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In a building or room, the horizontal finished surface capable of supporting the occupants, furniture, equipment, internal partitions is called a floor. The floor of a building at the ground level just above the ground is called ground floor. The floor which falls below ground level is called as 'Basement floor'. Ground floor usually consists of an under layer of sand or earth filling, lean cement concrete base and floor finishing with the desired material.
The type of floor to be adopted depends upon the cost of construction, financial ability of the owner, ground conditions, field of exposure, requirement like resilent floors, fire resistant floors etc. An ideally designed ground floor should be:
- Durable
- Good in appearance
- Damp proof
- Fire resistant
- Resilent
- Easy to clean
- Economical
- Low in maintenance cost.
The problems of strength and stability are usually minor ones at ground and basement levels since full support from the ground is available at all points. However, major problem of ground floors is damp exclusion and thermal insulation. Moisture is generally present in the ground which may pass into the building through the floor unless measures are taken to check it.
The structural design of a floor has to be such as to support the loads set up by the use of buildings, in addition to the self weight and the weight of partitions etc. Upper floors do not have the problems of damp resistance, though sound insulation is generally an important factor in the design. The problem of fire resistance does not arise for the lowest floor of a building.
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