Earthen Construction, as a Solution to Building Industries in Ghana

Abstract

Adequate shelter is a basic human need. The use of sandcrete blocks as walling units have greatly influenced the construction industry in Ghana as compared to other building materials.Laterite but the latter forms about 70% of the land surface of the country and can be used for moulding blocks when combined with cement.(Adam, 2004, Gooding and Thomas, 1995). The purpose of the study was to determine the factor that has impact on the use of sustainable innovative building technologies for low-income residential buildings in the urban areas. The study also sought to compare the durability properties of walling units produced from the mixture of laterite and cement to that of sand and cement. A structured interview approach was adopted for the data collection. Architects, property developers – Ghana Real Estate Developers Association (GREDA), Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the State Housing Company Ltd (SHC) were among the institutions that were interviewed. Text were carried out on twelve blocks each moulded from different mix ratios of 1:6, 1:8, 1:10 for landcrete blocks, and 1:10 for landcrete blocks to determine the compressive strength, density, water absorption and total volume porosity after seven days and twenty eight days respectively.It was found out that residential building industries have stopped using earth material for construction but have high expectation on the success of the new building technology if introduced into the market. The test results showed that sandcrete blocks were more durable than landcrete blocks but the latter can equally be used as a walling unit to assist in the solving of the housing problems in the country.

Keywords: durability, landcrete blocks, low-income housing, Ghana, sandcrete blocks,