In our country, the Regulation on Construction Materials was published in 2002 and a transition period was envisaged. This period was completed in 2007 and it is now an obligation to comply with the regulations.

This regulation describes the essential properties of building materials that are produced for continuous use in all kinds of construction works, including building and other construction works, the conformity assessment procedures to be applied to these materials, and the market surveillance and control procedures of these materials.

According to the mentioned regulations, all kinds of materials produced for permanent use in all construction works are construction materials. Construction materials often contain more than one material. Therefore, there is a difference between the material and the product description. In fact, the legal regulations introduced do not directly bind the materials, but the products made up of these materials.

Construction materials are classified according to their internal structure and chemical properties as follows:

• Metals: This group includes iron and steel building materials as well as building materials such as aluminum, copper, zinc and lead.
• Polymers: These materials are covalently bonded and form long chains of molecules such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. For example, natural polymers, such as rubber, asphalt and wood, as well as artificial building materials such as plastics are included in this group.
• Ceramics: These materials are covalent and ionic mixed bonded and aliminosilicate structures. Structural clay products such as bricks and pipes and porcelain are included in this group.
• Composite materials: These materials are construction materials such as concrete, ferrous concrete, portland cement and reinforced plastics.

The main and most important task of the engineers is to choose the most suitable building material for the building to be built. The following factors are effective in the selection of building materials:

• Strength and stiffness conditions. The conditions of creep for permanent permanent loads, fatigue strength for repeated loads, toughness against impact and burst loads and hardness and abrasion resistance for surface loads are important.
• Environmental conditions. Here, heat exchange, humidity and chemical influences are important.

The general properties of building materials are determined by the relevant standards published by the Turkish Standards Institute and the CE marking system criteria followed in the European Union countries.

Mainly the basic properties of building materials are determined on the basis of physical properties, mechanical properties, chemical properties and other properties such as heat, acoustics and optics.

Physical properties of building materials are density, unit volume weight, porosity and permeability values.

Mechanical properties of building materials are the resistance values ​​against applied loads. In other words, the material's strength, fracture and yield, tensile, compression, bending, torsion and shear properties.

The chemical properties of building materials are the values ​​that determine the chemical status of the material such as oxide content, carbonate content, acidity and alkalinity, and corrosion resistance.

To determine the properties of building materials, laboratory tests are performed to the extent required by the situation or tests are performed in the area where the materials are used.

The standards described for building materials describe the properties and testing procedures for the materials to be used.

The standards include the method to be used to determine the number of samples and samples to be tested, to explain the sample shape and dimensions, to show the conditions for sample preparation, to determine the conditions of sample storage and temperature, humidity and the like during the test, to evaluate the test results and to prepare the final report.

The main organizations that declare standards for building materials are:

• Turkish Standards Institute (TSE)
• British Standards Institute (BSI)
• German Standards Institute (Deutsche Institute Norm, DIN)
• American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM)
• European Committee for Standardization (CEN)

Our company performs construction materials tests in detail with a strong technological infrastructure and employee staff.