Building Materials

Building Materials

Mineral materials

There are two broad categories of minerals used as building materials: those that are used in their natural state, and those that are used as ingredients to manufacture building materials.

• Stone used in its natural state include:
• Alabaster
• Granite
• Limestone
• Marble
• Sandstone
• Slate
• Travertine
• Stone and minerals used as ingredients include:
• Chalk
• Clay
• Diatomaceous earth
• Dolomite
• Ganister
• Gypsum
• Lime (Limestone)
• Marl
• Pumice
• Sand

Plant materials

Generally, plants are also divided into two broad categories: those that produce wood, and those that produce other non-wood building materials. For a discussion of wood, see the “Wood” category below. Some non-woody plants that are used as building materials include:

• Cane (bamboo, reed, rattan)
• Cork (Cork oak, Quercus suber)
• Eelgrass (Zostera spp.)
• Reed (Phragmites australis)
• Rice straw (Oryza sativa)
• Sorghum straw (Sorghum bicolor)
• Wheat straw (Triticum spp.)
• Willow (Salix spp.) Note: while willow is a woody plant and is used as such, its bark is also used as a building material.