The Use of Plastics in Building Construction

Giineri Akovali, Dorel Feldman and Bireswar Banerjee 

Within building construction, residential construction has the highest share in general (approximately 40%), followed by commercial institutions (30%), public works (20%) and industrial constructions (10%). 

Although there is still a rather slow pace of acceptance of plastics and its composites in construction mainly due to the general lack of knowledge of the properties and applicability of these new materials as well as lack of availability of related building codes and standards, they are being recognised, appreciated and applied more and more every day [3]. 

Polymer structures are used in constrnction as either (i) structural or (ii) non-structural elements, as well as (iii) cosmetic (or protective) and repair elements. Hence a classification for their use in construction can be done by nsing these criteria. Within these, their non-structural use is more common than their nse with other applications. 

However, it is also possible to make a different classification for use of polymers in construction, by considering  

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Akovali G, Feldman D, Banerjee B. The use of plastics in building construction. In Akovah G, editor. Polymers in constmction. Shrewsbury, UK Rapra Tech Ltd 2005. 

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