Quality Assessment of Hollow Sandcrete Blocks In the South Western Part of Nigeria

The paper assesses the quality of hollow sandcrete blocks manufactured by block Industries in Osun, Oyo and Ekiti States the South Western part of Nigeria. Block samples were randomly collected from selected areas of the states Osogbo, Ilesha, Ibadan, Ogbomosho, Aramoko and Ado-Ekiti. Sandcrete blocks were produced using 1:6 based on the requirements of the Nigerian Industrial Standards (NIS) 87:2000 standards. The blocks were subjected to wet and dry compressive test, dry density and wet density test. The aggregates were subjected to grading analysis and silt content analysis. The study revealed that all the sand aggregates used for the production of the blocks were substantially suitable for block making. The grading of the sand fall within the limit required by BS 882:1990. The results also showed that the compressive strengths for all the blocks tested were between 0.35N/mm2and 0.63N/mm2 which does not comply with the recommended standards (2.5N/mm2 to 3.45N/mm2 respectively) in (NIS) 87: 2000 series and 2.8N/mm2 in BS 6073-1:1981. It is concluded that sandcrete block in the South West part of Nigeria are of lower standard as a result of factors such as poor workmanship, mix ratio and method of curing, experience and skill of production crew etc, contributes to the poor quality of Sandcrete blocks and this made our blocks unsuitable for load bearing walls. Standardization of the block manufacturing processes and strict supervision of the industry by the professional body in Nigeria were recommended for improvement in the quality of block production