COST OF CEMENT BLOCKS AND BRICKS
Author: Anita Amoah Mary
Blocks and Bricks are both building materials, which can be used for the same purposes. However, the two have varied differences and similarities in terms of price, durability, choices, convenience, and their advantages over each other. In Ghana, the most common building material used is cement, which is employed right from the start to the finish of a construction work; i.e., in producing blocks.
Conversely, brick, which is obtained from burnt clay, is
not all that much patronized by builders despite the effort of the government
of Ghana encouraging the use of this indigenous local material to solve the
housing problem of the country.
The scarcity of the usage of bricks in building projects,
according to research, has led to the gradual killing of the brick industry in
Ghana even though; the country is endowed with clay deposit in almost all 16
regions. The $500 million needed annually to import clinker and gypsum; the
main raw materials in producing cement could be saved and use for other
projects to serve national interest and security.
Some experts in the construction industry have argued
that the gradual diminishing of bricks in Ghana is due to the fact that many
people believe that, “It is more costly and less convenient to build with
bricks than cement blocks.”
The price of a single block in Ghana now costs between
Gh¢7.00 and Gh¢10 while the price of a brick is between Ghs50 and Ghs 80. So,
majority, if not all bidding documents, blocks remain the specified building material.
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