---
title: "What building materials things are made of"
description: "7 building materials objects broken down component by component, with the reason behind each material choice."
url: https://atoneplace.net/made-of/building/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Building materials — what they are made of

7 building materials objects, broken down.

| Object | Made of |
| --- | --- |
| Glass | Sand melted with soda ash and limestone — three cheap minerals, floated flat on molten tin. |
| Concrete | Stone and sand glued by cement paste — and it hardens by a chemical reaction with water, not by drying. |
| MDF | Wood pulled apart into individual fibres, mixed with resin and wax, and pressed hot into a board. |
| Road asphalt | About 95% crushed stone and sand, glued together by roughly 5% bitumen from the bottom of an oil refinery. |
| Brick | Clay and shale moulded and fired until the particles partly fuse — a manufactured rock. |
| Mirror | A sheet of ordinary glass with a microscopically thin silver layer on the back, sealed under paint. |
| Plywood | Thin wood veneers glued in alternating grain directions — the cross-lamination is the entire idea. |

- [Glass](https://atoneplace.net/made-of/glass/) — Sand melted with soda ash and limestone — three cheap minerals, floated flat on molten tin.
- [Concrete](https://atoneplace.net/made-of/concrete/) — Stone and sand glued by cement paste — and it hardens by a chemical reaction with water, not by drying.
- [MDF](https://atoneplace.net/made-of/mdf/) — Wood pulled apart into individual fibres, mixed with resin and wax, and pressed hot into a board.
- [Road asphalt](https://atoneplace.net/made-of/asphalt/) — About 95% crushed stone and sand, glued together by roughly 5% bitumen from the bottom of an oil refinery.
- [Brick](https://atoneplace.net/made-of/brick/) — Clay and shale moulded and fired until the particles partly fuse — a manufactured rock.
- [Mirror](https://atoneplace.net/made-of/mirror/) — A sheet of ordinary glass with a microscopically thin silver layer on the back, sealed under paint.
- [Plywood](https://atoneplace.net/made-of/plywood/) — Thin wood veneers glued in alternating grain directions — the cross-lamination is the entire idea.