PREFACE

This book presents the basic concepts of techniques of building construction, mainly by means of drawings illustrating typical construction details, processes and concepts. I have chosen this method because it reflects the primary means of communication on site between building designer and building contractor - the construction drawing or detail. It must be stressed that the drawings used here represent typical details, chosen to illustrate particular points of building construction or technology; they do not constitute the alpha and omega of any buildings design, detail or process. The principles they illustrate must therefore, in reality, be applied to the data of the particular problem or situation encountered. This new edition has been revised by Roger Greeno, in line with current building regulations. Readers who want to pursue to greater depth any of the topics treated here will find many useful sources of information in specialist textbooks, research reports, manufacturer's literature, codes of practice and similar publications. One such subject is building services, which are dealt with here only in so far as they are applicable to domestic dwellings. A comparable but much wider treatment of services is given in Building Services Handbook by F. Hall and R. Greeno, also published by Butterworth-Heinemann. In conclusion, I hope that this book will not only itself prove useful and helpful to the reader, but will act as a stimulus to the observation of actual buildings and the study of works in progress. In this way the understanding gained here will be continually broadened and deepened by experience.

Building Construction Handbook