Houses Nina and the Neurons

# If you've got a question And you don't know where to go

# Ask Nina for some help Cos she's got a science show

# She makes sense of our senses While helping all her fans

# By doing her experiments With potions and with bangs

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes

-Eyes

-Ears

-Ears

-# Nose

-Nose

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Luke he helps us with our eyes And Felix with our touch

# Ollie sniffs out smells and scents And Belle she hears so much

# Bud is Ollie's brother He helps us with our taste

# They're Nina's little Neurons And they're coming to your place

-# Touch your tongue

-Tongue

-# Fingers

-Fingers

-# Eyes

-Eyes

-Ears

-Ears

-# Nose

-Nose

-# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

-Yeah!

# Nina and the Neurons find out what you need to know

# Oh, yeah! #

Ah, that looks good!

Oh, hello! I'm just making the walls of a house

and I'm trying to make them as colourful as possible.

BEEPING

I hear a beep, I see a flash, I wonder what they're going to ask.

-BOTH: Hi, Nina!

-Hi!

We've got a question for you.

How are houses built?

Oh, that's a great question! How are houses built?

Well, lots of people live in houses, but how are they built?

Come down to my workshop and we'll investigate.

BOTH: See you soon, Nina! Bye!

Bye!

Well, I'm going to need some help to answer this one

and I know just who to ask.

OK, Neurons, time to get to work.

ALL: Neurons at the ready, Nina!

OK. Today's question is how are houses built?

Which Neuron will be most useful in helping us find the answer?

-It's Luke!

-CHEERING

ALL: Go, Luke! Go, Luke! Go, Luke!

Go, Luke! Go, Luke! Go, Luke!

Cool, Nina! I'll be looking out to help you.

Today's question is how are houses built?

As we see lots of different houses all around us,

Luke will be helping us today.

But stand by, Neurons,

I've a feeling I may need help from all of you.

I need to get the workshop ready before the experimenters arrive.

Nathan likes jam sandwiches.

John loves pizza.

But they both want to know, how are houses built?

So today, for one day only,

Nathan and John become

the experimenters!

-Hi, guys!

-BOTH: Hi, Nina!

Welcome to my workshop and thank you for your great question,

how are houses built?

Well, people live in all sorts of houses - big houses,

small houses, and in flats built on top of each other.

But what are most houses made of, experimenters?

Bricks.

That's right. And I've got two kinds of bricks over there.

Now, most new houses are built with two walls that are close together.

There's an outer wall and an inner wall.

The outer wall is made with those orangey bricks,

and they're made of hard clay.

And the inner wall is often built with those grey bricks,

that are made of concrete and are very strong.

I think outer bricks look cooler, Nina.

-Now, what do builders put in between bricks?

-Cement.

Yes, it's actually cement mixed with sand and water

to make something called mortar.

Go, mortar! Go, mortar!

Mortar's a bit like the glue that holds the bricks together.

To find out more about how we use bricks to build a house,

let's do an experiment.

ALL: Whoop-whoop! An experiment!

We're ready, Nina.

We've got two walls here, both built with mini bricks and mortar.

They have different brick patterns.

John, on your wall here the bricks are lined up on top of each other.

And Nathan, on your wall the bricks are staggered.

Now, which brick pattern do you think will be better

-for our strong inner wall?

-Mine.

Well, let's see.

OK. So I'd like you to put some weight on top of the walls.

Oh, that's good.

OK. Stop there, experimenters.

Let's have a look.

Now, what's happened to the wall with the lined-up bricks?

It's cracked.

Yes. The mortar between the bricks has cracked!

-What about the staggered brick wall?

-No cracks.

That's because although bricks are very hard

and good at holding things up, mortar isn't as strong.

The wall with the lined-up bricks has mortar in a straight line too,

so when there's weight put on top

the mortar isn't strong enough, and it cracks.

But in the wall with the staggered bricks, the weight is spread out

between the two bricks underneath.

The mortar doesn't have to take all the weight, so it doesn't crack

and the wall stays nice and strong.

So most houses have an inner wall and an outer wall.

Using a staggered brick pattern makes the wall stronger.

That's right, Neurons.

But - what else does a house need?

Windows and doors.

You're right.

But how do builders make a hole in the wall for windows and doors?

I think we need to do another experiment.

So far we've discovered that staggered bricks make

a stronger wall, and we are going to build a wall of our very own.

Oh - and we must remember to leave a hole for the door.

-So are you ready?

-Yes!

-Yes!

Excellent. Let's get building!

Right on there...

Oh-hoo-hoo!

Ooh...

That tower doesn't look very wide, Nina.

Oh, experimenters, I think we have a problem.

-Is there enough room in that door for us to get through?

-BOTH: No!

You're right. Why can't we make it bigger?

-The bricks would fall down, Nina.

-Exactly!

We could only make the hole for the door one brick wide,

or the bricks would fall down.

We need something to hold the bricks up.

This time, we're going to use this beam and put it above the door,

and see what happens. Let's get to it!

OK. Time for the beam.

Brilliant work, experimenters!

-So - is the door wide enough for us to get through now?

-BOTH: Yes!

Well, why don't you have a try?

Hey-hey! No bother at all!

So the beam is holding up the bricks so we can make the door much wider.

Real houses have beams like this too, above windows and doors,

and they're called lintels.

Lentils! I love lentil soup!

Lintels, Bud, not lentils!

You're right, Luke, it IS lintels.

So lintels are beams that hold up the bricks above windows and doors.

Thanks, Felix!

Does it hold up the roof, Nina?

That's a great question!

Well, lintels can hold up heavy bricks,

but a roof is really big and heavy.

And I know somewhere upside down that we can find out.

Here we go! I can't wait to see where we'll end up today.

Nina said it was upside down.

Bats hang upside down. Maybe we're going to see some bats.

I love bats!

I don't think we'll see any bats, but it's definitely upside down.

So, your question was how are houses built?

And so far we've discovered

that lintels hold up the bricks above windows and doors.

But now we want to find out how roofs and floors stay up.

So we've come to Szymbark in Poland

to see this amazing special house, which is upside down!

So let's go exploring, experimenters.

Take a look at this house.

Can you see what's holding up the floors and the roof?

-Walls.

-Yes, some of the walls are holding up the weight of the house,

and we call them load-bearing walls.

Load-bearing walls. They sound strong.

But not all walls hold up the weight of the house -

some are load-bearing and some are not.

When people do building work they have to be careful

they don't remove a load-bearing wall, so the house stays strong.

How can they tell, Nina?

Well, it's quite hard to spot a load-bearing wall,

but one way is to see if the wall goes

from the bottom of the house all the way up to the top -

then it's usually a load-bearing wall.

So it doesn't matter what way up your house is,

you still need load-bearing walls.

If you live in an ordinary house, then the load-bearing walls

hold up the floors and the roof, but if it's an upside-down house

-then the load-bearing walls hold up the...

-Floors!

Yeah!

Let's have some fun looking round the upside-down house,

and we can look and see where we think the load-bearing walls are.

On this drawing, that looks like the upside-down house,

we'll mark the walls that go from the bottom to the top in red

and we'll mark the other walls in blue. So let's go!

Great job, experimenters.

The walls in red go all the way from the top to the bottom,

so we think that they are load-bearing walls

and hold up the weight of the house.

The blue walls don't go all the way from the top to the bottom,

so we don't think they're load-bearing walls, so they

don't hold any weight. It doesn't matter which way up your house is,

you still need load-bearing walls.

# Nina and the Neurons. #

Your question was, how are houses built? I think we've answered it.

Most new houses have inner walls and outer walls.

Walls are built in staggered brick patterns to make them strong.

Beams called lintels hold up the bricks above windows and doors.

Walls that go all the way from the bottom to the top of the house

are usually load-bearing.

And they hold up the floors and the roof.

So I hope that's answered your question.

BOTH: Thanks, Nina! Bye!

You're welcome. Bye!

If you want to know more about the science all around us,

go to the Nina section on the CBeebies website. Have fun!

# Super structures Super structures

# Super structures, super structures super structures

# Some of them are tall Some of them are wide

# They're bumpy, lumpy Wiggly too

# Wiggly too

# Some of them are strong Some of them are small

# Like me!

# They're windy, whirly Whooshy too

# All around

# Look over here

# Build it, stack it Pile it up

# Come on, let's get building!

-# Building

-Building

-Building

# Race it, hold it Make it stick

# Come on, let's get building

# Weee-ooh

# Come on, let's get building

# Some of them are cosy warm Some of them are chilly

# Keep us safe and hide us too

# Hide us too

# Some of them are just for fun Or help us to stay dry

# They're underground and high up too

# Look around Over here

# Build it, stack it Pile it up

# Come on, let's get building

-# Building

-Building

-Building

# Race it, hold it Make it stick

# Come on, let's get building

# Weee-ooh

# Come on, let's get building! #

And remember - there are super structures everywhere.

Whether they're big or small, wide or tall, we can all get building.

See you again soon. Bye!

-ALL: Bye!

-Get building!