The ubiquitous tubular steel prop used for temporary support in building projects everywhere. The height of the prop is adjusted by a screwed collar between the upper and lower telescopic tubes, via a short handle. The working capacity of a typical 3 metre prop is 10kN (1 tonne), but eccentric or inclined loading can significantly reduce this. Care [..]

A term for force, adopted for the Eurocodes. This implies movement but in the case of a structure is generally intended to remain static. Has a historical context in Newton's third law: "To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction".

in construction, used to describe granular materials such as gravel and sand. In concrete, fine aggregate (sand) and coarse aggregate (gravel) are essential constituents together with cement.

One of the fine arts (apparently); the art and science of building. Sometimes, there's more art than science, from an engineer's point of view.

A storey of a building below the principal storey, usually below ground level. A cellar is defined as any underground room or vault, usually taken to mean for storage use rather than habitation. When considering extending a building below ground, waterproofing and resistance to earth pressure are key design issues. Party Wall agreements and the sup [..]

A structural member designed to resist bending; usually horizontal. Beams may also be inclined, or cranked (with a bend in the vertical plane) to suit the shape of a roof, for example.

The point of support for a beam, such as on a wall. The concentrated load on the bearing must be distributed into the supporting wall, and reinforced by a padstone if necessary. Bearing length is the length of beam resting on the wall; generally 150mm, but this may be varied by the engineer to suit requirements.

A mode of failure caused by instability in a structural member, as increasing load leads to distortion out of the plane of the applied force. This can happen to columns and also beams that are not laterally restrained.

The constituent of concrete or mortar that binds the aggregate together to form a solid material. Portland cement is mainly composed of calcium silicates and formed by sintering limestone and other minerals in a kiln, before grinding to powder. The composition depends on the chemistry of the locally available raw materials, but is tightly controlle [..]

A vertical member designed to resist axial load (direct compression), such as the weight of a building. May be made of any suitable material such as concrete, masonry, steel or timber. Design is governed by the slenderness (ratio of length to breadth) to resist the tendency to fail by buckling.