1.1 PROJECT BACKGROUND

Affordable building for mass housing is the solution for the housing shortage affecting the increasing population of the African continent especially Nigeria. Making good use of the abundant local building materials present in Africa is key for making adequate houses affordable for the populace.Blocks and bricks are important elements of building structures and have a great influence on the cost of construction of a building project. These elements, generally made from cement and sand, have monopoly in the building industry. Overdependence on the utilization of sandcrete blocks for buildings has kept the financial cost of these blocks as walling units expensive This has deterred Nigeria and other underdeveloped countries from providing houses for rural dwellers who constitute the higher percentage of the population and who are mostly agriculturally dependent and characterized by a low standard of living. It is therefore important to increase efforts towards the provision of alternative low-cost walling materials in order to offset the high cost of sandcrete blocks coupled with the low-strength properties of other commercially available materials.

Lateritic soil is an earth-based building material that is among the topmost available local building materials abundant in Nigeria and other tropical countries.Laterite is a soil layer that is rich in iron oxide and is derived from a wide variety of rock weathering under strongly oxidising and leading conditions.  Earth-based building materials are cheaper than cement and eco-friendly. However, due to their lower compressive strength, water absorption, and dimensional stability compared to cementitious materials, lateritic blocks are considered as non-durable building materials.

Sandcrete blocks consist of ordinary Portland cement and natural clean sand mixed with water in selected proportions. Sandcrete blocks are produced in two major forms: light-weight and dense blocks. Light weight blocks are made using either lightweight aggregates or aerated concrete. Dense blocks are made with dense aggregates which include natural sand and crushed rock. Blocks made with such aggregates have densities of 1920–2080?kg/m3 and may be formed solid or hollow.

The basic idea of this project is to analyze the compressive strength of sandcrete and lateritic blocks with the enhancement of lime and compare the results.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

In Nigeria, the cost of buildings is excessively high and this has led to a lot people to be homeless. Most people spend their life saving just to get a good and comfortable apartment, this in turn render them penniless. The high cost of buildings also contributes to the low standard of living in Nigeria

1.3 PROJECT AIM AND OBJECTIVES

The major aim of this project is to investigate and compare compressive strength of sandcrete block and lateritic blocks enhanced with lime, as well as to determine the mix ratio and also determine which is most suitable and cost effective in building construction.

The objective of this project is to:

1. Compare the compressive strength between a lime enhanced sandcrete and lateritic block with the conventional sandcrete and lateritic block

2. Compare the comparative strength between the lime enhanced sancrete block with the lime enhance lateritic block.

3. To reduce the cost of buildings if possible

4. To produce a cost effective and high compressive strength block for building construction

1.4 SIGNIFICANT OF STUDY

One of the ways to increase to standard of living in Nigeria is to reduce the cost of owning a building. The data gotten from this research will provide a better alternative which will help reduce the cost of building blocks for walling units

1.5 SCOPE OF WORK

This project will be focused on the effect of lime in enhancing the compressive strength of sandcrete block compared to the effect of lime in enhancing the compressive strength of lateritic block.

The materials to be used include:

1. Lateritic soil

2. River Sand

3. Natural hydraulic lime

4. Cement

5. Water

6. Molds

7. Hand pan

8. Wire mesh screen

9. Punner and hammer

Laterites clay deposits are often cheaply or freely found in any market center in Nigeria. It will be gotten in Abia state if it can’t be found in Rivers state. River sand will be bought in Rivers state. Hand pan will be gotten from the market. Portland cement will be gotten from Dangote cement depot in port Harcourt.Natural hydraulic lime will be ordered from Lagos if it can’t be found in Rivers sate. Molds will be constructed based on different sizes needed.

Lime and cement are the most common stabilizers used for stabilization in compressed stabilized earth block manufacturing. Lime has been used since ancient times as an earth stabilizer. Cement is the most popular stabilizer for earth block stabilization. Considering the manufacturing processes of cement and lime, energy and CO2 emissions are high for cement of material. Therefore, lime was selected as the stabilizer for this study.

?