Can a building of bricks and quarry stones stand?

The high cost of building materials has pushed many builders to engage in cost-cutting measures, sometimes resulting in structures that are unsafe for human habitation.

A new kind of cost-cutting measure gaining currency is the use of interlocking bricks. Little cement, sand and water is needed for these kinds of blocks.

A house being built using bricks. (PHOTO:FILE / STANDARD)

Other builders are now combining conventional (quarry) bricks with the self-made interlocking ones in a cost-cutting measure that is deemed unsound by some architectural critics. Builder Reuben Kuria says a cost-efficient method is to have outer walls made of conventional quarry bricks and inner walls partitioned with interlocking ones. This, he says, gives the structure a permanent outlook.

But why not build with uniform blocks instead of employing two varieties? He says that some of those using the pressing machines to make bricks lack in expertise, mostly evident in their incorrect soil-cement ratios. Such bricks are unable to endure extreme weather and may need outer plastering to last longer.

Ten wheelbarrows of good soil and two bags of cement can make up to 100 interlocking bricks, says Kuria. “The soil must be moist but not wet as water is not needed in making the bricks,” he says.

He says conventional bricks may be needed for the foundation before interlocking bricks are added. Great expertise is needed to achieve uniformity of the structure as an incorrect arrangement may be hard to correct.

John Ngaruiya, a real estate developer, is cagey about the use of dissimilar kind of bricks in construction. He would go for uniform bricks. If he was to go on the cheap, he would instead use the baked variety over the “ones strengthened with mud and cement before being naturally dried”.

His bone of contention is the gaps left when interlocking bricks are used because of lack of binding mortar. Insects can make these gaps fertile breeding grounds. But Mr Kuria says mixing cement with chemicals and sealing the gaps can drive the insects away.

Mr Ngaruiya adds that bricks must be of the same colour for the structure to acquire the desired uniformity as these bricks do not need to be painted. The edges of the structure must also be strengthened with plastering for the desired pressure.

“These types of houses are environmentally friendly,” he observes, as the need for conventional (quarry) brick and mortar is done away with.”

He, however, cautions that interlocking bricks are vulnerable to the elements.

Continual exposure to rain can discolour them in the long-run. Painting would be one way to preserve them or installing roof awnings designed to protect them from rain.

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