The option that is not a common kind of load that occurs in a building is usually rain load , when it is listed alongside dead load, live load, and environmental load in typical multiple-choice questions.

Main idea

  • Common building loads include:
    • Dead load : Self-weight of the structure (beams, slabs, walls, finishes, fixed equipment).
* **Live load** : Loads due to occupancy, furniture, movable partitions, etc.

* **Environmental loads** (or environmental actions): Wind, snow, earthquake, temperature, soil and water pressure, etc.
  • In many structural analysis MCQs, rain load is treated as not a commonly applied structural load on a building when compared specifically with dead, live, and environmental loads, and is therefore marked as the correct “not a kind of load” choice in that context.

Quick clarification

  • Dead, live, wind, snow, and earthquake loads are all recognized load types in codes and practice.
  • However, when a question is framed as in standard exam-style MCQs—“which of the following structural loads are not applied commonly to a building?”—the keyed answer is rain load because:
    • Dead load, live load, and environmental load are treated as the main categories.
* Rain is typically included indirectly (for example in ponding or roof drainage design), not as a primary everyday building load category in basic teaching and MCQ classification.

So, for the style of question “which of the following is not a kind of load that occurs in a building?”, when the other options are standard load categories (dead, live, environmental), rain load is the one usually considered “not” the kind in that MCQ sense.

TL;DR: In exam-style options like dead load, live load, environmental load, rain load , the answer is rain load.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.