Awall is astructure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; providessecurity,shelter, orsoundproofing; or serves a decorative purpose. There are various types of walls, includingborder barriers between countries, brick walls,defensive walls infortifications, andretaining walls that hold back dirt, stone, water, or noise. Walls can also be found in buildings, where they supportroofs,floors, andceilings, enclose spaces, and provide shelter and security.
Walls have historically served defensive purposes, with the term "wall" originally referring todefensive walls and ramparts. Examples of famous defensive walls include theGreat Wall of China andHadrian's Wall. In addition to their functional roles, walls can also be decorative, contributing to theaesthetic appeal of a space.
The termwall comes from theLatinvallum meaning "an earthen wall orrampart set withpalisades, a row or line of stakes, a wall, a rampart, fortification", while the Latin wordmurus refers to a defensive stone wall.[1]English uses the same word to mean an external wall and the internal sides of aroom, but this is not universal, and many languages distinguish between the two. This distinction can be seen InGerman betweenwand andmauer, and inSpanish betweenpared andmuro.
The purposes of walls in buildings are to supportroofs,floors andceilings; to enclose a space as part of thebuilding envelope along with a roof to give buildings form; and to provide shelter and security. In addition, the wall may house various types of utilities such aselectrical wiring orplumbing. Walls may or may not beload-bearing. Walls are required to conform to the localbuilding and/orfire codes.
There are three basic methods through which walls control water intrusion: moisture storage, drainedcladding, or face-sealed cladding.[2] Moisture storage is typical of stone and brickmass-wall buildings where moisture is absorbed and released by the walls of the structure itself.Drained cladding, also known asscreened walls,[3] acknowledges moisture will penetrate the cladding so amoisture barrier such ashousewrap orfelt paper inside the cladding provides a second line of defense, and sometimes adrainage plane orair gap allows a path for the moisture to drain down through and exit the wall. Sometimesventilation is provided in addition to the drainage plane such as inrainscreen construction.Face-sealed cladding, also calledbarrier wall orperfect barrier cladding,[3] relies on maintaining aleak-free surface of the cladding. Examples of face sealed cladding are the earlyexterior insulation finishing systems, structural glazing, metal clad panels, andcorrugated metal.
Building walls frequently become works of art, externally and internally, such as when featuringmosaic work or whenmurals are painted on them; or as design foci when they exhibittextures or painted finishes for effect.
Precast walls are walls which have been manufactured in afactory and then shipped to where it is needed, ready to install. Compared to walls made of other materials, such as brick, it is faster to install and may have a lowercost.
Mullion walls are a structural system that carries the load of the floor slab onprefabricated panels around the perimeter.
Partition wall
Glass partition walls
A partition wall is a usually thin wall that is used to separate or divide aroom, primarily a pre-existing one. Partition walls are usually notload-bearing, and can be constructed out of many materials, including steel panels, bricks, cloth,plastic,plasterboard,wood, blocks ofclay,terracotta,concrete, andglass (such assheet glass).
Glass partition walls are a series of individualtoughened glass panels mounted in wood or metal framing. They may be suspended from or slide along a robustaluminium ceiling track.[5] The system does not require the use of a floor guide, which allows easy operation and an uninterrupted threshold.
A timber partition consists of a wooden framework, supported on the floor or by side walls. Metallath and plaster, properly laid, forms a reinforced partition wall. Partition walls constructed fromfibre cement backer board are popular as bases fortiling in kitchens or in wet areas like bathrooms. Galvanized sheet fixed to wooden or steel members are mostly adopted in works of temporary character. Plain or reinforced partition walls may also be constructed from concrete, including pre-cast concrete blocks. Metal framed partitioning is also available. This partition consists of track (used primarily at the base and head of the partition) and studs (vertical sections fixed into the track typically spaced at 24, 16, 12 inches or 60, 40, 30 cm).
Wall partitions are constructed using beads and tracking that is either hung from the ceiling or fixed into the ground.[6] The panels are inserted into the tracking and fixed. Some wall partition variations specify their fire resistance and acoustic performance rating.
Movable partitions are walls that open to join two or more rooms into one large floor area. These include:
Sliding—a series of panels that slide in tracks fixed to the floor and ceiling, similar sliding doors.
Sliding andfolding doors—similar to sliding folding doors, these are good for smaller spans.
Folding partition walls–a series of interlocking panels suspended from an overhead track that when extended provide an acoustical separation, and when retracted stack against a wall, ceiling, closet, or ceiling pocket.
Screens—usually constructed of a metal ortimber frame fixed withplywood andchipboard and supported with legs for free standing and easy movement.
Pipe and drape—fixed or telescopic uprights and horizontals provide a ground supported drape system with removable panels.
Party walls are walls that separate buildings or units within a building. They provide fire resistance andsound resistance between occupants in a building. The minimum fire resistance and sound resistance required for the party wall is determined by a building code and may be modified to suit a variety of situations. Ownership of such walls can become a legal issue. It is not a load-bearing wall and may be owned by different people.
Fire walls resist spread of fire within or between structures to providepassive fire protection. A delay in the spread of fire gives occupants more time to escape andfire fighters more time to extinguish the fire. Some fire walls allow fire resistive window assemblies,[7] and are made ofnon-combustible material such as concrete, cement block, brick, or fire rated drywall. Wall penetrations aresealed with fire resistive materials. A doorway in a firewall must have a ratedfire door. Fire walls provide varying resistance to the spread of fire, (one to four hours). Firewalls can also act as smoke barriers when constructed vertically from slab to roof deck and horizontally from an exterior wall to exterior wall subdividing a building into sections.
Knee walls are short walls that either supportrafters or add height in the top floor rooms of houses. In a1+1⁄2-story house, the knee wall supports thehalf story.
Laminatedparticle board walls (this may also include other finishes, such as whiteboards,cork board, magnetic, etc., typically all on purpose-madewall studs)
On a ship, a wall that separates major compartments is called abulkhead. A thinner wall betweencabins is called apartition.
Boundary wall
Stone wall of an English barnA red bricks boundary wall intersection
Boundary walls include privacy walls, boundary-marking walls on property, andtown walls. These intergrade intofences. The conventional differentiation is that a fence is of minimal thickness and often open in nature, while a wall is usually more than a nominal thickness and is completely closed, or opaque. More to the point, an exterior structure of wood or wire is generally called afence—but one ofmasonry is a wall. A common term for both isbarrier, which is convenient for structures that are partly wall and partly fence—for example theBerlin Wall. Another kind of wall-fence ambiguity is theha-ha—which is set below ground level to protect a view, yet acts as a barrier (to cattle, for example).
An old Italian wall surrounded by flowers
Before the invention ofartillery, many of the world'scities and towns, particularly in Europe and Asia, haddefensive or protective walls (also called town walls or city walls). In fact, the English word "wall" derives from Latinvallum—a type of fortification wall. These walls are no longer relevant for defense, so such cities have grown beyond their walls, and many fortification walls, or portions of them, have been torn down—for example inRome,Italy andBeijing,China. Examples of protective walls on a much larger scale include theGreat Wall of China andHadrian's Wall.
Some walls formally mark the border between one population and another. Aborder wall is constructed to limit the movement of people across a certain line orborder. These structures vary in placement with regard to international borders andtopography. The most famous example of border barrier in history is probably theGreat Wall of China, a series of walls that separated the Empire ofChina from nomadic powers to the north. The most prominent recent example is theBerlin Wall, which surrounded theenclave ofWest Berlin and separated it fromEast Germany for most of theCold War era. The US-Mexico border wall, separating the United States and Mexico, is another recent example.
In areas of rocky soils around the world, farmers have often pulled large quantities of stone out of their fields to make farming easier and have stacked those stones to make walls that either mark the field boundary, or the property boundary, or both.
Retaining walls resist movement of earth, stone, or water. They may be part of a building or external. The ground surface or water on one side of a retaining wall is typically higher than on the other side. Adike is a retaining wall, as is alevee, a load-bearingfoundation wall, and asea wall.
Shared wall
Special laws often govern walls that neighbouring properties share. Typically, one neighbour cannot alter the common wall if it is likely to affect the building or property on the other side. A wall may also separate apartment or hotel rooms from each other. Each wall has two sides and breaking a wall on one side will break the wall on the other side.
Portable wall
Portable walls, such asroom dividers orportable partitions divide a larger open space into smaller rooms. Portable walls can be static, such as cubicle walls, or can be wall panels mounted on casters to provide an easy way to reconfigure assembly space. They are often found inside schools, churches, convention centers, hotels, and corporate facilities.
Temporary wall
A temporary wall is constructed for easy removal or demolition. A typical temporary wall can be constructed with1⁄2 in (13 mm) to5⁄8 in (16 mm) sheet rock (plasterboard), metal2 × 3 s (1+1⁄2 in × 2+1⁄2 in, 38 mm × 64 mm) or2 × 4 s (1+1⁄2 in × 3+1⁄2 in, 38 mm × 89 mm), or taped, plastered and compounded. Most installation companies use lattice (strips of wood) to cover the joints of the temporary wall with the ceiling. These are sometimes known aspressurized walls or temporary pressurized walls.
Walls in popular culture
Walls are often seen in popular culture, oftentimes representing barriers preventing progress or entry. For example:
Fictional and symbolic walls
The progressive/psychedelic rock bandPink Floyd used a metaphorical wall to represent the isolation felt by the protagonist of their 1979 concept albumThe Wall.
In some cases, a wall may refer to an individual's debilitating mental or physical condition, seen as an impassable barrier.[citation needed]
InGeorge R. R. Martin'sA Song of Ice and Fire series and its television adaptation,Game of Thrones, The Wall plays multiple important roles: as a colossal fortification, made of ice and fortified with magic spells; as a cultural barrier; and as a codification of assumptions. Breaches of the wall, who is allowed to cross it and who is not, and its destruction have important symbolic, logistical, and socio-political implications in the storyline. Reportedly over 700 feet (210 m) high and 100 leagues (300 mi; 480 km) wide, it divides the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms realm from the domain of the wildlings and several categories of undead who live beyond it.[8][9][10]
Another common usage is as a communal surface to write upon. For instance the social networking siteFacebook previously used an electronic "wall" to log the scrawls of friends until it was replaced by the "timeline" feature.
^"Wall". Whitney, William Dwight, and Benjamin E. Smith.The Century dictionary and cyclopedia, vol. 8. New York: Century Co., 1901. 6,809. Print.
^Committee on Damp Indoor Spaces and Health, Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.Damp indoor spaces and health. Institute of Medicine, (U. S.). National Academies Press. Washington, D. C.. 2004. 34-35. Print.
^abStraube, J. F.and Burnett, E. F. P., "Driving Rain and Masonry Veneer".Water Leakage through Building Facades, ASTM STP 1314. R. J. Kudder and J. L. Erdly, Eds. American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), 1998. 75. Print.
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