Terra cotta flat arch floor systems were commonly used during the early twentieth century when the skeletal steel frame emerged as the dominant structural form for building construction.
Terracotta flat arch floor.
Side construction with terra cotta voids perpendiculartothevaultspan andthenewerendcon struction with voids parallel to the span.
Each unit is generally made of clay or terra cotta with hollow cavities or cells inside it.
Roof arches on account of the pitch of the beams have to be furred down to give a level ceiling.
It continues to be used in europe to build fire resistant walls and partitions.
Terra cotta floor arches side method.
Architectural terra cotta evolved with the stylistic changes in america in the 1930s.
I chiostri ambra porcelain stoneware wall floor tiles with terracotta effect.
Traditional ornamental styles gave way to more geometric shapes rather than symbolic motifs.
Save mutina tierras industrial trio mix porcelain stoneware wall floor tiles.
Save ceramica sant agostino terre nuove sand porcelain stoneware wall floor tiles with terracotta effect.
By the 1930s they seem to have replaced terra cotta arch construction and many other proprietary systems.
Both generic and proprietary flat terra cotta tile arches were tested in new york because neither met the geometric requirements for exemption these sys tems consisted of precast terra cotta blocks with thin webs arranged as flat arch voissoirs there were two major types.
Floor arches between steel beams could also be constructed using skew back terra cotta blocks.
This brittle quality makes them unsuitable for buildings in areas where there is the potential for a seismic event.
It is however quite as common even where terra cotta floor and roof arches are used to form the furred down ceilings of small channels or angles covered with some form of wire lath.
This system s popularity stemmed from a significant weight savings compared to brick or concrete arched floor systems while still providing the benefits of fireproofing.
In north america the material has largely been replaced by concrete masonry units.
These blocks are fragile as compared to other masonry building units.
Terra cotta blocks may be used for this purpose as shown in fig.
Flat terra cotta panels with contrasting graphic designs allowed a traditional material to compete with then new materials such as structural glass and porcelain enamel.
The high load capacity excellent fire proofing properties light weight and ease of construction rolling out a wire mesh versus laying out reinforcing bars made these floor systems the primary choice for many engineers and builders.
In this method the blocks are usually made of porous terra cotta and are set end to end giving greater.
A construction of this sort is shown in fig.
