normally connected to local utilities, such as mains water, electricity and gas supply.
The vast majority of people are connected to the local sewage system (for waste water).
A home is definitely judged by its cover. The final steps include your driveway and/or sidewalk
being installed, the landscape being created, and the process of clean-up beginning.

Post-reading activities

1. Answer the following questions:

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 1. Name the main steps in building a house.

2. What is meant by “planning stage”?

3. On what structure the stability of the house depends?

4. Name the parts of a complete roof.

5. How is a basement foundation different from a slab one?

6. How is the highest horizontal line of the roof called?

7. What does “prefabs” mean?

8. What are builders with structural engineers collaborating at?

2. Find in the text equivalents to the following words and word combinations:
1)A construi o casă; 2)a conecta clădirea la rețeaua de gaz, apeduct, canalizare; 3) a acoperi casa cu țiglă;
4)pernă de beton turnată direct pe pămînt, 5) trebuie să fie corect proiectate şi proporţionate, 6) are loc
sub supravegherea maiştrilor și diriginților de șantier, 7) păstreaza subsolul impermeabil, 8) a demola
pereții despărțitori 9) componenta de care depinde rezistența construcției, 10)asamblate pe șantier.

3. Make up sentences using the above given word combinations.

4. Pair work. Your best friend intends to build the house of his dreams by his own. Unfortunately, he
doesn’t have any specialization or knowledge to do it properly and safely, the only thing he has is a
plot in the suburbs. He has asked you, a builder-to-be, for a piece of advice on the following issues:
 what to start the construction with,

 what building materials to use,

 the step-by-step house building process.

4. Write an essay “The House of My Dreams” in 120-140 words. Use the terminology of the lesson.

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III. Evaluation

1. Speak on the following issues:

 Give the steps in house building.
 Explain the importance of foundation in house resistance.

2. Translate the following sentences into English.

1. Procesul planificării unei clădiri prevede luarea unor decizii pertinente asupra materialelor de
construcții și a proiectului, gusturile beneficarului și condițiile de mediu.

2. Etapele premergătoare construcției casei includ planificarea casei și obținerea autorizației de

construcție, precum și analiza solului pentru a determina rezistența acestuia.

3. Înaite de începerea construcției unei case se invită personalul specializat in pregătirea terenului,
care-l va curăți de copaci, pietre, dărîmături, și desigur, va nivela terenul, dacă e necesar.

4. În construcția unei clădiri sunt parcurse două etape principale: în prima etapă, se toarnă fundația,
pe care se ridică scheletul structurii, iar in a doua are loc executarea exteriorului, inclusiv al
acoperișului.

5. Fundația trebuie să suporte greutatea clădirii și să o transfere către sol fără a deforma structura
subsolului.

6. Exteriorul clădirii este alcătuit din scheletul de susținere și pereții de bază, pe care se pune
acoperișul.

7. După executarea exteriorului clădirii începe construcția interiorului care implică poziționarea
pereților despărțitori, fără rol de susținere, și întinderea cablurilor electrice.

8. Casa poate fi conectată la rețeaua de gaz, apeduct și canalizare după înălțarea pereților și punerea
acoperișului.

9. Casa este o structură complexă care necesită parcurgerea anumitor etape de proiectare și
construcție.

10. Forțele care exercită presiune asupra clădirii sunt greutatea proprie a clădirii și a oamenilor, forța
vîntului, greutatea zăpezii, forțele rezultate din mișcarea Pămîntului.

5. Supplementary reading.

Text B: FROM THE HISTORY OF HUMAN DWELLINGS

Man has always been a builder. The kind of house he built in the beginning depended upon the
climate, upon his enemies, and upon the building materials at hand. The first houses in many parts of the
world where made of wood, for in those days the greater part of the Earth was covered with forests. Men
tied together the tops of several trees and covered them with the skins of animals or with leaves and grass.
So a tent, or hut, was the first house of the primitive people who lived where there was much wood. In
other regions the most convenient building material was stone. Men began building houses out of stone
very long ago. Although they were built without cement, the remains of a few of them still exist.
The ancient Egyptians built very simple houses by present standards. Having dried the bricks in the
sun, they put up four walls, and above these they placed a flat roof. The roof was flat because there was
very little rain in Egypt. Although their buildings were simple in construction, the Egyptian art of
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building was very beautiful. Their pyramids and monuments, sphinxes and palaces arouse our wonder to
this day. An important part in the history of building has been played by column, and it was the ancient
Egypt that gave the world its first lessons in the art of making columns.
The Greeks learned much from Egypt. But they did not borrow the flat roof. They built a slanting roof
because there was much rain in their country. The Greeks made the roof slant in two directions from the
middle. Also they improved on Egypt’s columns and soon became the teachers of the world in column
making.
The Romans, in turn, learned much from the Greeks. First of all, they borrowed the slanting roof
and the columns. But they added the arch thus adding much strength and beauty to their buildings.
In Rome bricks were used for building and houses were often finished with plaster in both inside and
outside walls. The centre of family life was a garden-courtyard, surrounded by columns and with rooms
opening out into it.
The earliest houses in Britain were round, built of wood or wicker basket work plastered over with
clay. In the centre of the house was a hearth and light came in through a hole in the roof above it and
through the door because there were no windows.
On the territory of Russia the most ancient homes were earthen houses. One such home was
discovered near Voronezh in 1927. It consisted of a shallow hole of oval shape. The floor was covered
with limestone slabs. The roof had been conical and stood on poles covered by branches or animal skins.
Such dwellings existed in that part of the country in the Upper Paleolithic Period (from 40.000 to 12.000
years ago).
Once men learned to build simple houses for their families, they began to feel a need to have a
number of different kinds of houses in one place. At first the difference was mainly in size – the chief or
leader had a larger hut or tent than the rest of the people. Much later, when men began to build towns,
there grew up the difference between town houses and country houses. The streets in town were very
narrow and there was not much place for building within the town walls, and therefore houses had to be
built higher than they were in the country. A typical town house consisted of a shop opening in the street
where the man did his work or sold his goods, with a kitchen behind and a bedroom above.
In the country ordinary people lived in simple one-storey cottages which did not differ much from
the mud and stone huts of an earlier age. The rich people in the country, on the other hand, built huge
castles with thick walls and narrow windows. These castles were built not only as dwellings, but also to
stand up to enemy attack and to be strong bases in time of war.

Exercise 1. Using the information from the text fill in the following table:

The name of the The type of the Building materials Constructional

country buildings features
Egypt

Greece

Roman State

Ancient Russia

Britain

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TYPES OF DWELLING

cottage(s) detached house(s) semi-detached house(s) bungalow(s) block of flats

terraced house(s) high-rise flat(s)