There are factories and workshops producing these bricks in almost all towns across the country. PHOTOs/Rachel Mabala

Concrete bricks are pocket- friendly, available and easy to use

Ancient buildings in Rome, Athens, London and other historical cities across the world, were built using bricks. And the technology of bricks has evolved over millennia, with the greatest breakthrough being the Romans’  invention of clay-fired or clay-baked bricks around 3500 BC, which has shaped the construction industry to date.

In developing countries such asUganda, the soil-fired or soil-baked bricks are the most commonly used type. Most builders, even the low-income earners, do not even labour to look for better, more cost-friendly alternatives.

But with more exposure to information, the demand trends are slowly changing in favour of concrete bricks due to the comparative advantages they have over ordinary bricks.

Concrete bricks are made by mixing cement and stone dust. Some factories also mix lake sand and cement. The stone dust and cement are mixed and pressed into the molds using the pressure-per-square inch technology. However, some are made using molds that are hand-pressed.

One of the most stressful things about buying bricks is the fraud where suppliers and transporters deliver fewer bricks than the buyer paid for. Ordinary bricks are more prone to this because they are hard to count since they are small and many. Sometimes the shortage is by mistake or intended by a dishonest supplier or transporter.

On the contrary, the concrete bricks are bigger, fewer and easier to count hence minimising the possibility of shortages.

Concrete bricks are also less prone to being stolen at the construction site because they are neither highly marketable nor easily compatible with ordinary ones.

Concrete bricks are also offloaded one by one, minimising the cases of breakage, yet the buyer of ordinary bricks can lose about 100 bricks in the process of offloading them at once.

Better still, if one or two concrete bricks break during delivery, the supplier replaces them at no extra cost, unlike with suppliers with regular bricks.

Experts say that in some cases the cost of construction using concrete bricks is less compared to the ordinary ones.

Sulaiman Bulega, an engineer at Water and Homes Limited, says concrete bricks are bigger and easier to use.  “Depending on size, one concrete brick occupies the space of about four to six ordinary bricks,”  Bulega says adding, that concrete bricks are well aligned since they are accurately produced by machines, thus requiring a little finish in terms of plastering and other forms of exterior and interior design.

One with limited resources may leave some walls built with concrete bricks without plaster but they will look neater than ordinary bricks without plaster.

Musa Kyalwazi, a builder, says building with concrete bricks makes work faster and allows builders to take on many projects in a short time.

Kyalwazi adds that concrete bricks are easy to lay and may not require expert builders.

Santos Owiny, a civil engineer at Kawotto Clays Limited, suggests that a three-bedroomed house of concrete bricks could take a maximum of two weeks to reach the wall plate while its equivalent made of ordinary bricks, he says, can even take up to two months.

According to Douglas Matovu, a plumber and electrician, many people think concrete bricks are rare and expensive.

He advises the public to think otherwise because lately,  there are factories and workshops producing these bricks in almost all towns across the country.

Bulega also chips in on the cost of concrete bricks, saying if one considers the overall advantages of these bricks, they have an edge over ordinary bricks.

 He, however, advises people to buy only those concrete bricks made by machines and from reputable companies.

His fear is that if the producer compromises the ratio in the mixture of stone dust and cement or sand and cement, it compromises the durability of the bricks.

He also discourages making the bricks at home because handmade bricks cannot be adequately pressed with the required pressure per square inch (Psi) or kilotons, thereby making these bricks weak and half-baked.

Accurately produced concrete bricks, Bulega says, can last nearly 100 years.

Traditionally, concrete bricks were produced in solid form, in 9x9 inches, hence the common name ‘Nine-nine’. To cut costs, producers are gradually phasing out this size. Today, the bricks come in two types-solid and hollow. The hollow ones are in  8x6, 8x4 and 8x3 inches while the solid ones usually come in sizes: 8x6 and 8x4 inches. 

According to Johnson Ssozi,  an engineer at Kawotto Clays Limited, one should consult an engineer before buying a particular type and size. The logic is that particular structures require a particular size of bricks. For buildings without suspended slabs, Ssozi says that any of 8x4 inches and 8x3 inches can work.

For structures with suspended slabs, he recommends either solid or any size of hollow except the 8x3. He recommends the use of 8x3 in interior wall partitioning.

Hollow bricks of 8x4 and 8x3 are ideal for the suspended slab, because of the need to reduce weight. If funds allow, he also recommends partitioning clay- baked blocks. 

Not as costly as thought

According to the price list at Method Construction Company Limited, hollow bricks of 8x6 inches cost Shs2,400, 8x4 inches go for Shs2,000 and 8x3 inches at Shs1,800. The average cost of soil-baked bricks is Shs300 and for ordinary clay-baked is Shs500. Considering that one concrete brick is the size of four to six of the ordinary bricks, if one is going to use ordinary clay bricks, the cost  is the same.

Yet, concrete bricks use less motors during construction. The cost of finishing a wall of ordinary bricks is also higher than that of concrete ones because they come well aligned with the same size.

Most ordinary bricks are handmade with different sizes and often get out of the alignment of the wall, requiring much of motor to align it.

It is therefore clear that if you want to save on construction costs without compromising quality, concrete bricks are the way to go.

The process of producing concrete bricks is friendlier to the environment compared to the process of making ordinary bricks.

 Standard factories that manufacture concrete bricks mix stone dust and cement. Others use lake sand and cement. The stone quarries where these materials are extracted are somehow regulated and follow standard operating procedures set by the National Environment Management Authority.

After exhaustion of the raw material, the quarries are reclaimed for either tree planting or other common uses.

On the contrary, the ordinary brick makers are hardly regulated and degrade wetlands unabated. They also hardly back-fill the areas where they dig bigger chunks of soil for their business.

They bake the bricks using rudimentary methods and cut down trees to get the firewood to bake these bricks.

The only disadvantage with concrete bricks, experts say, is that they highly absorb water and are negatively affected by the soil chemistry.

Bulega advises that one should never use them in setting up the foundation of a structure. Rather, use hard-core stones, clay or soil-baked bricks.  The concrete bricks should be used after the down course or foundation. Matovu advises that if one is using hollow bricks it is better to start the pipe works for plumbing and electricity conduits on the second course of the brick layer.

This, he says, helps to avoid damaging the hollow bricks. A single perforation is made to allow a pin up of the rest of bricks up to the wall plate. Kyalwazi also says concrete bricks are heavy and many of their porters do not like carrying them.

We come to you. We are always looking for ways to improve our stories. Let us know what you liked and what we can improve on.

The First Son thanks God for helping the country overcome the Covid-19 pandemic and celebrates the re-opening of the Rwanda-Uganda border

The visit comes weeks after Uganda announced the deportation of a leading figure belonging to the banned opposition group Rwandan National Congress (RNC), which Kigali considers a terrorist outfit

Macron is the first French president to win a second term for two decades, but Le Pen's result also marks the closest the far-right has ever come to taking power in France and has revealed a...

If you have an Ad-blocker please disable it and reload the page or try again later.