Cost-cutting measures when building a house

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The rising cost of building materials has pushed those in the built environment to engage in cost-cutting measures. One such method is the use of only cement and water for walling and less cement screed for plastering.

A unit that could gobble over Sh1 million in a rural setting, for example, ends up costing the homebuilder only a couple of hundred thousand shillings.

Another kind of cost-cutting measure is the use of interlocking bricks, where less cement, sand and water are needed.

Other builders are not employing uniformity, combining conventional (quarry) bricks with the self-made interlocking ones, though deemed unsound by some architectural critics.

Builder Rueben Kuria says a cost-efficient method is to have outer walls made of the 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?

His take is that some of those using the pressing machines to make self-made bricks lack expertise with an incorrect soil-cement ratio.

Such bricks are unable to endure extreme weather conditions and may need outer plastering to preserve their longevity.

Contrast this with those produced on a commercial scale with a good sand-cement-gravel ratio, which gives them an edge over the former.

"Ten wheelbarrows of good soil and two bags of cement can make up to one hundred interlocking bricks," says Kuria.

 Soil must be moist but not wet, as no water is needed in making the bricks, he says.

 He says the foundation may necessitate the use of conventional quarry bricks 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, says he would go for uniformity in everything. He would use the baked bricks over the plain mud strengthened with cement and naturally dried ones.

His bone of contention is the gaps left with the use of interlocking bricks. Insects can make these gaps fertile breeding grounds, but Kuria says mixing cement with chemicals and sealing the gaps can drive the insects away.

Ngaruiya adds that bricks must be of the same colour for the structure to assume the desired uniformity. The edges of the structure must also be strengthened with plastering for the desired pressure to act.

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

He, however, cautions that interlocking bricks are vulnerable to the weather. Continual exposure to rain can discolour them in the long run.

Therefore, painting would be an optional way to preserve them or have a roof to protect them from rain.