CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 BLOCK (SANDCRETE) MOLDING
Hollow sandcrete block have been in use by many nations of the world including
Nigeria, playing a major role in the building industry (Dastian and Kamang, 1999).
Sandcrete blocks and bricks are masonry units manufactured from a mixture of
cement, sand and water. They are largely used as walling materials in construction
of shelter and other infrastructure. Oyetola and Abdullahi (2006) argued that
sandcrete has been in use throughout west Africa for over 5 decades as a popular
building materials for preparation of building blocks and bricks. They posit that it is
predominantly used and suitable for load and non load bearing walls or for
foundations. The material constituents, their mix presence of admixtures and the
manufacturing process are important factors that determine the properties of
sandcrete blocks in Nigeria 95% of walling materials in building are made of
sandcrete blocks. Anwar et al. (2000) put forward that sandcrete walls have adequate
strength and stability, provide reasonable fire resistance and good moistyre, durable
and easy to airborne and impact sound resistance. As materials used for wall, its
strength is less than that of fired clay block but, sandcrete is the main building
material used for the construction of walls of most post independent buildings in
Nigeria. In many parts of Nigeria, sandcrete hollow blocks are the major cost
component of the most common buildings. The blocks are the major cost component
of the most common buildings. The blocks are the major cost component of the most
common buildings. The blocks are usually manufactured with the use of vibrating
machine (Falade 1997).
Blocks are modern construction materials and as such are used in all the
construction industry viz, residential commercial and industrial building
construction industries. Construction industry is a growing sector. The demand for
this product is always high in all cities and other urban centre due to construction
of residential apartment commercial buildings and industrial building.
2.1.1 QUALITY OF SANDCRETE
Quality is defined as the fitness for purpose or compliance with specification
(Anosike 2011) the authors argued further that it is the overall characteristics
needed by a product or service to satisfy stipulated and implied needs. ISO 8402 –
1986 Standard defines ,quality as the totality of features and characteristic of
product or service that bears its ability to satisfy as a measure of excellences or a
state of being free from defects, deficiencies and significant variations, brought
about by the strict and consistent adherence to measurable and verifiable standards
to achieve uniformity of output that satisfies specific specific customer or user
requirements, Ogunsanmi et al (2011) identified quality as one of the three key
elements for developing risk classification model for design and build project.
2.2 OVERSITE CONCRETE
When Portland cement was first continuously produced towards the end of the
19th century it became practical to cover the site of buildings with a layer of concrete
as a solid level base for floors and as a barrier to rising damp from the early part of
the 20th century it became accepted practice to cover the site of building with a layer
of concrete over site or over site concrete. At the time, many ground floor of houses
were formed as raised timber floors on over site concrete with the space below the
floor ventilated against stagnant damp air with the shortage of timber ground floor
was abandoned and the majority of ground floor were formed as solid, ground
supported floors with the floor finishes laid on the concrete over site. The time it was
accepted practice to form a continuous damp proof course, some 150mm above
ground level, in all wall with foundations in the ground.
With the removal of vegetable top soil the level of the soil inside the building
would be from 100 to 300mm below the level of the ground outside. If a layer of
concrete were then laid over site its finished level would be up to 350mm below the
horizontal dpc in walls. There would then be considerable like wood of moisture
rising through the foundation walls, to make the inside walls below the dpc damp.
Hardcore, a material to spread over site or sufficient thickness to raise the level of
the top of the concrete over site to that of the dpc in walls. The purpose of the
hardcore is primarily to raise the level of the concrete over site for solid, ground
supported floors.
The layer of concrete over site will serve as a reasonably effective barrier to
damp rising from the ground by absorbing some moisture from below. The moisture
retained in the concrete will tend to make solid floor finishes underfoot and may
adversely affect timber floor finishes. Diving the second limit of the 20 th century it
became accepted practice to form a water proof membrane under, in or over the over
site concrete as a barrier to rising damp, against the cold underfoot feel of sand floors
and to protect floor finishes. Having accepted the use of DPC it was the legal to unite
this barrier to damp, to damp proof course in walls by forming then at the same level
or by running a vertical dpc up from the lower membrane to unite with the dpc in
walls ( construction termsx. Com)
It is practice on building site to first find build external and internal load bearing
walls from the concrete foundation up to the level of the dpc, above ground in walls.
The hardcore bed and over site concrete one then spread and leveled within the
external walls.
If the hardcore is spread over the area of the ground floor and into excavations
for foundation and soft pocket of ground that have been removed and the hardcore
is thoroughly consolidated by ramming, there should be very little consolidation
settlement of the concrete ground supported floor slab inside walls. Where a floor
slab has suffered settlement cracking, it has been due to an inadequate hardcore bed,
poor filing of excavation for trenches or ground movement due to moisture changes,
it has been suggested that the floor slab cast into walls for edge support. This dubious
practice which required edge formwork supported of slabs at cavities, will have the
effect of promoting cracking of the slab,that may be caused by any slight
consolidation settlement where appreciable settlement is anticipated it is best to
reinforce the slab and build it into walls as a suspended reinforced slab.

CHAPTER THREE
3.1 SANDCRETE BLOCKS/BLOCKS MOULDING PRODUCTION
 Sandcrete blocks shall mean a composite material made up of cement, sharp sand
and water.
1. Blocks shall be molded for sandcrete using metal (wood) molds of:
450mm x 225mm x 150mm
450mm x 225mm x 225mm
450mm x 225mm x 100mm

2. They are usually joined by mortar which is a rich mix of sandcrete. We used
metal (hand) compaction to compact the sand.
The manufacturing process is as follows:
• Proportioning;
• Mixing;
• Molding;
• Demolding;
• Curing;
• Drying and;
• Stacking.
3.1.1 PROPORTIONING
The determination of suitable amounts of raw materials needed to produce
concrete of desired quality under given conditions of mixing, placing and curing is
known as proportioning. The aggregate content in the mix is proportioned.

3.1.2 MIXING
 The objective of through mixing of aggregates content and water is to ensure
that the cement water plate completely covers the surface of the aggregates. All the
raw materials including water are collected in the area where the mix was taken place
and was done for about 4 minutes. Equipment for the mix ix *shovel*

3.1.3 MOULDING
After the mixing, we used the metal moulds by pouring the mix into it, with the
use of hand trowel till it levels with the mould.
3.1.4 COMPACTING
The purpose of compacting is to fill all air pockets with concrete as a whole
without movement of free water through the concrete. So, for this compaction to
take place since we are not using the vibrating machines it just required two laborers
to lift the mould and stylishly hit the ground to fill the spaces and then add more
mix, this was done continuously until the needs were satisfied.
3.1.5 DEMOULDING
After the compaction, the blocks were carried to where they would be kept and
then we demoulded them. Demoulding as to do with how we gently from the moulds.
3.1.6 CURING
Sandcrete blocks removed from the mould were protected until they were
sufficiently hardened to permit handling without damage. This took about 24 hours
in a shelter away from sun and winds. The blocks thus hardened were caused in a
curing yard to permit complete moisturisation for some days. The longer the curing
time permitted the better the product.

• We applied mortar to the top 1 inch (2.5cm) deep and used the same width
as the width of the block. So, we can spread the mortar and it covered the
length of about 3 blocks in the direction that we are laying the bricks.
• We then stacked the blocks.

CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 EVALUATION AND ESTIMATION OF MATERIALS
S/N DESCRIPTION OF WORKS Qty Unit Rate
01 Bags of cement 20 kg
02 Tipper of fine aggregates 01 Tons
03 Tipper of coarse aggregates 01 Tons
04 Drum of water(20 head pans) 01 m^3
05 Mix ratio for the over site concrete is
1:10:5
6 head pans of cement: 60 head pans of
cement: 30 head pans of coarse m^3
aggregates.
6:60:30
6/6 : 60/6 : 30/6
1 : 10: 5
06 Estimation of the total blocks for the
construction work:
Length = 20 ft 6 inches
Conversion into meter = 6.1 meter
Width = 4.8 meters 248 Nr
Excluding 1.2 meters of the openings.
Perimeter = 6 + 6+ 6+ 4.8+ 4.8
Perimeter = 27.6 meters
Height = height of 9 inches block
multiplied by the total number of course
Height = 0.225m x 4
= 0.9m
Area = p x h
 A = 27.6m x 0.9m
1 m^2 = 10 blocks
Area = 27.6 x 0.9 x 10 = 248.
07 Mix ratio for blinding
1:4:4

CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
 A project was given to the final set of ND11 students in Mapoly which I was
opportune to participate in, this project is to be completed before the end of the
session by the students. In this project we have aims and objectives which go thus:
1.2 AIMS:
The aim here is to build a secretariat in the school from the over site concrete up
to the window level also the making of blocks and setting of blocks.
1.3 OBJECTIVES:
The main purpose for doing or executing this project is to improve the
knowledge of the students involved in the execution of the project so by the
end of the project, the students should be able to:
• Evaluate the total number of blocks, materials, etc used for the construction
work;
• Estimate for the tones of sand and gravel required;
• Give accurate mix ratios of aggregates and cement required to make over site
concrete and block making;
• To know the number of days required for the curing of blocks and the over
site concrete of any floor be it suspended or ground floor.
• To give analysis of the possible problems to be encountered and how to
concur during the execution of the project.
So the aims and objectives above provide all the information that will be
taking Place during the construction work.

CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1.1 SUMMARY
This project extensively examined all procedures or steps to be followed when
trying to design an over site concrete, sandcrete block making, setting of blocks and
how to evaluate and estimate for materials to be used.
Chapter one of the projects gave the overall background to the study. It stated the
statement of the problem of the study, the objectives and the research questions and
formulated hypothesis.
Chapter two extensively dealt about the literature review which is the review of
relevant secondary sources of data conceptual studies, theoretical and empirical
studies by scholars and researchers within and outside the field of civil engineering.
Chapter three of the study focused on the research methodology which includes
design procedures, mix ratios used validity and of the method used and equipment
used.
Chapter four focused on the presentation of evaluation and estimation of materials
in bill of quantities table.
5.1.2 CONCLUSION
Complete procedures and every detail about the design of over site concrete, setting
of blocks, sandcrete block making and estimation of total materials are being made
in the following chapters before this current one. Proper mix ratios for the design
and standard method adopted by the engineers for each stage of construction are
reviewed too.
5.1.3 RECOMMENDATION
Over site concrete should continue to be in practice;
Adopted methods in this project also should continue to be in use;
Sandcrete blocks are also relevant in cases where there is no much capital and help
to manage resources.