RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRUCTURAL STRENGTH OF 225MM HOLLOW SANDCRETE BLOCKS AND BUILDING COLLAPSE IN SOUTH EAST, NIGERIA

Abstract

 Over 90% of physical infrastructures in Nigeria are being constructed using sandcrete blocks making it a very important material in building construction. However, it is widely used in Nigeria, Ghana and other African countries as load bearing and non-load bearing walling units. For a long time in Nigeria, sandcrete blocks are manufactured in many parts of the country without any reference to suit local building requirement or good quality work. The Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON) developed a reference document which prescribed the compressive strength and water absorption properties standard requirements for different kinds of sandcrete block. However, building collapses in Nigeria have been on the increase in recent times. There are frequent reports of collapsed of buildings in major Nigerian cities like Lagos, Abuja, PortHarcourt, Imo, Enugu and other parts of the world. The problems ranges from faulty design, negligence, incompetence, faulty construction, foundation failures, extraordinary loads and corruption. Forces of nature were also identified as part of causes of building collapse. However, the objective of this research is to establish the relationship between structural strength of 225mm hollow sandcrete blocks and building collapse in South East, Nigeria. To ensure that all block manufacturers meets in a minimum specified standard, the study appraised this using field study, sampling and laboratory experimentation and results obtained revealed very low compliance with as low as 0.66N/mm2 compressive strength value and as much as 16.95% water absorption capacity. Finally, the study showed that poor quality control, poor selection of constituent materials and inadequate curing period by the manufacturers contributed to the negative results obtained